BYZANTINE FASHION

BYZANTINE – 550 AD
As the Roman Empire starts to fall, the Byzantine Empire began to grow. It lasted for 1000 years and ended around 1453 AD. 

Key Style Features:Most fabrics that were used were wool, silk and linen. Coloured fabrics were usually used by the upper class and most of the fabrics had animal, floral or Biblical scenes patterns. Men had cropped hair with bangs on the forehead, while women wore their hair up, and sometimes they would wrap their hair using turbans.

Perpendula                  
Pearls or other exquisite materials attached on the side (by the ears) and hanging from the crown, it is mostly confused with earrings. 

Tablion
An elegant, oblong decoration embellished with gold or red on their imperial mantle, used to protect garment from too much wear. Rich people had the option to choose between colours. 

Tunic/Tunica
Sleeves are in one with the garment, or pieced on with a straight seam. It has a high neckline and has a little slit for the head. The length varied from below the knees to instep. 

Cope
A half-moon shape cape that is embellished and attached to the chest with an ornamental band, it is sewn to an edge then pinned by a morse to the other edge. 

Mitre
The first of these were low caps, and the points were on the side instead of front and back.  

Foliated crown
It is a type of ornamental crown with a pointed upper edge, usually decorated with leaf or scallop design. 

Stola/Chemise

An undergarment with long sleeves that showed under the sleeves. Men wore it beneath their tunics.

PaludamentumA semi-circular cape that pinned on the shoulder. 

ManiakisThe byzantine decorative gold coloured collar. 

BliautA garment that created and worn by men and women around 1130. As worn by the upper classes, it has a snug-fitting torso, frequently with wide embroidered sleeves, a low skirt pulled into elegant pleats across the hip, and snug lacing up the back under each arm. It was one of the first garments to depend on fit and cut.

Bliaut

Modern outfit inspired by era:

Zoe Saldana at premiere of her new movie Colombiana.

For the modern outfit inspired by the era, I have chosen Zoe Saldana's dress at the premier of her movie, Colombiana. I thought that the dress was inspired by the bliaut, and it was a great modern interpretation of it. The dress has gold coloured embellishment on the upper part of it which was one of the colours that was highly used for the embroidery of garments and fabrics during the Byzantine era. The Byzantine era is also known for using decorative embellishments or patterns on their fabric. The foliated crowns usually have scallop or leaves for its design purposes, and Zoe’s dress embroidery has shown some Greek like leaves formed like a wreath on the shoulder and neck part of her dress. Her dress was highly embellished which is the same for the garment of the higher class people in the era. Zoe’s dress and the bliaut has similarities such as having drapes, having pleats, snug fit under bust abdomen, floor length and long sleeves. Bliaut sleeves are usually wide from the elbow to the hem, but Zoe’s dress was modern, which is why it was fit from sleeve to hem. 

Links/Reference:

http://books.google.co.nz/books?id=6UGgQY_31IcC&pg=PA3&lpg=PA3&dq=maniakis+byzantine&source=bl&ots=kQNTdHzzDg&sig=uRQ92qusYL7XL06teKHiY3yvypQ&hl=en&sa=X&ei=6ijtU8nBG4Xt8AWcpYLoDw&ved=0CB0Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=maniakis%20byzantine&f=false

http://www.cwu.edu/~robinsos/ppages/resources/Costume_History/romanesque.htm

http://www.cfa.ilstu.edu/lmlowel/the331/byzantine/byzreview.html

http://www.fashionencyclopedia.com/fashion_costume_culture/Early-Cultures-Europe-in-the-Middle-Ages/Bliaut.html

http://pipsqueakjr.blogspot.co.nz/2011/09/byzantine-clothing.html

http://www.studyblue.com/notes/note/n/exam2-ch5/deck/2501184

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2029065/Colombiana-premiere-Zoe-Saldana-takes-plunge-daring-gladiator-style-dress.html

http://www.pinterest.com/pin/276127020875314606/