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The Toga In Ancient Rome

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A cultural significant clothing item that was used in Rome in the first and second century B.C. was the toga. The toga, as the Webster dictionary states, “is a loose flowing outer garment worn by the citizens of Rome.” The outer garment typically made from wool and often portrayed in white was fabricated from a single piece of cloth and covered the whole body apart from the right arm. The toga has become a very distinctive garment not only in Roman costume but also in the history of costume. The toga was popularized and thought to originate from the Roman Empire; nonetheless, the toga’s origins date back to the Etruscan period.
Romans made a distinction between garments as we do today. Garments that were “put on” were referred to in Latin as inductus and were worn underneath or closests to the skin: the tunic. While garments that were “wrapped around” were referred to in Latin as amictus and were considered outerwear: the toga. Initially, both men and women wore the toga over a loincloth—a cloth that covered the genitals. However, by the second century …show more content…

The earliest toga was draped in a roughly semicircular shape with a band color around the curved edge. By the Imperial period the shape and drapery of the toga grew to be more complex. Two new added features were the sinus and the umbo. The sinus formed the over fold of the toga. The loose fold that crossed the back of the body and emerged under the right arm and then fell near the knee was the sinus. The sinus that was later widened became a pocket to carry things. The umbo was a clump of fabric vertically placed from the floor to the shoulder. The umbo was a decorative element as well as a functional one. The umbo may have helped hold the toga drapery in place and men sometimes pulled up the over fold from the back of their head to use as hood before entering a

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