Page:Costume, fanciful, historical, and theatrical (1906).djvu/27

I Much as Boadicea detested the Romans, she preferred their graceful garments to those worn by her own countrywomen, and when she led her troops into battle, she was attired in all the glory of a multi-coloured tunic, and her hair fell unbound over her neck and shoulders. Wily Boadicea, her unbound hair proved the woman in the warrior, who would win her triumph as best she could, though history is careful not to attribute to her any but the most legitimate methods!

In those days the Roman women made a rule of wearing a toga, which, hanging from the neck or the head, fell over the shoulders and touched the ground at the back. The toga was either white or yellow for persons of rank, when the border was purple, but the lower orders had the toga dyed, and in times of mourning chose it in black. Within doors the toga was discarded altogether in favour of the simple tunic, which was worn with or without the girdle, and made either of woollen material or cotton or thin gauze. Towards the latter part of the Empire the tunic was lengthened, and bore sleeves adorned with buttons according to Hellenic fashion; indeed, the sleeve seemed then, as now, to indicate style, for the earlier types reached only to the elbow, and gradually they extended to the wrist, and finally to the ground.

When the stola became popular it was always white, bearing long sleeves ornamented with a wide border, and over it fell a mantle with a hood round the shoulders. White was the favourite colour for a long time, and even in those days the Gauls inspired the fashions. They taught the Britons to spin and weave and dye, and purple