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Clothing

Roman paintings, statues and writing all included information about clothes. Roman fashions didn't really change for nearly a thousand years. Most of the clothes which people wore were made out of wool or linen. In Imperial times, cloth made out of fine cotton was imported from India but it was very expensive. Silk from China cost three times its weight in gold. In cold climates fur and felt were also used.

Most clothes were made up of large uncut pieces of cloth and they were folded and pinned with pins called fivulate or they were tied with belts. Clothes with a lot of sewing were rare, as most needles were made of bone and therefore very clumsy. Clothes were mainly the natural colors of their fibers, but some clothes were bleached white or some dyed various shades.

A man's underwear was a loin cloth and it was made of wool or linen. He wore a tunic over it which was made from two rectangles stitched at the side and shoulders and tied with a belt. Ordinary men wore tunics in various colors. A tunic with a purple stripe running down the front was a senator's tunic. Outdoors people in rural areas wore cloaks and trousers.

Women wore a loincloth as a underwear and sometimes for a brassiere or corsets. They wore a tunic over it probably of fine wool or linen. On top of this was worn the stola, a robe which reached the ankles. Richer women had brightly colored stolas made out of silk or fine Indian collon. Many women wore a veil or scarf to protect their hair when they were outside.

Here is an external link with more information about clothing worn by the ancient Romans.

Originally only citizens could wear the toga which they wore over the tunic. At first it was just a large woolen blanket which was wrapped around the body. Later it became more elaborate with complicated folds and drapes. Because it was heavy and awkward to wear and also hard to clean many people disliked togas. But because it was so distinctive emperors tried to keep in use of toga. A senator's toga had a purple stripe like tunics. Togas were sometimes worn in other shades particularly black for funerals. From the statues and paintings it seems to be that the toga was folded from a semicircular piece of cloth 5. 5 meters long.

Here is an external link with more information about the Roman toga.

Many peoples went barefoot during the early republic, especially indoors and they wore leather sandals outside. Later shoes became more elaborate and shoemakers became more skilled at creating ornate sandals shoes and boots out of canvas and leather. Men wore calcei heavy boots, and women wore elegant sandals. Soldiers often wore boots that had sloes studded with nails.