I discovered my area's SCA group last summer and started going to their weekly meetings around the end of the year. I'm lucky - our local barony's meeting place is only a half-hour drive from me!
I had managed to avoid garbed events until recently - a neighboring barony hosted a Roman-themed event at the end of April and I wanted to go, so I needed garb. Roman garb wasn't required for the event, but I figured it was the easiest option to pull together on short notice.
My planned outfit was simple - a gap-sleeved tunic/tunica, a palla/shawl, a belt, sandals, and jewelry. I had decided on a color scheme already (minty greens and muted blues), which made it easy to coordinate.
The Tunica
The tunica is the main part of my garb, like a dress. I popped by Joann Fabrics and picked up three yards of a double-layer blue cotton gauze, I think. It's opaque, but the fabric is textured and shifty. I have a modern shirt and a dress in a similar fabric, so I knew how it would behave. (And I knew that when I was ready to level up to a linen tunica I could make modern clothing out of the fabric.)
The fabric was about 60" wide, give or take the texture, so it was wide enough to reach from wrist to wrist on me. The three yards were just barely long enough to reach from shoulder to ankle on me when folded or cut in half. I wish I could have used the selvage of the fabric as the top and bottom hem - I only would have had one seam to sew and I would have a bit more length to work with - but the texture of the fabric didn't look right going that way. So I made do.
I cut the three yards in half and sewed the selvage edges of each half to each other, creating one big tube. I did a zigzag stitch over the raw edges at the top and bottom because they frayed a lot. I hemmed the top edge by hand, but didn't have time to hem the bottom. Thankfully it wasn't noticeable!
To create the gap-sleeve look, I raided my button stash and found eight brown metal buttons (brass? bronze? whatever the go-to steampunk color is). One button was placed on each side about seven inches from the side seam to create the armhole. Another button was placed seven inches on either side of the center front/back to create the neckhole. Then I sewed two more buttons on either side, evenly placed between the arm and neck buttons.
And with that, the tunica was wearable!
The Palla
The palla was the really long draped shawl Roman women wore over the tunica and was also used as a veil.
I ordered 3.5 yards of a mint green cotton voile from Mood Fabrics for this - I wanted to be able to straighten both raw edges of the fabric and still have plenty to drape.
It was even simpler to make than the tunica. I just tore the raw edges to make sure they were on grain, pulled out a few extra weft threads, and called it a day. I could have hemmed the two raw edges, but I didn't have the time, and it wasn't really necessary.
After the event, I actually washed the palla (which had fallen on the ground and been dragged a bit) and only lost one or two more weft threads on either side.
The Belt
I was really at a loss for what to do about the belt. In the SCA, certain belt colors mean certain things and none of those things apply to me.
My original thought had been to make a fabric sash out of the same fabric as the tunica. It would be a color, but I thought that it would blend into the tunica well, especially if I wore the palla in a way that mostly hid it. Unfortunately, I didn't have enough fabric to cut a sash and still allow the tunica to be as long as I wanted. And I didn't have the budget to buy a cord.
I ended up just using a black leather wrap belt I've owned for years. It's not historically accurate, but it still looked nice.
The Jewelry
My original thought was to just wear my dark blue and silver jewelry set that I had originally made for my Regency wardrobe. It certainly fits in with Roman jewelry, and it was close enough to my intended color scheme.
Then I remembered that I had a set of connectors that looked like the style of Roman earrings that have three beads hanging from a horizontal bar. And I had sodalite beads that are similar in color to my tunica. And I had oval-disc-shaped stone beads that matched the product photos of my palla material (I had ordered the fabric but it hadn't arrived yet).
So I made a pair of earrings, each one consisting of a sodalite bead, a disc, and another sodalite bead dangling from a silver bar.
Then I couldn't stop admiring the minty-green disc beads and thinking how lonely they would look on a necklace. I didn't have enough of those beads for a necklace, though, and I didn't even have enough sodalite beads to alternate them on a necklace. I did, however, have another kind of green bead that coordinated nicely with the discs.
So I made individual links for all the beads - 10 discs total and 11 of the round green beads - and used a silver toggle clasp at the ends. That gave me a good length to rest loosely at the base of my neck.
And then I wanted the earrings to match the necklace, so I had to switch the sodalite beads out for the green ones.
These were absolutely impulse projects, but I love how they turned out! I'm especially happy that I was able to use all stash materials after how much I spent on fabric for this.
Further Notes
For shoes, I just wore a pair of flat black sandals I've had for years. I figured the black coordinated with my belt and no one would be looking too closely.
This outfit is pretty far from historically accurate, it's more like historically passable. The SCA group I've joined is very self-aware about SCA-isms (aka things that the SCA community considers acceptable, but that aren't historically accurate) and they openly embrace the "creative" part of the Society for Creative Anachronism.
Many women doing more accurate Roman garb would wear a stola, a sort of narrower tunica over the other tunica. That is considered to be something matrons would wear, and I'm neither married nor a mother, so I decided to skip it. I did see a lot of stolas over white tunics at the event and they were really pretty!
The silver-tone jewelry doesn't seem to be accurate, either. Most (if not all) extant Roman jewelry and the jewelry seen in paintings, frescos, etc, is gold tone. I only had silver bars for the earrings though, and my outfit is more cool-toned anyway.
Finally, for the sake of modern modesty and comfort, I did wear modern underthings under this, along with a slip.
Looking Forward
I really enjoyed pulling this ancient Roman ensemble together, and I'm proud of how it turned out, given my time and budget constraints.
I do want to upgrade it, though!
For one, I'd like to switch the jewelry I made to gold-tone findings. I actually went to a jewelry-making workshop at the event, so I now know how the Romans made their connectors and I have the wire to do it with! I'll need a clasp for the necklace and connector bars for the earrings, though.
Next up would be the tunica. You often see tunicas with a contrasting band along the top and sometimes bottom edge, and sometimes they're even patterned bands. I'd like to add that to my tunica - I could really use the extra length. I'm thinking a lighter or darker blue or maybe a grey. Maybe a patterned ribbon trim, maybe a design stenciled on with fabric paint. I haven't decided yet.
I'd also like to get a cord or ribbon to do a proper belt. Having multiple would be even better! I'll have to chat with some SCA-dians to figure out what I could do without infringing on the color codes.
Last up would be the palla. I could totally leave it as-is, which is why it's my last priority, but I could also hem it or add colored bands around the edges.
Eventually, if I find myself going to more events (especially in the hot summer months), I might add more to my Roman wardrobe. That's a long way off, though!
In the meantime,
Stay warm. Stay safe. Stay healthy.
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