---
node: fashion_achaemenid
type: fashion
slug: achaemenid_empire_fashion
title: "Fashion in the Achaemenid Empire"
lead: "Achaemenid Persian dress had two modes: the ceremonial, heavily pleated long Persian robe, and the practical Median riding dress of trousers and a sleeved coat, both carved on the Persepolis reliefs."
published: 2026-07-28
updated: 2026-07-28
image_file: achaemenid_empire_fashion.jpg
image_source: "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Melophores_(4489669323).jpg"
image_author: "Persepolis, the apple-bearers/melophoroi (photo: dynamosquito, CC BY-SA 2.0)"
image_license: "CC BY-SA 2.0"
change: "Created as a fashion sub-page under the history section, with a period image (iran region)"
requester: internal
reason: "Per the owner's decision, fashion lives under each history era"
---

## Overview

At the court of the vast empire, dress marked authority and rank, and fine textiles and dyes were used.

## Key garments and style

Kings and nobles wore for ceremony a long robe with wide sleeves finely pleated (the Persian dress), while for riding and war they used the Median dress of trousers, a sleeved coat and a round cap. The Greeks saw these trousers as the mark of a Persian.

## Transition

After Alexander's conquest, Greek dress entered the court under the Seleucids.