---
node: fashion_egypt
type: fashion
slug: egypt_fashion
title: "Fashion history of Egypt"
lead: "Egyptian dress centred on white linen suited to the hot climate: the men's kilt (shendyt) and the women's close sheath dress (kalasiris), set off by broad collars, wigs and eye paint. Greek, Roman and Islamic dress later layered over it."
published: 2026-07-28
updated: 2026-07-28
image_file: egypt_fashion.jpg
image_source: "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Maler_der_Grabkammer_des_Nebamun_002.jpg"
image_author: "Tomb of Nebamun (New Kingdom)"
image_license: "Public domain"
change: "Created as a fashion sub-page under the history section, with a period image (egypt region)"
requester: internal
reason: "Per the owner's decision, fashion lives under each history era"
---

## Overview

Across three millennia of pharaonic rule the plain frame of a white linen kilt and sheath dress was kept, with fineness, pleating and jewellery marking rank.

## The story of dress

After fine, pleated linen reached its height in the New Kingdom, dress moved through Ptolemaic Greek styles, the Fayum look of Roman Egypt, and the robes and turbans of the Islamic era; in modern times the galabeya and Western clothing coexist.