---
node: garment_sasanian_dress
type: garment
slug: sasanian_dress
title: "Sasanian dress"
lead: "Sasanian court dress is the splendid costume of late antique Persia: fitted coats and caftans, ribboned trousers that flutter at the ankle, and famous figured silks. Its patterns and forms spread west into Byzantium and east along the Silk Road."
published: 2026-08-10
updated: 2026-08-10
image_file: sasanian_dress.jpg
image_source: "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sasanian_relief_depicting_the_investiture_of_Shapur_II_(r._309-379),_Taq-e_Bostan,_Iran_(48978599263).jpg"
image_author: "Carole Raddato from Frankfurt, Germany"
image_license: "CC BY-SA 2.0"
---

## Overview

Sasanian noble dress centres on a close-fitting, front-opening coat or caftan worn over a tunic and full trousers tied so that streamers of cloth flutter at the leg. Kings added tall jewelled crowns and a great ball of gathered hair, the korymbos, above the diadem.

## How it is worn

The coat is belted at the waist over the trousers, the fluttering leg-ribbons and rich patterned silk giving the figure movement and magnificence, as carved at Taq-e Bostan and hammered on Sasanian silver plates. Colour, pattern, and the shape of the crown announced exact royal and noble rank.

## History

Sasanian silks and dress were prized across Eurasia and carried their roundel patterns and coat-and-trouser cut into Byzantine, early Islamic, and Tang Chinese fashion. The Sasanian court look is one of the great sources of the medieval Near Eastern and Central Asian robe.