the Ancient Roman chiton and stola | Historical New Year's party dress

My New Year's Eve party dress in its "original" historical context : Ancient Roman fashion! This dress is based on the "stola", a Roman overdress worn by married women. This outfit isn't perfectly accurate, but crinkle gauze isn't period so it was never going to be . . . good enough for hot weather SCA events, though! One of the best parts of historical costuming is making historical clothing that you can wear in daily life-- it's called historybounding, and it's a great way to get more wear out of your historical fashion. So when I wanted a new dress for a fancy New Year's Eve party outfit, I made one I could wear for Roman period costume and for with Regency dress too! And, of course, a sewing vlog about it. I put together this super simple chiffon dress based on a Roman dress called the stola. It's only got four seams, so it's super quick and easy and would make great beginner historical sewing projects for anyone who wants a DIY NYE dress. The history of clothing and fashion is cyclical, and it's great to have a style that works for multiple periods of fashion history. If you're wondering what to wear with a dress like this, I got you! To show how versatile this historical dress is, I made a little historical lookbook with three ways to wear it! Firstly, there's my NYE party look, mixing the neoclassical aesthetic with modern dancewear and sparkly party makeup. Next is the Ancient Roman outfit, which isn't historically accurate but is fun, comfy, and great for SCA even