The Tarkhan Dress

The World’s Oldest Linen Apparel

As much as I enjoy the creative side of the fashion industry, I also enjoy history. Being a lifelong learner, I have relished the opportunity to increase my knowledge of industry itself and the history of fashion and apparel.  You may have already read my blog on the history of the bow tie which explains how we have arrived at today’s iteration of the cravat. Now, I present to you our newest blog on the world’s oldest documented piece of apparel. 

We all know that fashion is cyclical. And when we say fashion is cyclical, we are speaking about a cycle in terms of decades or generational and not millennia. Have you heard of the Tarkhan Dress? Ancient Egyptians designed and created the Tarkhan Dress nearly 5,000 years ago. Tarkhan is located 50 kilometers south of Cairo. 

Although the dress was thought to be Egypt's oldest garment, and the oldest surviving woven garment in the world, the precise age of the dress was uncertain as previous carbon dating proved too broad to be historically meaningful. 

The new results (2015) both confirm the dress's antiquity and also suggest that it may be older than previously thought, pre-dating the First Dynasty. (Late fourth millennium BC)

The dress itself is made from three pieces of sturdy hand-woven linen with a natural pale grey stripe with knife-pleated sleeves and bodice. The hem is missing so it's not possible to know the precise length of the dress, but the dimensions indicate that it fitted a young teenager or a slim woman. Although the exact context of its use remains unclear, there are visible signs of wear indicating that it was worn in life.

I wonder how the designer arrived at this design and what they were thinking in how to enhance the look based on the times. Was this sold to elites or was this standard attire for the masses? As the saying goes, “What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again;    there is nothing new under the sun.” But to have evidence of this is truly remarkable.