Young Men
Freeborn males began life in the toga praetexta,
which was white with a band of scarlet or purple along the
straight edge.
At the age of XVI, he became a young man, and donned the
toga
virilis, made of unbleached, unadorned wool.
Thereafter, he could only earn the toga praetexta
by becoming a senator or public magistrate.
Young Ladies
A simple version of the tunica or
Greek chiton was the garment for
little girls. Young girls wore, instead of the stola, a
garment somewhat similar, but not long enough to reach farther
than halfway down the thigh. They wore no girdle.
Brides
A bride (who at her marriage became
officially a woman) wore, for this occasion, the same type of
white tunica recta (or regilla) as the boy's for his coming
of age.
The girdle confining her tunica terminated in a "knot of
Hercules," i. e., a metal clasp, one end of which was bent and
slipped through a loop on the opposite side.
Over the tunica she draped a palla, the color of which does not
seem to have been fixed. Her hair was parted in the middle and
drawn up upon the crown of her head. A double band of ribbon
(the color is not specified) was bound around her forehead,
and a flame-colored net covered her hair. Over this was a
flame-colored veil (flameum),
covering the forehead or resting on the top of the head, and
bound by a wreath of flowers which had been picked by the
bride herself.
Sources: History of Costume,
Historic Costume for the Stage by Lucy Barton
Updated
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