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Coptic-Byzantine wool tunic, small enough for a child (6th century AD) (Walters Art Museum)


Celtic tunic

Tunics worn by the Celts were documented by the Greek historian Diodorus Siculus:

"... the way they dress is astonishing: they wear brightly coloured and embroidered shirts, with trousers called braccae and cloaks fastened at the shoulder with a brooch, heavy in winter, light in summer. These cloaks are striped or checkered in design, with the separate checks close together and in various colours."[1][2]

Roman tunic


Roman worker dressed in a tunic


Greek tunic

Tunics were also worn in ancient Greece, whence the Roman version was adopted. Later Greek and Roman tunics were an evolution from the very similar chiton, chitoniskos, and exomis all of which can be considered versions of the garment. In ancient Greece, a person's tunic was decorated at the hem-line to represent the city-state in which they lived. The tunics were dyed with bright colours like red, purple or green; chiton is another word for tunic

Germanic tunic

The various Celtic and Germanic peoples living in the colder Middle and Northern Europe wore long-sleeved tunics from as long back as pictorial evidence goes. Such tunics are often found depicted on the various Roman monuments depicting victories over these peoples, and show the tunic as a simple pull-over construction reaching to the mid-thighs or to the knees. Similar tunics were eventually taken up by the Romans, and found their way into the Byzantine Empire.

After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, the long sleeved Celto-Germanic tunic continued to be worn. The construction was more elaborate than the earlier Graeco-Roman garment, with a tight-fitting neck with a split down the front for pulling it over the head, and gusset under the arms and inserted around the lower half to give a flaring skirt. Being used by both Vikings and Normans, the garment continued as a general male garment into the Middle Ages, still being used in Norway as late as the 17th century.

Medieval tunic




Tunics worn during the Early Middle Ages often featured decorative embroidery or tablet-woven braids along the neck, hem and wrists.[5][6] This was the case, for instance, with tunics worn by both rich and poor Anglo-Saxons before the Norman Conquest.[6][7]

Tunic (Uncu), ca. 17th century, made in Peru, Brooklyn Museum

19th century



Modern tunic

In Western culture, its use continues primarily in a religious and uniform context. It is the primary garment worn by the clergy and members of religious orders. The religious tunic reaches to the feet and was the source of the clerical cassock, as well as, in its liturgical form, the alb, after the long tunic worn by Roman citizens.[9]'Tunic' is also the name often given to the high-collar uniform coat worn by military and police personnel. Light feminine garments, especially for sports or exercise, usually only coming down to mid-thigh, are also called tunics.

Asian tunic


Indus valley civilization figurines depict both women and men wearing tunic like garment. a terracotta model called ''Lady of the spiked throne'' depicts two standing turban wearing men wearing what appears to be conical gown marked by dense series of thin vertical incisions that might suggest a stiffened cloth. A similar gold disc in al-Sabah Collection from Kuwait National Museum which appears to be an Indus valley civilization arts depicts similar conical tunic wearing men holding two bulls by their tails under a pipal tree shown in a Indus like mirror symmetry.[10]. A mother goddess figurine from National Museum new Dehli shows a female wearing short tight tunic[11].

Worn in Indian Sub-Continent, including India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, tunic is usually referred to as Kurta and is now an emerging women's top style increasingly liked by many in the West. An Asian tunic is typically adorned with delicate embroidery, bead-work or intricate threadwork as well. Embroidery or thread work on such tunics usually combines threads of many different colors.[12]

See also


  1. ^ "The Celts". www.ibiblio.org. Retrieved 23 March 2018.
  2. ^ "Diodorus Siculus, Library of History - Exploring Celtic Civilizations". exploringcelticciv.web.unc.edu. Retrieved 23 March 2018.
  4. ^ "Dress and Adornment", 488–489.
  5. ^ "Dress and Adornment", 489.
  9. ^ Pocknee, C.E. 'Liturgical Vesture: Its Origins and Development' 1960
  10. ^ Vidale, Massimo (2011). "The lady of the spiked throne, The power of a lost ritual" (PDF). harappa.com. Retrieved 3 December 2018.
  11. ^ "National Museum, New Delhi". nationalmuseumindia.gov.in. Retrieved 2018-12-02.
  12. ^ Zia, Batool. "Dare to be Different? Try a Kurti or Tunic". www.easternthings.com. Retrieved 15 April 2015.



Further reading
