COPENHAGEN — An exhibition at Copenhagen’s Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek museum is showcasing the vibrant and status-driven fashion of ancient Rome, challenging the city’s contemporary reputation for understated Scandinavian design. “The Power of Fashion in the Roman Empire,” running through March 29, features sculptures and artifacts that illustrate how Rome’s imperial expansion fueled access to exotic materials and styles used to assert social rank in Roman society.
Curated by Cecilie Broens, a senior researcher at the museum, the exhibition highlights how clothing, dyes, hairstyles, and jewelry served as markers of power and identity in a highly competitive social environment. As Rome consolidated its dominance over the Mediterranean during the first centuries of the first millennium, a complex trade network enabled the influx of luxury goods such as silk, pearls, and rare dyes. These items not only enhanced personal appearance but also delineated social hierarchies, with more unusual or costly garments conveying greater prestige.
Although textiles rarely survive over the centuries, Roman portrait sculptures provide valuable insight into fashion trends. These statues often depict figures wearing traditional garments like the toga and stola, which symbolized Roman citizenship and remained stylistically consistent over time. However, variations in ornamentation, hair arrangements, and coloration offered means of distinction.
Many sculptures originally featured vibrant paint, as revealed by the Glyptotek’s research into pigment residues. Digital reconstructions displayed within the exhibition demonstrate the vivid colors once applied to these works. The exhibition also traces the empire-wide sources for dyes, particularly the prized purple obtained from Murex sea snails in the eastern Mediterranean. This costly dye was largely reserved for the elite, a practice that nearly decimated the species. For those less wealthy, plant-based purple imitations provided an accessible alternative, though discerning contemporaries could differentiate between authentic and fake.
A notable piece on loan from the British Museum, a fragment of a tunic with a woad or indigo border from Egypt, is shown alongside a Murex-purple textile from the Glyptotek’s collection, illustrating the range of purple hues in use. The shades varied from pink to blue, with shifting trends influencing which tones conveyed status. Professor Eve D’Ambra of Vassar College, contributing to the exhibition catalog, describes the pursuit of prestigious dyes as “akin to striking a moving target.”
Other valuable dyes like kermes, a crimson pigment derived from insects, and saffron signaled wealth among citizens outside the elite class, including freed slaves who were barred from wearing purple. A portrait of Caius Fundilius, an ex-slave and actor depicted in a toga painted orange—possibly saffron-dyed—demonstrates these subtler distinctions in dress.
Roman conquests also influenced hairstyles. During military campaigns against Germanic peoples in the first century, elite Roman women adopted blonde hair or wigs fashioned from captive Germanic hair, reflecting a literal appropriation of conquered peoples’ characteristics. Alternatively, some fashions arose from cultural exchange rather than dominance; the distinctive coiffure of Julia Domna, wife of Emperor Septimius Severus and originating from a Syrian aristocratic family, became widely imitated, signaling cosmopolitan tastes.
Perfumes echoed these imperial dynamics as well, with scents from Egypt and Assyria gaining popularity. Elite Roman sculptures were often anointed with fragrances, though the exact aromas have been lost to time. Danish cosmetics brand Karmameju contributed contemporary interpretations of ancient scent recipes, adding a modern Scandinavian dimension to the exhibition’s presentation of Roman imperial splendor.