Illustration plate showing details of Byzantine women's headgear and jewelry

 Illustration plate showing details of Byzantine women's headgear and jewelry. Artist: Tom Tierney. Publication: Byzantine Fashions. Scope: Examples dating between the 4th and 13th centuries AD. Publisher: Dover Publications, USA, first published in 2002.

Take a look at the high-crowned examples in the top row. On some, you'll see strands of pearls cascading down the sides toward the ears and shoulders. This pendant arrangement was a striking feature of the Byzantine court and its language of imperial representation.

To really grasp this splendor, you need to look at the 6th-century San Vitale mosaics in Ravenna, Italy. There, Empress Theodora is depicted wearing her purple chlamys, a jeweled maniakis collar, a stemma crown, and pearl and jewel pendants falling to her shoulders. The tall crowns in the plate are also great examples of this courtly aesthetic.

The veiled women's heads in the middle section of the plate (4th and 11th centuries) open a window into a long-lasting clothing tradition. Head-covering, especially in the Late Antique Mediterranean world, was too diverse to be explained by religious rules alone. As Grace Stafford highlights in her 2024 study, veiling was shaped by status, everyday utility and fashion.

In the 12th- and 13th-century illustrations in the middle of the bottom row, simpler, fabric-heavy, wrapped forms stand out. This doesn't mean the splendor was over. However, the Latin occupation of 1204 and the resulting political fragmentation also impacted the arts.

Finally, a quick note: The people of the period didn't call themselves 'Byzantine,' but rather 'Romans' (Rhomaioi), identifying as the continuation of the Roman legacy.