Overview
Roman Britain dressed like the rest of the north-western empire, with one distinction worth more than the rest: Britain exported clothing. Two British woollen products are named in Diocletian’s price edict of 301, which is as close as the ancient world comes to a trade catalogue, and it puts a British garment on a list of goods known across the empire.
Key garments and style
Everyday dress was a belted wool or linen tunic with a cloak for men, a longer tunic with a mantle for women, and hobnailed leather shoes of which large numbers survive in waterlogged deposits at Vindolanda and London. The toga appears among the Romano-British elite for formal occasions and is otherwise rare.
The two named exports are the birrus Britannicus, a hooded weatherproof cloak, and the tapete Britannicum, a heavy woollen covering. A hooded cloak suits the climate that produced it, and the birrus is the closest thing Roman Britain has to a national garment.
The Vindolanda tablets add the everyday texture — letters listing socks, underpants and sandals sent to soldiers on the northern frontier, which is the most human evidence for clothing anywhere in Roman Britain.
Transition
After Roman authority ended around 410, Mediterranean cut and imported cloth receded, and Germanic dress fastened with paired brooches took hold.