Overview
A stola is a long, sleeveless or short-sleeved gown reaching the feet, suspended from the shoulders by straps and worn over an inner tunic. It marked a woman as a matrona, a lawfully married Roman wife, and only such women were entitled to wear it.
How it is worn
It is put on over the tunic and belted, sometimes twice, to fall in long folds to the instep, with the palla, a large mantle, drawn over it out of doors and often over the head. The whole announced modesty and married respectability.
History
The stola was proper dress under the Republic and early Empire; disgraced women and prostitutes were barred from it and wore the toga instead. As Roman dress grew more uniform in late antiquity the distinctive stola gradually disappeared.