Tutankhamun's wardrobe: A workshop
On June 18th the Textile Research Centre gave a workshop on pharaoh Tutankhamun’s clothing, as part of the Tutankhamun month organised by Huis van Horus, a society for Egyptology in the Netherlands and Flanders.
When Howard Carter discovered Tutankhamun’s tomb in 1922, he didn’t just find coffins and gold, but also hundreds of textiles. Dr. Gillian Vogelsang-Eastwood has done extensive research on the actual garments now housed at the Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM) in Cairo, and producing replicas of several of them to display their dazzling colours and designs and also to test how they would have been worn and used.
We were given a hands-on demonstration of a number of (replica) royal garments, starting with his Majesty’s underwear. A large linen triangle was tied around the waist of one of the workshop participants and then tucked in at the front, demonstrating that the king’s hips were probably quite wide.
A linen skirt was wrapped around the waist and fastened with a sash with a colourful, woven feather pattern. The pictures we see so often in museums and books were starting to come alive before our eyes.
Next, we were shown a tunic covered in an elaborate pattern of blue bead netting and golden buttons. While the replica version only had a painted pattern, the original must have been very heavy with all the faience and gold appliqués. Trying the tunic out on another one of the participants, we understood why only the front of the garment was decorated: it is quite impossible to sit down on a layer of beads and buttons. Alternatively, if the king is sitting down, the back of his tunic can’t be seen anyway, so there was apparently no need to decorate it.