SNAPPY SOLDIER TUNIC PLEAT

[tlclark]

"Basically, long tunics have vertical pleats, short tunics employ the u or v-shaped pleats."

The short tunic and the long tunic are one and the same: the tunic, either left to hang long or hitched up to hang at a shorter length.

If you are talking about the art in general, there clearly are representations of long tunics and short tunics that are different lengths and not just one tunic hitched up in different fashions. Flamines, Aediles, magistrates, wear long tunics. Short tunics are worn by workers, soldiers, bakers, slaves and others. So there clearly are two types and lengths of tunics in Roman Art.

If you are talking about just the representations of soldiers then I can see why my original comments might seem inaccurate, but I was talking about pleats and drapery across the wide spectrum of Roman Art, not just for soldiers.

Also, I don't think that the pleats are purely a product of how they are hitched up either. When you see the statuary first hand, the shoulder seams have significant gathers which could be produced with a running stitch. This would make nice vertical pleats. a running stitch running vertically along the inseam, would produce horiztonal gathers, that, as they hang, would produce u-shaped folds. Now I'm not certain about this, it's just a suggestion, one which I think explains the folds we are seeing and makes them not an intentional product, but natural parts of the garments worn that no one would have to think about.

Otherwise, if we assume the soldiers are intentionally hitching up their tunics to make these "snappy" pleats, as some sort of fashion statement, then we have to come up with a cultural reason for bakers, slaves, boys, and many other classes to do the same since we see the same features in their representations. I think that's a stretch.

Travis