Dress changed little over the 400 years when Britain was a Roman province. Clothing was made of wool or linen, the yarn being spun and woven by women. Very few textiles have survived from the period, so most of what we know about peoples’ clothes comes from carvings on gravestones.

Everyone wore tunics – women’s were long and they wore full-length cloaks over them. Some women continued to wear a native style of over-tunic pinned with brooches at the shoulders. Men had shorter, sleeveless tunics, covered with capes or cloaks, some with hoods. The tunics of slaves or servants usually had long sleeves and were cut closer to the body. There is very little evidence from Roman Britain of people wearing togas, the Roman formal dress. Probably they were only worn by important people on ceremonial occasions.

Fashions in hairstyles and jewellery changed more often. They were set by the most important women in Rome and were copied everywhere. Rich women had maids to dress their hair, sometimes in very elaborate styles. Jewellery included earrings, brooches, necklaces and bracelets. Cheaper jewellery was made of bronze or glass, but rich women wore gold and precious stones. British gold and silver, freshwater pearls and jet from Whitby in Yorkshire were all made into jewellery.