Ancient Egyptian Beadnet Dresses: A Glimpse into Timeless Fashion
A decorative sheath dress made of beads worn in ancient Egypt.
The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (MFA) houses two remarkable reconstructed Egyptian beadnet dresses. These artifacts offer an intriguing look into ancient Egyptian fashion. The MFA describes one of these dresses with fascinating details:
“Occasionally, depictions of women in Egyptian art show garments with a lozenge pattern, believed to represent beadwork. This beadwork was either sewn onto a linen dress or formed into a separate net worn over it. The beadnet dress in our collection is the earliest surviving example of such a garment. It has been meticulously reassembled from about seven thousand beads found in an undisturbed burial of a woman contemporary to King Khufu. Despite the original string disintegrating, some beads remained in their original pattern around the mummy, allowing for an accurate reconstruction. Initially, the beads were blue and blue-green, imitating lapis lazuli and turquoise, although their color has since faded.”
Another beadnet dress in the MFA’s collection, dating several hundred years later, features the same lozenge pattern but uses fewer beads—3,000 compared to the earlier dress’s 7,000. Both dresses are form-fitting, with high waistbands, straight shoulder straps, and fringed hems decorated with mitra shells.
Fig. 1 – Maker unknown (Egyptian). Beadnet dress, detail, Old Kingdom, Dynasty 4, Reign of Khufu, 2551 – 2528 BCE. Faience and gold; 44 x 113 cm (17 5/16 x 44 1/2 in). Boston: Museum of Fine Arts, 27.1548.1. Findspot: Egypt, Giza, Tomb G 7440 Z.
Maker unknown. Beadnet dress, Egyptian, Old Kingdom, Dynasty 4, Reign of Khufu, 2551 – 2528 BCE. Faience and gold; 44 x 113 cm (17 5/16 x 44 1/2 in). Boston: Museum of Fine Arts, 27.1548.1. Findspot: Egypt, Giza, Tomb G 7440 Z.
Maker unknown. Beadnet dress, Egyptian, Old Kingdom, Dynasty 6, 2323–2150 BCE. Faience; 114.3 x 73.7 cm (45 x 29 in). Boston: Museum of Fine Arts, 33.1020.1. Findspot: Giza, Egypt.
Maker unknown (Egyptian). Beadnet dress, Old Kingdom, Dynasty 5, ca. 2400 BCE. Faience. London: Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology, UC17743-1. Findspot: Qau.
A third surviving beadnet dress is part of the University College, London collection. The Petrie Museum provides insights into this dress, noting:
“Each of the 127 shells around the fringe contains a small stone, creating a rattling sound when the wearer moved.”
Artistic depictions of what might be beadnet dresses do appear in surviving sculptures and wall paintings.However there is also speculation that the beaded dresses could have been made from leather thonging. Some suggest that “dresses made entirely of beaded nets … may have been worn over the nude body or as an ornamental overskirt.” Scholars remain divided on this point, but it is likely that beadnet dresses were worn over plain linen sheath dresses, helping them fit the body’s contours more closely.
The functional and decorative nature of these dresses is highlighted by the Petrie Museum, which recounts a story involving King Sneferu:
“Guy Brunton, the archaeologist who discovered one of the dresses, noted that it reminds us of a tale where King Sneferu, during a sailing trip on the palace lake around 1800 BCE, orders twenty young women to row a boat and wear nets in place of their clothes to entertain him.”
‘Let there be brought to me twenty women with the shapeliest bodies, breasts and braids, who have not yet given birth. And let there be brought to me 20 nets. Give those nets to these women in place of their clothes!’
While relatively few beadnet dresses have survived, beadnet coverings for mummies have been discovered more frequently, providing further evidence of this intricate and beautiful craft.
These beadnet dresses not only exemplify the artistry and fashion of ancient Egypt but also offer a window into the social and cultural dynamics of the time.
Useful Resources:
Barber, E J. W. Women’s Work: The First 20,000 Years : Women, Cloth, and Society in Early Times. New York: Norton, 1994. Print.
Brown, Susan. Fashion: The Definitive History of Costume and Style. New York, N.Y: DK Publishing, 2012. Print.
Hall, Rosalind M. Egyptian Textiles. Aylesbury, Bucks, UK: Shire Publications, 1986. Print.
Harris, Eleanor L. Ancient Egyptian Divination and Magic. York Beach, Me: Weiser, 1998. Print.
Hawass, Zahi A. Silent Images: Women in Pharanoic Egypt. Cairo: American University in Cairo Press, 2008. Print.
Krautwurst, Terry. 500 Beaded Objects: New Dimensions in Contemporary Beadwork. New York: Lark Books, 2004. Print.