Status in Presentation

“Deliberate self-conscious performance of status and character in private, public, imperials, and ecclesiastical settings only grew more remarkable over the centuries of Late Antiquity.”

With the Romans had come a more strict form of social coding in the clothing a person wore. With some allowance for taste, the more fancily dressed were richer and of higher status. “[Roman] insignia were tapestry-woven into the material in wools of purple, indigo, or a deep wine color”, as evidenced by many of these fragments, now sadly faded.

Quality of textile can be measured in terms of complexity of production. The greater the number of variations in technique; the more motifs, colors, yarn types; the better the execution; the better the textile. Clothing and textiles were an easy form of conspicuous consumption. Below, a riot of colors and patterns proclaim elegance and expense.

The two pieces below have been made with tapestry weave, "discontinuous weft threads of different colors, alternately taken up and dropped within a row of warp threads to create multicolored patterns of geometric, abstract, figural, or symbolic designs.” Motifs and bands like these would have been more valuable and used to add value to plain weaving and frequently reused.

Jennifer L. Ball, in "Charms: Protective and Auspicious Motifs", also proposes their placement was designed for protection as well as to display abundance. “Stripes (clavi), roundels, and segmenta (ornamental squares) were located at vulnerable places around the perimeter of the garment, at the shoulders, hem, cuffs, and collar, where apotropaic motifs might protect its wearer from demons who could enter the body, making one sick.”