By the first century C.E., new fabrics and colors were available. Affluent Romans imported silk from China or India, although the expense of transport made woven silk as costly as gold. Another fashionable material was dyed wool from Tyre, a pound of which could cost 1,000 denarii​—three years’ wages for a typical worker. The new dyes and materials enabled wealthy Roman women to wear a stola​—a long, ample outer garment—​of blue cotton from India or perhaps yellow silk from China.

[Picture on page 4]

In ancient Rome women wore a stola

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From the book Historia del Traje, 1917