The Ideal Beauty

As the fashion of a culture tends to emphasize those traits considered desirable, it is important for any study of costume to first examine what those traits are so that they may be kept in mind while re-constructing the costume.

Physical traits considered beautiful 1:

  • Pale skin
  • Rosy cheeks
  • Long torso
  • Sloped shoulders
  • Joined V eyebrow
  • Small mouth
  • Dark curly hair
  • Beauty marks (or moles)
Typical feminine body traits de-emphasized:
  • Breasts
  • Hips

An ideal beauty
An ordinary woman leads an Ideal beauty out of her tent in this minature from the Freer Sackler gallery. Note how the beauty in yellow has more sloped shoulders and pronounced V eybrows

In conclusion; we see a very boy-ish figure as the feminine ideal of the time, long and ‘willowy.’ It is also important to note that the costume researcher who is using book arts for their research will find it rewarding and worth their while to study the art. A knowledge of the artwork will help you know what is the hand of the artist, and what is an accurate depiction.



1 Ideal of beauty determined by observation of artwork and Persian court poetry. see Davis page 18