In one of Jesus’s parables, he tells of a guest at a wedding who’s not wearing an appropriate garment. Whenever I hear that story, I always mentally picture a necktie, because that’s sort of the default marker of “nice attire”, in our day and age. But I don’t think neckties were invented yet in that time.
So what would an actual wedding garment have looked like, in the circa 30 CE eastern Mediterranean? I sort of gather that it was something that would be worn over or otherwise in addition to one’s normal clothes, but what would it have been? Probably elaborate, but would the elaborateness have been in the cut/sewing, or a print or other dye pattern, or in expensive materials? But maybe not too elaborate, because people of all social classes get married… How much difference would there be between an elite’s wedding garment and a working-class schmo’s? Would it have been the same garment for every important shindig, or was there one specifically for weddings?
Until recent centuries, Jews didn’t really have any distinctive clothing, and mostly dressed like surrounding cultures. By 30 CE, Judea had been part of the Greek-dominated world for three and a half centuries, and the local culture had adopted Hellenic fashions. I don’t know the details, but I assume that like the Greeks, they wore some sort of tunic covered by a cloak. “Wedding clothes” could mean a dyed, embroidered cloak like a himation. Think toga, but with less volume.
I do not not know what they actually looked like or how it varied by the wealth and status of the couple getting married but my understanding is that guests would have there wedding garments provided for them.
This would fit in with the parable you refer to. When the invited guests refused to come the king told his servants to invite as many as they could find. When the man not wearing wedding garments was asked “how did you get in here without wedding clothes?” he was speechless, being provided with a wedding garment would mean he had no excuse not to wear one.
