Did fashion trends and fads occur in ancient civilizations like Egypt? How did the rate of cultural change compare to contemporary cultures?

by superhelical
chocolatepot

It's very difficult for us to say. It's known that there was change in dress styles over time in antiquity - for example, the traditional classical Peloponnesian women's garment was the peplos, while women in Greek colonies in Asia Minor wore the chiton, until the chiton was imported into mainland Greece and displaced the peplos - but we don't have enough sources to determine if there were more minute distinctions shifting on a regular basis. Portraits, illustrations, and fashion plates are invaluable resources for determining these nuances in later periods, and they did not exist at all or in the same numbers in antiquity. The general opinion in the field is that more expensive or exotic materials were used to display status rather than what we now think of as fashion trends.