The way we dress is an expression of our self-image. While looking at the clothes people wore in the past, we also see the ideals of their times.
The way people dressed in late Roman and "Byzantine" dress was to cover their body more than the earlier Roman times. The Byzantine dress code usually included long sleeves and long hems just below the knee. This was a reaction to the growing Christian view that the body was not beautiful.
This mosaic from the Kahriye-Cami or Chora Church in Constantinople gives an excellent view of a range of costumes from the late Byzantine period. From the left, there is a soldier on guard with the governor in one of the large hats worn which was worn by important officials. On the right of the governor there is a middle-ranking civil servant holding the register roll. He is wearing a long tunic with a wide border, probably embroidered, over a tunic, which also has a border. Then comes a higher-ranking soldier, with a sword in his left hand. He has an untied belt or baldric. The Virgin and St Joseph are in their normal iconographic dress, and behind St Joseph a queue of respectable citizens wait their turn to register. The icon shows how male hem lengths of the dalmatics drop as the status of the person increases. All the exposed legs of the ordinary lower classes of people have leggings. The soldiers have tights above their leggings, and probably wear sandals on their feet. The ordinary people wear short tunics with a wide border around the neck and hem, and a cape over one shoulder. Women's dress simply consisted of a long tunic with a more tight-fitting sleeved one beneath. Married women, with the exception of queens, generally veiled their hair.