A draped garment (draped dress) is a garment that is made of a single piece of cloth that is draped around the body; drapes are not cut away or stitched as in a tailored garment. Drapes can be held to the body by means of knotting, pinning, fibulae, clasps, sashes, belts, tying drawstrings, or just plain friction and gravity alone. Many draped garments consist of only one single piece.
An advanced form of the garment is the tailored dress, which is constructed from fabric that has been cut into pieces and stitched together to fit various parts of the body. In comparison to draped dresses, they are more fitted to the body.
Draped garments are among the most ancient and widespread form of clothing. Many visual arts of the Romans and Indian sculptures, terracottas, cave paintings, and wood carvings (also shown in picture gallery) representing men and women show the same, unstitched clothes with various wrapping and draping styles.
Uttariya, and Antariya are few evident clothing items of draped garments from the Vedic period. Kasaya, another rectangular piece of the Buddhist robe, is a real example of the draped garment. Further evolved forms are Sari, and Odhni, etc.
The kÃÂá¹£ÃÂya, also called jiÃÂshà(Chinese: è¢Âè£Â), consists of three pieces, with the saá¹ÂghÃÂti as the most visible part of the buddhist attire. It is worn over the upper robe (uttarÃÂsaá¹ ga). UttarÃÂsaá¹ ga is a robe covering the upper body that comes over the undergarment, or antarvÃÂsa. The antarvÃÂsa is the inner robe covering the lower body. The latter are covered with saá¹ÂghÃÂti.
More examples of draped clothing are:
Wrapped and draped dresses continue to inspire many fashion designers. Madame Grès was a well-known French couturier known for her draping art. Her most notable work are so-called floor-length draped Grecian goddess gowns.