Dress to Impress: Reconstructions of Medieval Robes from Nubia
Clothing has often spoken where words fall short. In medieval Nubia, dress functioned as a potent form of non-verbal communication, signalling authority, faith and cultural alignment. Dress to Impress: Reconstructions of Medieval Robes from Nubia brings this visual language vividly back to life through an ambitious interdisciplinary project that transforms two-dimensional wall paintings into fully realised garments.
A painting from the Nubian Faras Cathedral, on which the costume in the lead image (a royal mother from Makuria) is based.
The project centres on the cathedral of Faras, once a spiritual and political heart of the Christian Nubian kingdom of Makuria, which flourished between the sixth and fourteenth centuries in what is now southern Egypt and northern Sudan. In the 1960s, ahead of the flooding caused by the construction of the Aswan High Dam, a UNESCO-led international effort sought to salvage endangered cultural heritage along the Nile. A Polish archaeological team led by Professor Kazimierz Michałowski selected Faras as a key site, uncovering a cathedral adorned with remarkable wall paintings depicting kings, royal mothers and senior clergy. Today, these murals form the core of the Faras Gallery at the National Museum in Warsaw, a globally significant collection of medieval Nubian art.
Reconstruction of a medieval costume after a wallpainting in the medieval cathedral of Faras, Nubia (Sudan) © Paulina Matusiak und Eddy Wenting.
Drawing on these paintings, archaeologists from the University of Warsaw collaborated with designers from the School of Form at SWPS University to reconstruct five ceremonial outfits: two worn by kings, two by royal mothers and one belonging to Bishop Marianos. With written sources scarce, clothing itself became the primary historical evidence. Led by Dr Karel Innemée, the research team analysed iconography, archaeology and material culture to understand how dress articulated the kingdom’s relationship with the Church and the divine.
Reconstruction of the medieval costume of a royal mother from Makuria after a wallpainting in the medieval cathedral of Faras, Nubia (Sudan) © Paulina Matusiak und Eddy Wenting.
For the designers, translating painted images into physical garments required a careful balance of scholarship and embodied knowledge. Led by Dr Agnieszka Jacobson-Cielecka at the School of Form, SWPS University, the design team faced the challenge of reconstructing five key outfits from murals that offer no direct information about cut, weight or interior structure. Academic research had to be continuously tested against the realities of wearability, proportion and movement. Costume designer Dorothée Roqueplo drew on archaeological evidence relating to historical fibres, textile production and trade routes, combining this with a practical understanding of garment construction, volume, weight and the ergonomics of movement. Colour demanded similarly careful interpretation: Dr hab. Katarzyna Schmidt-Przewoźna used her specialist knowledge of natural dyeing to reconstruct a historically plausible palette, grounding the vivid hues of the paintings in materials and processes available to medieval Nubia.
Reconstruction of the costume of a king from Makuria after a wallpainting in the medieval cathedral of Faras, Nubia (Sudan) © Paulina Matusiak and Eddy Wenting.
The resulting robes reveal a distinctive aesthetic language. Initially shaped by Byzantine court dress following the Christianisation of Nubia, they gradually absorbed African colours and motifs alongside influences from the Muslim East, forming a hybrid style that expressed both local identity and global connection. Meticulously hand-sewn, embroidered and printed, the garments offer rare insight into the physical presence and authority these clothes would once have conveyed.
Reconstruction of the costume of a Nubian bishop after a wallpainting in the medieval cathedral of Faras, Nubia (Sudan) © Paulina Matusiak und Eddy Wenting.
Documented through a photographic project in The Hague and later presented at the Louvre in 2024 and the Bode Museum in 2025, Dress to Impress stands as a powerful reminder that cultural heritage is not only fragile but vital—particularly amid Sudan’s ongoing civil conflict—connecting past and present through the enduring language of cloth.
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Further Information:
School of Form, SWPS University, Poland
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Image Credits:
Lead: Reconstruction of the Byzantine costume of a royal mother from Makuria after a wallpainting in the medieval cathedral of Faras, Nubia (Sudan) © Paulina Matusiak and Eddy Wenting.
All further images as credited in photo captions.