The Instructor 2.10.107

If this is the purpose of clothing, consider whether one kind of clothing need really be assigned to men and another to women; for covering is common to both, like eating and drinking. The need being common, we approve a similar provision. For as the need of coverings is common to each, so the coverings should be alike; but if there is a difference, we must adopt that covering by which … it is fitting to hide women's eyes. For if the female is allowed more because of her weakness, we must blame the habit of bad upbringing, through which men, reared on bad diets, have often become more womanish than women; we must not relax our tension. But if we must make allowances, let a little be conceded to women, to use softer fabrics, only removing the foolish fine work and the elaborate plaiting in the weaving, and saying farewell to gold thread, Indian silks, and elaborate silks. A worm is born first; then from it appears a hairy caterpillar; after this, in a third transformation, it becomes a silk moth (some call it the nekydallos), from which a long thread is produced, as the spider's thread from the spider. These superfluous and transparent fabrics are a proof of a mind not strong, pandering to the shame of the body with a slight screen. For luxurious clothing is no longer a covering, being unable to hide the shape of nakedness; for such clothing, falling against the body, molds itself to it more closely and clings fleshily to its shape, taking the impression of the woman, so that the whole form of the body is visible to one who is not even looking.