If they were worn by living people, I’m guessing these were luxury garments. Pleats in linen are hard to maintain. Unless the Egyptians had some long-lost linen-pleating technique equivalent to Fortuny’s silk method, they would have had to reset the horizontal pleats every time the dresses were worn to keep them looking sharp, especially if the wearer sat down!

The shape of the pleated gowns looks as if they were made from a series of rectangles, pretty much like the tunic and top on the right.

Oddly, the diagram on the wall behind the tunic and top is different from either – it shows what looks very much like the side-gores-and-underarm-gussets cut that’s still in use in some ethnic costume and historical recreationist garments.

In fact, it was still taught in sewing classes in Europe into the 20th century. The Textile Museum in Toronto has a set of quarter-scale garments that were made as part of a professional seamstress’s graduation exercise in the 1930s, and some of the pieces use the same cut. Shows how long a good and practical design can persist!