Wool was the most common material used for fabrics, which was produced locally and often turned into thread by the women at home, and then woven on the standing weighted loom. The women's doric chiton or peplos, the himation and the chlamys were always made of wool. Based on the way the material drapes on iconography, and the few archeological finds, they preferred very thin threads, and by modern standards loosely woven. Their weaving method was the most time consuming, but allowed them to create really fine fabrics that draped beautifully and created many pleats while not looking bulky. The fineness of weave was a sign of wealth and good craftsmanship. The chiton Penelope wove for Telemachus is described as fine as an onion peel by Homer! 

Nowadays we are familiar with semi transparent linen but the Greeks wove semi transparent wool as well.The transparent clothes of Laconia and Taras were famous.

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Linen was known from the Bronze Age in Greece and continued to be one of the major clothing materials through the Archaic and Classical times. Whilst flax cultivation was known to the Greeks and possibly there was some in the mainland, we can assume that most linen was imported from Egypt or the East. The cost of linen has been thoroughly debated, but Thucydides [1.6] mentions that Athenians and Ionians used to wear linen chitons before their lifestyle became more luxurious.

We may distinguish linen on the ancient depictions by the pleating effects. We have to be careful however, and have in mind that wool was also pleated some times with colapse weave. Overtwisted threads have been excavated in greek graves.

Linen was mostly used for some types of chitons, like the Ionian chiton. It was probably twisted wet and let dry to create a wrinkled effect. It was also used for loincloths probably, but not for himatia or chlamydes. It certainly was also used for other garments which have been lost to us, like the lasion (λάσιον/λάσια) mentioned by Sappho, a lightly woven linen garment, according to Julius Pollux.

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Silk yarn was known and used in small quanities for rich recoration. Silk yarns have been identified both of the cultivated Bombyx mori species but also of the Pachypasa otuswhich is a wild species native to Europe, including Greece and Italy [Margariti and Kinti]

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Cotton was a luxury material in Archaic and Classical times. Cotton fabric has been identified in a find from the Kerameikos cemetery in Athens.[Margariti and Kinti] We can assume that it was imported from Egypt where it was more widely used. Alexander III re-equiped his soldiers with cotton chitons, but the context of this act doesn not offer us any insight about the practise in mainland Greece in our period of interest. At any rate, like silk it was never widespread.

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Hemp was very widespread due to its use in sails and ropes. It is possible that finer cloths were used for clothes instead of linen, or that hemp fibres were mixed with wool or linen for decoration.

 

 

Leather was worn by farmers and perhaps workmen and slaves as cheap and resilient clothing, and it was called "diphthera". Animal skin with the hair on (νάκη), usually goat and sheep, was also used sewn on the borders of poor clothing.

Whole animal skins are also worn by farmers, but also soldiers or priests and priestesses. We can assume that the kind of animal used had some significance. Soldiers may have used the skins of animals they hunted, and prists maybe animals associated with their God, and farmers possibly domestic animals. A leopard skin was called a "spolas" according to Julius Pollux's Onomastikon.

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Felt was used for hats. The petasos, the laconian, arcadian and boeotian pilos were all made with felt.

There is no proof of felting on greek textiles, which doesn't mean that it was never used. 

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Other materials were certainly used for specific types of clothes, or for intricate decoration. Plant fibres were turned into threads for instance, and there are plenty of examples of metal threads found in archeology, but it seems that even reeds were used for a type of sailor's garment, as well as for baskets and woven sleeping mats.

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