While this speaks to Eastern vestments, you can apply it here to a certain extent.
The Sticharion or Tunic. The universal garment worn by all ancient nations, men and
women alike, was the Chiton, otherwise called Tunic or Sticharion, a long garment with sleeves,
which reached to the ground. This garment remains common to all classes of ordained persons,
with this small difference, that the deacons tunic has wide sleeves, while the priests and
bishops tunics have tight-fitting ones. By its brilliant whiteness this garment reminds the cele-brant
that the grace of the Holy Spirit covers him as with a garment of salvation and joy, and
invests him with beauty. In our days, the members of the lower clergy are also authorized to
wear this garment.
The Orarion and the Epitrachelion. Another indispensable portion of every mans dress was
the towel or scarf, which every one wore, thrown over one shoulder and sometimes both. Poor
people used it to wipe their mouth and face after ablutions; while wealthy men of rank, who had
slaves to carry their towel for them, used the scarf which they wore themselves as an ornament,
and therefore had it made out of rich stuffs and sometimes decorated with pearls and precious
stones. Such a scarf was called an Orarion. The Orarion or Stole remained as one of the
sacred vestments, to be used by all classes of ordained persons, in token that the grace of the
Holy Spirit flows down upon them abundantly. Deacons wear it on the left shoulder and only on
certain occasions bind it around their bodies crosswise. The Orarion is the deacons principal
vestment, without which he cannot officiate at any service whatever. Holding one end of it with
his right hand, he slightly raises it, when he invites the congregation to begin prayers and to
listen attentively; also when he himself recites prayers. In old times, deacons used to wipe the
lips of communicants with the Orarion after they had received the Eucharist. Because deacons
minister on earth around the Lords altar as the angels surround Him in the heavens, so, inallusion thereto,
the angelic hymn: Holy, holy, holy, the Lord Sabaoth! formerly used to be
embroidered on the Orarion. Priests and bishops wear this garment on both shoulders, in such a
manner that it encircles their neck and descends in front in two ends, which, for convenience
sake, are either sewed or buttoned together. From this way of wearing it, the priests Orarion or
double stole has the name of Epitrachélion, which means what is worn around the neck.
Priests and bishops thus wear the Orarion on both shoulders in token that they have received the
added grace of priesthood and have devoted themselves wholly to the Church. Of the church
servitors only the sub-deacons wear the Orarion, crossed on the shoulders or tied under one
shoulder.
The Phelonion or Cope and the Saccos. Over the chiton or tunic the ancients used to wear a
garment named Phelónion. It was long, wide, sleeveless, enveloping the entire person, and
leaving only one opening for the head. Poor people made it out of some thick, coarse stuff, and
used it only in traveling, to protect them from cold and bad weather. The rich wore the same
garment, made out of soft material, so that it was not only a protection in traveling, but an
ornamental cloak. It was contrived so as to enable the wearer to get out and use his hands. To
this effect there were studs on the shoulders, over which were looped cords which, being pulled,
shirred up the skirt of the garment. When shirred up on both shoulders to leave both hands free, it
presented the aspect of two bags, one of which-the larger-hung down behind, and the other,
smaller, in front. The Phelonion has been preserved as one of the priestly vestments, in token
that priests are invested with truth, and hedged off by it from all the iniquities which surround
them, and consequently should be ministers of the truth. In Eastern churches the Phelonion is
still made after the old model, of equal length in front and behind. But in Russian churches,
where this vestment is made out of the richest cloths, of gold and silver, which it would be
difficult to shirr up on the shoulders, it is cut out in front, so that it is much shorter than behind.
The Phelonion is usually called simply robe (ríza).
For several centuries the Phelonion was worn also by bishops. But, when the Christian
faith became predominant, the Greek Emperors granted to the principal bishops the Patri-archs,
the right of wearing the Dalmatic, a garment like a short tunic with short sleeves, or
half sleeves, worn only by themselves and the grandees of the Empire. The bishops adopted
this garment, not as a worldly adornment, but as a reminder that they must rise to holiness of life,
and called it Saccos, which means a sackcloth garment, or garment of humility. In the course
of time it became common to all bishops, and they wear it now in the place of the Phelonion.
