Whereas in Egypt the dry burial conditions have resulted in the survival of actual clothing, Mesopotamia is subject to extremes of climate and the situation is made worse by the high water table, so that textiles rarely survive. In Egypt there are many colourful depictions in tomb paintings, but very few wall-paintings have survived in Mesopotamia, garments are known mainly from sculpture, and information about their colour is generally lacking.

The earliest textiles known were made from wool and flax. Before 3000 B.C., important men wore beards with thick hair-bands and net skirts; less important people and priests were naked. Women wore a robe made from a long, draped piece of material. Later, men have shaved heads and no beards. They wear sheepskin skirts with the fleece outwards. The women sometimes wear sheep-skin or plain robes; they often have elaborate hair-styles or headdresses. These people seem, however, to be dressed for special occasions (perhaps religious rituals) and the clothes and hair styles may not reflect the everyday appearance of men or women. Soldiers wore leather cloaks and helmets.

From around 2300 B.C. onwards important people wore long garments with tiers of very fine pleats; less important men wore draped or fringed kilts and women wore draped and fringed robes with their hair drawn back and pinned up. In battle, kings wore a shawl over one shoulder, wrapped around and knotted over one hip. By 1800 B.C., kings wore a round cap with a broad, vertical brim and a long fringed robe draped over a kilt. Priests were sometimes still naked but they are also shown wearing kilts. Variations on draped robes continue, often with elaborate fringes and borders.

Textiles production was very important in Mesopotamia. Large numbers of people (usually women) were engaged in spinning and weaving. Assyrian merchants traded textiles made in Ashur and Babylonia with people in Turkey for silver and gold. Their letters show that there were changing fashions in the type of cloth being produced.

The Assyrian reliefs of the first millennium B.C. show people from all over the empire wearing different types of dress, from plain kilts and tunics to elaborate decorated tunics worn with shawls with very long fringes wrapped in tiers around the body. The kings wore a conical, decorated headdress with a point emerging from the flat top and with fringed ribbons hanging down behind. Intricate embroidery or pieces of metalwork sewn onto the king's robes is sometimes shown on the reliefs. Kings and some of their courtiers had shoulder-length hair and long beards with elaborate rows of curls. Priests were robed and often wore a tall conical or a feather-topped headdress.