smock-frock
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A smock-frock or smock is an outer
garment Clothing (also known as clothes, apparel, and attire) are items worn on the body. Typically, clothing is made of fabrics or textiles, but over time it has included garments made from animal skin and other thin sheets of materials and natural ...
traditionally worn by rural workers, especially shepherds and waggoners, in parts of
England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
and
Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the Bristol Channel to the south. It had a population in ...
throughout the 18th century. Today, the word smock refers to a loose overgarment worn to protect one's clothing, for instance by a painter. The traditional smock-frock is made of heavy linen or
wool Wool is the textile fibre obtained from sheep and other mammals, especially goats, rabbits, and camelids. The term may also refer to inorganic materials, such as mineral wool and glass wool, that have properties similar to animal wool. ...
and varies from thigh-length to mid-calf length. Characteristic features of the smock-frock are fullness across the back, breast, and
sleeve A sleeve ( ang, slīef, a word allied to ''slip'', cf. Dutch ) is the part of a garment that covers the arm, or through which the arm passes or slips. The sleeve is a characteristic of fashion seen in almost every country and time period, acro ...
s folded into "tubes" (narrow unpressed pleats) held in place and decorated by
smocking Smocking is an embroidery technique used to gather fabric so that it can stretch. Before elastic, smocking was commonly used in cuffs, bodices, and necklines in garments where buttons were undesirable. Smocking developed in England and has been ...
, a type of surface
embroidery Embroidery is the craft of decorating fabric or other materials using a needle to apply thread or yarn. Embroidery may also incorporate other materials such as pearls, beads, quills, and sequins. In modern days, embroidery is usually seen ...
in a honeycomb pattern across the pleats that controls the fullness while allowing a degree of stretch.


Types of smock-frocks

* The round smock is a pullover style with an open neckline and a flat, round
collar Collar may refer to: Human neckwear *Clerical collar (informally ''dog collar''), a distinctive collar used by the clergy of some Christian religious denominations *Collar (clothing), the part of a garment that fastens around or frames the neck ...
. This smock is reversible front-to-back. A feature of Sussex smocks or round frocks is the lack of elaborate decoration; instead there is fine embroidery on the yoke, collar,
cuff A cuff is a layer of fabric at the lower edge of the sleeve of a garment (shirt, coat, jacket, etc.) at the wrist, or at the ankle end of a trouser leg. The function of turned-back cuffs is to protect the cloth of the garment from fraying, an ...
s and shoulder. Sussex smocks were thought to be the most elaborate of smocks. * The shirt smock or Surrey smock is styled like a man's shirt, with a collar and a short
placket A placket (also spelled placquet) is an opening in the upper part of trousers or skirts, or at the neck or sleeve of a garment. Plackets are almost always used to allow clothing to be put on or removed easily but are sometimes used purely as a d ...
opening in the front. It is not reversible. * The coat smock worn by Welsh shepherds is long and buttons up the front in the manner of a coat. * The fisherman's smock is a fully reversible hardwearing
sailcloth Sailcloth encompasses a wide variety of materials that span those from natural fibers, such as flax, hemp or cotton in various forms of sail canvas, to synthetic fibers, including nylon, polyester, aramids, and carbon fibers in a variety of wov ...
smock typically dyed
indigo Indigo is a deep color close to the color wheel blue (a primary color in the RGB color space), as well as to some variants of ultramarine, based on the ancient dye of the same name. The word "indigo" comes from the Latin word ''indicum'', m ...
(or white or red colour) once worn as an outer garment by Atlantic fishermen across
Devon Devon ( , historically known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South West England. The most populous settlement in Devon is the city of Plymouth, followed by Devon's county town, the city of Exeter. Devo ...
,
Cornwall Cornwall (; kw, Kernow ) is a historic county and ceremonial county in South West England. It is recognised as one of the Celtic nations, and is the homeland of the Cornish people. Cornwall is bordered to the north and west by the Atlantic ...
,
Brittany Brittany (; french: link=no, Bretagne ; br, Breizh, or ; Gallo: ''Bertaèyn'' ) is a peninsula, historical country and cultural area in the west of modern France, covering the western part of what was known as Armorica during the period ...
and the
Channel Islands The Channel Islands ( nrf, Îles d'la Manche; french: îles Anglo-Normandes or ''îles de la Manche'') are an archipelago in the English Channel, off the French coast of Normandy. They include two Crown Dependencies: the Bailiwick of Jersey, ...
, and other parts of Northwestern Europe, often worn over a knitted gansey. It is now often favoured as an artist's smock by association with the
Newlyn School The Newlyn School was an art colony of artists based in or near Newlyn, a fishing village adjacent to Penzance, on the south coast of Cornwall, from the 1880s until the early twentieth century. The establishment of the Newlyn School was reminis ...
who often depicted characters in this dress. * The knit-frock (Cornish use), Gansey or Guernsey is a
worsted Worsted ( or ) is a high-quality type of wool yarn, the fabric made from this yarn, and a yarn weight category. The name derives from Worstead, a village in the English county of Norfolk. That village, together with North Walsham and Aylsham ...
knitted form of the fisherman's smock, often patterned and dyed indigo, it was again traditionally fully reversible and was again found throughout the fishing communities of the Atlantic from Brittany to the
Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...
. It was often oversized to midthigh.


Development

It is uncertain whether smock-frocks are "frocks made like smocks" or "smocks made like frocks"—that is, whether the garment evolved from the smock, the shirt or underdress of the medieval period, or from the
frock Frock has been used since Middle English as the name for an article of clothing, typically coat-like, for men and women. Terminology In British English and in Commonwealth countries the word may be used as an alternative term for a girl's or ...
, an overgarment of equally ancient origin. What is certain is that the fully developed smock-frock resembles a melding of the two older garments. From the earlier 18th century, the smock-frock was worn by waggoners and carters; by the end of that century, it had become the common outer garment of agricultural labourers of all sorts throughout the Midlands and Southern England. The spread of the smock-frock matches a general decrease in agricultural wages and living standards in these areas in the second half of the 18th century. The smocks were cheaper than other forms of outer garments, and were both durable and washable. Embroidery styles for smock-frocks varied by region, and a number of motifs became traditional for various occupations: wheel-shapes for carters and wagoners, sheep and crooks for shepherds, and so on. Most of this embroidery was done in heavy linen thread, often in the same color as the smock. By the mid-19th century, wearing of traditional smock-frocks by country laborers was dying out, although Gertrude Jekyll noticed them in Sussex during her youth, and smocks were still worn by some people in rural Buckinghamshire into the 1920s. As the authentic tradition was fading away, a romantic nostalgia for England's rural past, as epitomized by the illustrations of Kate Greenaway, led to a fashion for women's and children's
dress A dress (also known as a frock or a gown) is a garment traditionally worn by women or girls consisting of a skirt with an attached bodice (or a matching bodice giving the effect of a one-piece garment). It consists of a top piece that co ...
es and blouses loosely styled after smock-frocks. These garments are generally of very fine linen or cotton and feature delicate smocking embroidery done in cotton
floss Free and open-source software (FOSS) is a term used to refer to groups of software consisting of both free software and open-source software where anyone is freely licensed to use, copy, study, and change the software in any way, and the source ...
in contrasting colors; smocked garments with pastel-colored embroidery remain popular for babies.


Parachutist smocks

During
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
, military
parachutist Parachuting, including also skydiving, is a method of transiting from a high point in the atmosphere to the surface of Earth with the aid of gravity, involving the control of speed during the descent using a parachute or parachutes. For ...
s wore wind proof jump smocks primarily to cover equipment that may have caused the parachutist to be stuck in a narrow doorway. German parachutists wore the Knochensack, British parachutists wore the
Denison smock The Denison smock was a coverall jacket issued to Special Operations Executive (SOE) agents, the Parachute Regiment, the Glider Pilot Regiment, Air Landing Regiments, Air Observation Post Squadrons, Commando units, and other Commonwealth ai ...
whilst
US Marine The United States Marine Corps (USMC), also referred to as the United States Marines, is the maritime land force service branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for conducting expeditionary and amphibious operations through combi ...
paramarine The Paramarines (also known as Marine paratroopers) was a short-lived specialized combat unit of the United States Marine Corps, trained to be dropped from planes by parachute. Marine parachute training which began in New Jersey in October 19 ...
s wore a jump smock as well. Today the name ''smock'' is still used for military combat jackets. Examples include DPM Parachute Smock, that replaced the Denison Smock, the Canadian Para Smock and Smock Windproof DPM.


Related garments

The Walloon ''bleu sårot'', is a dark blue smock worn by men in parts of
Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...
as part of
National dress A folk costume (also regional costume, national costume, traditional garment, or traditional regalia) expresses an identity through costume, which is usually associated with a geographic area or a period of time in history. It can also indicat ...
. From Walloon Wiki. The Lèine bhàn was a type of smock worn to church by Scottish men who had broken the
law Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been vario ...
.


See also

*
Apron An apron is a garment that is worn over other clothing to cover the front of the body. The word comes from old French ''napron'' meaning a small piece of cloth, however over time "a napron" became "an apron", through a linguistics process cal ...
*
Pinafore A pinafore (colloquially a pinny in British English) is a sleeveless garment worn as an apron. Pinafores may be worn as a decorative garment and as a protective apron. A related term is ''pinafore dress'' (known as a ''jumper'' in Ameri ...
*
Tabard A tabard is a type of short coat that was commonly worn by men during the late Middle Ages and early modern period in Europe. Generally worn outdoors, the coat was either sleeveless or had short sleeves or shoulder pieces. In its more develope ...
* Chemise/Smock *
Frock Frock has been used since Middle English as the name for an article of clothing, typically coat-like, for men and women. Terminology In British English and in Commonwealth countries the word may be used as an alternative term for a girl's or ...
*
Frock coat A frock coat is a formal men's coat characterised by a knee-length skirt cut all around the base just above the knee, popular during the Victorian and Edwardian periods (1830s–1910s). It is a fitted, long-sleeved coat with a centre vent at th ...
*
Gymnastyorka Gymnastyorka (usually transliterated in English as Gimnasterka; also spelled ''Gymnastiorka''; rus, гимнастёрка, p=gʲɪmnɐˈsʲtʲɵrkə) was a Russian military smock comprising a pullover-style garment with a standing collar havin ...
*
Smock mill The smock mill is a type of windmill that consists of a sloping, horizontally weatherboarded, thatched, or shingled tower, usually with six or eight sides. It is topped with a roof or cap that rotates to bring the sails into the wind. This typ ...
*
Kirtle A kirtle (sometimes called cotte, cotehardie) is a garment that was worn by men and women in the Middle Ages. It eventually became a one-piece garment worn by women from the late Middle Ages into the Baroque period. The kirtle was typically worn ...
*
Surcoat A surcoat or surcote is an outer garment that was commonly worn in the Middle Ages by soldiers. It was worn over armor to show insignia and help identify what side the soldier was on. In the battlefield the surcoat was also helpful with keeping ...
* Kappōgi * Artistic dress movement *
Embroidery Embroidery is the craft of decorating fabric or other materials using a needle to apply thread or yarn. Embroidery may also incorporate other materials such as pearls, beads, quills, and sequins. In modern days, embroidery is usually seen ...


Notes


References

* de Marly, Diana: ''Working Dress: A History of Occupational Clothing'', Batsford (UK), 1986; Holmes & Meier (US), 1987. * Marshall, Beverly: ''Smocks and Smocking'', Van Nostrand Rheinhold, 1980, * Styles, John: ''The Dress of the People: Everyday Fashion in Eighteenth-Century England'', New Haven, Yale University Press, 2007,


External links


Smocks at the Museum of English Rural Life



Men's Frocks of Other Days



A Smock and Trowsers, Spade and Hoe, Will Do For My Remaining Days: An Analysis of the Use of Farmer's Smocks by Massachusetts Militia on April 19, 1775


{{Historical clothing, state=expanded 18th-century fashion 19th-century fashion 20th-century fashion British clothing English clothing Gowns History of clothing History of clothing (Western fashion) Embroidery