Smock-frock
Also: smock
A smock-frock is the loose, gathered linen outer garment worn by English farm workers from the 18th to the late 19th century, and the origin of smocking.
A smock-frock is a long, roomy, long-sleeved linen or canvas garment worn over everyday clothes, cut from simple rectangles and gathered at the chest and cuffs. The gathers were held with embroidery, the craft now called smocking.
Who wore it and when?
Dress historian Jayne Shrimpton traces it to the coats of 17th-century carters, with the long frock in use from the mid-1700s among shepherds, drovers, carters and waggoners in the Midlands, southern England and parts of Wales. The V&A says such smocks were worn by country men and boys until the late 19th century.
Sources
- History in the details: Smocks. The Genealogist (Jayne Shrimpton)
- Smock (boy’s), 1860-69. Victoria and Albert Museum
See also
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