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A Podcast all about Smocks18th October 2021
I am thrilled to be part of the British Textile Biennial (@britishtextilebiennial), which is currently on, in person until the end of October, and online. I recorded a podcast with the brilliant Amber Butchart (@amberbutchart) on all things smock. Find it below or on the British Textile Biennial website, if you would like a listen! Please enjoy!
Smock Frock Veterans7th July 2021
A newspaper report in 1895 asked, ‘Where is the Smock-Frock?’, noting that it was a marker of the ‘old, hardy and honest peasantry’. Forty or fifty years ago they were a common sight, but now ‘Old England’s rural garb is rarely seen!’, the railway and education, in particular, having changed rural society, not in a…
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Book Announcement!17th March 2021
I am very excited to announce that my book on smocks will be published on 20th May 2021 by Bloomsbury Academic. A social history of a single garment, my cast list includes Ellen Terry, Georgia O’Keeffe, the WI, body snatchers, navvies, Molly Goddard, John Dryden and many more. For me it is a way to…
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A wonderful nostalgic illustration from 'The Briti

A wonderful nostalgic illustration from 'The British Workman' of 1874, the man in a rather elaborate round smock.

#smock #smockfrock #workingclothing #1874 #britishworkman #childrenswear #victorianillustration

The construction influence of the traditional smoc

The construction influence of the traditional smock is very evident in this brightly coloured tunic dress by designers Foale and Tuffin, who worked just off Carnaby Street, as part of the 'Swinging Sixties' London scene. Made circa 1969-71, a year before the business closed, it was available in different colourways too. @vamuseum

#smock #smockdress #smockfrock #swingingsixties #foaleandtuffin #60sfashion #1969

Edwardian humour playing on the perceived anti-mo

Edwardian humour playing on the perceived anti-modernity of the smock, with those men who wore them thought to not understand modern life and new fangled inventions...

#smock #smockfrock #smocking #1907 #edwardianclothing #edwardianpostcard #edwardiancar

With smocked panels across the shoulders, actress

With smocked panels across the shoulders, actress Janet Achurch poses for the Cameron Studio. Achurch was also a theatre manager and played Nora in the London premier of Ibsen's 'A Doll's House' in 1889. Image @vamuseum

#smocking #smockeddress #victorianphotograph #victorianactress #janetachurch #ibsen

A late 19th century glass lantern slide, apparentl

A late 19th century glass lantern slide, apparently an image of the sexton of Arreton Church on the Isle of Wight. He seems to be wearing a short smock with his corduroy trousers, the job of the sexton to look after the church building and graveyard. The door certainly matches images of the Saxon door in that church!

#smock #workingclothing #sexton #arreton #glasslanternslide #corduroytrousers #hobnailboots

This large-scale floral embroidery caught my eye,

This large-scale floral embroidery caught my eye, worked either side of the smocked section on this smock frock from Boston, Lincolnshire. It was apparently made in 1884, so is a late smock - the embroidery design is perhaps reminiscent of other textile designs during this period, in scale and abstraction, such as this French velvet - both in @vamuseum.

#smock #smocking #smockfrock #1884 #embroidery #1880stextiledesign #bostonlincolnshire

To brighten up a cold morning here, this is a dish

To brighten up a cold morning here, this is a dish from the 'Gaffers' series of crockery, produced by Royal Doulton from 1921 and during the interwar period. The 'gaffers' were a variety of elderly men, dressed in smocks, placed in rural settings, playing on nostalgia for the countryside during this period.

#smock #smockfrock #rurallife #cottagedoor #zummerset #royaldoulton #1921 #interwarcrockery #crockerycollection

Edith Haynes Thompson and her shop in Greenwich Vi

Edith Haynes Thompson and her shop in Greenwich Village, New York, which contained 'many quaint and beautiful things', according to her sign. A photograph taken by Jessie Tarbox Beals, the first published female photojournalist, in around 1917, when she captured independent female shop proprietors in the area, some wearing the then fashionable smock.

#smock #smockfrock #smocking #1917 #jessietarboxbeals #greenwichvillage #femaleshopowner #americansmock

Some kind of dressing up is going on here, whether

Some kind of dressing up is going on here, whether for theatre performance or something else. The rather obvious false beard is quite something along with the smock of course. Like to think he may even have been playing the part of John Buttercup, in 'A Phenomenon in a Smock Frock', a popular play from the 1850s for both professional and amateur theatre companies.

Albumen print by the London Stereoscopic and Photographic Company, circa 1875-80.

#smock #smockfrock #theatreperformance #theatrecostume #dressingup #londonstereoscopiccompany #falsebeard

An old soldier, drawn at Salisbury, England, by Jo

An old soldier, drawn at Salisbury, England, by John Dempsey, probably in the 1820s, a work originally attributed to George Scharf. Possibly a veteran of the Napoleonic Wars, such disabled men usually lived in poverty, visually displayed here by the old military coat worn over a smock, his possessions carried in a basket.

#smock #smockfrock #johndempsey #1820sclothing #oldsoldier #disability #salisbury #basket #tophat #neckerchief

A linen round smock, associated with Riseley in Be

A linen round smock, associated with Riseley in Bedfordshire, embroidered, perhaps appropriately for today, with hearts, @vamuseum.

#smock #smockfrock #smocking #workingclothing #ruraldress #19thcenturyclothing #riseley #embroidery

Not entirely sure what is going on here, but after

Not entirely sure what is going on here, but after a week in Covid isolation, I think I want to join in!
Probably 1920s, taken in Blackpool.

#smock #smockfrock #1920sclothing #fancydress #schoolfancydress #dressingup #blackpoolpostcard

I need cheering up and the inventiveness and charm

I need cheering up and the inventiveness and charm of this American child's dress, with its smocked bodice embroidered with a farm scene, does this for me. From c. 1950 and the @goldstein_museum collection.

#smock #smocking #childrenswear #embroidery #girlssmockeddress #farmscene #1950clothing

Just because this painting always makes me smile,

Just because this painting always makes me smile, for several reasons, whenever I see an image of it!

Julie Manet, daughter of Berthe Morisot, painted by Pierre-Auguste Renoir, 1887, image - Wikimedia Commons.

#smock #smockfrock #smocking #childrenswear #impressionism #1887 #cat #juliemanet #renoir

So interesting to see a smock used in the last ser

So interesting to see a smock used in the last series of Dr Who, the BBC TV series, designed by Ray Holman and worn by Barbara Flynn playing Tecteun.

Screen shot from episode 5 of series 13, BBC TV.

#smock #smockfrock #costume #tvcostumedesign

It was not unusual for 'Simple Simon', in the late

It was not unusual for 'Simple Simon', in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, to be depicted in a smock, connecting to the garment's then perceived backwardness and so their wearer's lack of understanding about modern life. In this postcard sent at Christmas 1908, 'Simple Simon's' verse is from Mother Goose's Nursery Rhymes.

#smock #smockfrock #edwardian postcard #1908 #simplesimon #mothergoose

Happy new year to everyone. This is a postcard fro

Happy new year to everyone. This is a postcard from around 1905-9, titled 'Very busy', which seems a suitable resolution to try to be for this coming year. Part of the 'Our Darlings' series produced by Raphael Tuck.

#smock #smockfrock #smocking #childrenswear #edwardianclothing #edwardianpostcard #raphaeltuck #beach

Wishing you all season's greetings and a merry Chr

Wishing you all season's greetings and a merry Christmas!

Feather stitch spirals on a smock.

#smock #smockfrock #featherstitch #embroidery #needlework #workingclothing #19thcenturyclothing

Wouldn't advocate trying this and don't think I co

Wouldn't advocate trying this and don't think I could get my dog to sit like this anyway but this is a illustration by Stephen T Dadd, who gave his occupation as an 'Artist Animal Painter' in the 1881 census. It was reproduced in the 'Illustrated London News' in 1885, titled 'Free Education', as debates about primary school education continued during the 1880s, the Free Education Act passed in 1891 to help the poorest children attend school until the age of 10.

#smock #clogs #1885 #stdadd #illustratedlondonnews #dogportraits #animalartist #freeeducation

Have been looking at Victorian Punch cartoons rece

Have been looking at Victorian Punch cartoons recently for a piece I am working on and smocks feature as part of rural dress, often with what we might think of as yokelisms, the phonetically written burred speech for example, but these also made specific points about the hard life that rural working people endured, the smock coming to symbolise this, as in this John Tenniel drawing.

#smock #smockfrock #cartoon
#1863 #punch #peasant #ruralpoverty #yokel #pigsty #johntenniel

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