Menswear
No brands that make men's smocks in Blaenau Gwent are listed yet.
No brands listed yet
We're still researching this subcategory and would love your help. If you run a British-made brand that belongs here, list your brand. If you know of one, please tell us about it so we can review and add it to the directory.
Perhaps there's a gap in the market. This could even be your opportunity to establish a new British label.
This independent directory lists UK-made clothing brands, and marks those that make only some items here.Why choose British-made?
The smock frock, now usually just called a smock, is a loose overgarment worn to protect the clothes beneath. It is thought to have grown out of the loose linen or canvas coats worn by seventeenth-century carters, and was in use from the mid-1700s. Farm labourers in the Midlands, southern England and parts of Wales wore it through the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Smocks were cut from squares and rectangles of linen or coarse cloth such as drabbet, so little fabric was wasted. The fullness was gathered with close honeycomb stitching, and many were embroidered at the collar and shoulders. The loose cut shed rain and kept out the wind, which suited shepherds and carters. Smocks were at their most popular in the mid-nineteenth century. By the end of that century they were dying out in the countryside, partly because a loose garment was dangerous near machinery. Painters and potters later wore smock-style overalls, and the form passed into women's and children's clothing. British-made smocks today build on this long history as a practical working layer.