Contemporary British-Made Men's Smocks — Voted by the Community

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.