THE HISTORY OF HAND SMOCKING

Smocking began with a wonderfully practical purpose. It was elastication before the discovery of rubber. Well before. Long before modern stretch fabrics existed, pleating and stitching offered a way to shape cloth so it could move with the body. Those early smocked panels gathered simple pattern pieces into softer, more flattering silhouettes, while allowing ease where it mattered most, at the shoulders, chest, cuffs and waist. And the engineering was hidden in plain sight. A small army of exquisite zigzag stitches held the pleats in place, creating a motif that was as beautiful as it was functional.

The word itself is tied to workwear. The smock, an overgarment worn for physical labour, relied on smocking for strength, comfort and flexibility, making it an ideal companion for long days in the fields. This use of smocking is sprinkled through 700 years of fashion history, from honeycomb smocking on the folds of Mary Magdalene’s gown in a Hans Memling painting from 1465 (‘The Rest on the Flight into Egypt’) to exquisite labouring overalls in agricultural 19th century Britain, where the loose fit and stretch offered by the pleats made The Smock an ideal, yet exquisite, overgarment for physical labour in the fields.

Smocking’s past is lengthy, illustrious and full of joy. But it is its future that inspires us at Smock London each day, as we continue to design in London and bring each piece to life slowly, stitch by stitch, safeguarding this centuries old craft for the generations still to come.