Figure 1.--These brothers and sisters in the late 19th century were all dressed in identical smocks. Note the smocking at the front. |
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Smocks are a loose, lightweight overgarment worn to protect the clothing while working. The smock was widely worn by European farm workers and laborers in the early 19th Century, but this was not the case in America. We have not noted American fiarmers wearing agricultural smocks. European boys, especially on the Continent, have commonly been outfitted in smocks both at home and even more commonly for schoolwear. We know less about how widely smocks were worn by boys in America. We know they were not work for school, but details on homewear is less available.
American boys have not commonly worn smocks. The smocks that we have noted being worn by American boys have been primarily back buttoning style. This is primarily because the era in which they were worn mostly during the late-19th and early 20th Century and at the time this was the primary style of smock worn. By the time that front buttoning smocks appeared, primarily after World War II, the smock was rarely worn by American boys. Even in nursery schools and kindergartens.
The smocks HBC has noted in the 19th century appear to have been mostly white. HBC has, however, noted some colored smocks in available period images. In some cases they were dark colors although the available black and white photography makes it difficult to assess actual colors (figure 1). We are unsure as to just what colors might have been worn. Such information is sometimes abailable from fashion magazines advertisding clothing. Smocks may well have been made by individual seamstresses or mothers, so unlikes suits and dresses, less information is available. Colored smocks appeared to have become more common than white smocks in the 20th century.
I have been able to acquire relatively little information on smocks in America. I believe this is in part because they were less commonly worn by American than European boys. Another factor is that when they were worn was in the late 19th Century. At that time there were no snap shots as we now know them. Photographs were taken at studios and were major events in which children were dressed up in their best clothes. As smocks were considered informal dress suitable for wear around the house, children did not commonly have their photographs taken in smocks even though they commonly wore them.
HBC believes that smocks in the 19th century were generally made out of plain, serviceanle materials like linnen. Ginham smocks appeared in the early 20th century. More information, however, is needed here.
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I have so far collected almost no written information on American
boys wearing smocks. Virtually the only information I have is from
available photographic images. We have some information on American
boys wearing smocks in different eras. They were worn by American boys in the 19th century--although not as commpnly as in Europe. In the 20th century they have been worn even less.
I have no information on American boys wearing smocks in the early and mid-19th Century. My information on Euroe is also limited during this period. European farm workers commonly wore smocks during this period, but not American farm workers. Information on the populatity of smocks for children is lacking at this time. This may be due to the lack of images of children in play clothes, which is how smocks were viewed. When a portrait was pained or taken in a photographic studio, a child would havevbeen dressed in his best suit and not worn a smock.
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Available images suggest that some American boys were dressed in smocks during the late 19th Century. A mother might dress her entire family, boys and girls in identical smocks. The back buttoning styles were generally chosen. I believe this was most common in wealthy
families. Almost all the available images of families so outfitted appear to be wealthy or affluent children. I am not sure why this was. One would think that less affluent mothers might want to protect their son's clothes. And after all the smock was introduced by the French Republic to reduce the obvious differences in income shown by the clothing children wore to school. Perhaps smocks in America were perceived as a fashionable European style. Perhaps boys that were not carefully cared for at home did not want to wear smocks because they would be teased. Unlike European boys, smocks were not adopted as school wear and this there were not large numbers of smock-clad boys trudging to and from school. Styles of the smocks varied. In many cases they were probably made to order. I am not sure about the colors, but I think white was popular. The smocks for boys were the same as the ones worn by girls. Some had smocking. Most had long sleeves.
I believe that up until World War I that smocks were still worn by some boys from wealthy or affluent families, much as was the case in the late 19th Century. I'm not sure if it was more or less common than in the late 19th century. I think it might have been less common, but this can not yet be substantiated. One problem may be that children were probably not as commonly photogrpahed in smocks, but with the spread of amateur photographs and the greater number of candid snap shots, one would expect that more photogrphs would have been taken. This requires, however, further investigation.
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After World War I it became increasingly less common for boys to wear smocks. This appears to have been one of the many changes following World War I (1914-18). HBC has noted smocks for todler boys in 1920s clothing catalogs in sizes up to 5 years. They were decidedly unpopular with American boys. The few American boys who still wore smocks were was mostly boys being raised in wealthy families, but even this had mostly disappeared in the 1930s. These smocks appear to have been generally lighter colors, in some cases
gingham. Often short sleeved smocks were now employed. Some younger boys might have worn them at private preschools or kindergartens.
A smock is mostly seen today as a girl's garment in America. This was not always the case. We see both boys and girls wearing them in the late 19th century, although here there were social-class differences. It is difficult to make definitive assesments as our information is still quite limited. Many of the children we see wearing smocks are children from affluent families. After the turn of the 20th century we see fewer boys wearing smocks, but there are still some in the early 20th century. Most boys wearing smocks after the turn of the 20th century look to be pre-school boys. After World War I (1914-18) we see very few American boys wearing smocks, especially after the 1920s.
We will collect here personal expeiences we can find as well as images of specific families or individual boys which we have analized on separate pages. Most of these images or accounts come from the 19th century. In some cases all the children wore matching smocks.
Navigate the Boys' Historical Clothing Smock-related pages:
[Return to the Main national smock page]
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