Figure 1.--This Turkish movie showed boys wearing their school smocks.

Turkish as other Middle-Eastern school children commonly wore school smocks. I think the smocks were almost always associated with school wear. I do not have many details on the styles involved or the extent to which individual schools dictated specific styles. Some images show that the smocks might be worn with large Peter Pan collars. Turkish boys almost always wore their smocks with long trousers. The Turkish smocks also seem rather short.

Chronology

I have few details at this time on the chronology of smocks in Turkey. I believe that Turkish boys generally wore traditional dress until the 1920s. Wstern dress was widely introduced in Turkey during the reforms of Kemal Attaurk, Turkey's first modern ruler. It is very likely that school smocks were introduced at this time, probably by national regulations. A HBC reader traveling in Turkey during 19?? reports that primary school children continued to wear school smocks.

School Smocks

Turkish boys as far as we know primarily wore smocks as a school garment. A HBC reader reports, "I went to Turkey recently and during a long journey on a bus I noticed what Turkish boys wear to school. As our bus stopped for a short period near a school at "leaving time". Elementary boys tend to wear only a short school smock, usually blue with white Peter Pan collars with a small version of the Turkish flag on each collar. Some differ with double buttoned fronts and some have a single line of buttons along the back. They wear no noticeable other uniform garments apart from this. Senior boys tend to wear black shoes, long grey trousers, a white shirt and a solid colored tie, i.e., usually blue red or black. On one occasion I noticed one boy wearing a tartan tie in a different town."

Figure 2.--This Turkish movie showed boys wearing their school smocks.

Origins

I am not sure exactly why the Turks decided on smocks for school children. Presumably they were influenced by French or Italian educators in setting up a modern education system.

Style

I do not have many details on the styles involved or the extent to which individual schools dictated specific styles. The turkish smocks also seem rather short. Some images show that the smocks might be worn with large Peter Pan collars. One report indicated Eton collars, but the images I have seen show Peter Pan collars. The smoks appear to have smocking drawn in at the waist. It isa style looking like a belt was worn, but I do not see any belts.

Color

I am not sure what color the smocks are. One report indicated they were blue. There appears to be different shades. I am not sure if this represents different schools. I also do not know if the girls wore different color smocks.

Conventions

Turkish as other Middle-Eastern school children commonly wore school smocks. I think the smocks were almost always associated with school wear. Turkish boys almost always wore their smocks with long trousers.

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Created: February 2, 2000
Last updated: 7:10 AM 2/4/2010