Lou Flux

I adore smocking and Lou Flux's creations are simply stunning. She was featured by the wonderful Selvage Magazine this spring doing online courses for people to learn this traditional textile manipulation.

Nicky Vollebregt

 

"For SMOCK I studied how textiles can be shaped by implementing drawstrings in woven textiles. Precisely pre-calculated drawstring patterns are woven into the fabric, enclosing different silhouettes, styles, sizes and functions in a single piece of cloth. By pulling these, the piece can adapt to changing wants and needs.

Smocking is historically used to shape valuable textiles without cutting into them, making them easier to alter and reuse. For SMOCK, I studied this how this way of shaping textiles, and this mindset behind producing and consuming, could better find its place in today's world." Nicky Vollebregt

Working at TC2 Wearable Senses Lab, Nicky developed the main chunk of samples and explorations for this project combining hand-stitching and multi-layer machine embroidery the piece at the start and below is the result of all this work but as Nicky says this is the start, it will be very interesting to see what she develops from here.

Smock

 

Above: Thomas Pitkin of Swanbourne, Buckinghamshire, photographed wearing his smock in 1894. A farm labourer during his active working life, he was well-known for wearing a smock but he was also a Methodist preacher, a district councillor and was questioned by the Prince of Wales as part of the Royal Commission on old age pensions.

I have found an amazing site and book called Smock Frock, I adore smocking I think it is a memory thing for me of smoking on clothes I wore as a child, I really must master it at some point. Anyway here are some examples that Alison Toplis has collected and researched for her book, 'The Hidden History of the Smock Frock' 2021.