Simple Smocking

6a00e5508e95a9883301156f701919970c-250wi.jpg
"Smocking developed in England and has been practiced since the
Middle Ages and is unusual among embroidery methods in that it was
often worn by labourers. Smocking was practical for garments to be both
form fitting and flexible, hence its name derives from smock — a
farmer's work shirt. Smocking was used most extensively in the
eighteenth and nineteenth centuries."


Sometimes you don't need to reach into the depths of one's imagination and pluck out an inspiration reference so lofty that you might not even be able to explain it to people.  Sometimes it's ok to NOT be inspired and just go with one particular technique.  In the case of Michelle Lowe-Holder's A/W 09 collection, she has gone with smocking, and smocking only without needing to add a fancy inspiration strand to it.  With print experimentations as Michelle's speciality, she first produces variants of actual physical smocking on dresses and separates and then replicates the smocking pattern with a print. As opposed to the traditional forms of smocking, she's gone for smocking on
knitwear in softy softy Kleenex colours as well as black to add weight. The combination of pale blue and peach especially makes the smocking sing.   

Mlhaw91 Mlhaw92

Mlhaw93

Mlhaw94 Mlhaw95

Mlhaw96

Mlhaw97

Mlhaw98 Mlhaw99

Mlhaw910

13 comments

  7. Love this! I used to love the smocking on my dresses as a little girl – now I’ve found a grown up version!

  11. Those knitted/woven details are so great! I’m not so fond of the blue/beige/bronze outfit in the middle, but the others are great. Especially the dress at the bottom and the skirt in the third picture. I like the little jacket in the third picture as well.

Comments are closed.