Article excerpted from stylebubble.co.uk
“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 your 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 F/W 09 collection, she has gone with smocking, without needing to add a fancy inspirational strand to it. With the print experimentations that are Michelle’s speciality, she first produces variants of actual physical smocking on dresses and separates, then replicates the smocking pattern with a print. As opposed to the traditional forms of smocking, she’s gone for smocking on knitwear in soft Kleenex colours as well as black to add weight. The combination of pale blue and peach especially makes the smocking sing.
