THE SMOCK

Waipa Post, Volume 37, Issue 2216, 29 September 1928, Page 7

THE SMOCK

SYMBOL OF THE WOMAN AT WORK. To women the smock has become what the overall is to men—the symbol of toil, says the New York Times. The first smock stood for work, when it marked the trudging peasant of old England on his way to and from the fie,ld. But when an artist witlh an eye for the picturesque decided to adopt the garb, it took on a Bohemian air, grouped with tarn o' shanter, palette, and brush. More recently the workaday world has laid claim to the smock. Appear-, ing in office protecting the stenographer's dainty gown, behind the counter in almos,t any sort of shop, even tending machines in factories, it is now generally accepted as the trade mark of the woman worker. It is coming also to have a peculiar place in the home. One smock-clad young woman who stands behind the smock counter of a metropolitan store is' of the opinion that many of her customers know nothing about paints in tiubes and camel's hair brushes. Their art contacts, she gathers, consist of litltle more than an annual pilgrimage with the local woman's club to the Metropolitan Museum. They are evidently not of the business world either, for all their budget talk. The smocks these women buy are to be associated with carrots and mops. From time immemorial the apron has served the housekeeper as the token of her craft, but now the apron is yielding to the smock even in the kitchen. The change is not merely a turn of fashion, according to students of feminine psychology. The smock in the kitchen, has a deeper significance. Some look on it as an off-shoot of the world of art. When the art department of a metropolitan shop went in for home decoration and patented aids to amateur painters, homemakers naturally gathered there to tint lamp shades and stencil scarves. Nearby they noticed .a display of smocks, put out to attract toilers in the studios. But were not they, too, artists after a fashion, and were not their homes studioa? Another reason for the smock in place of the apron is- advanced. The woman who has been to business before settling down to become a housekeeper likes a touch of the old life about her, and so she keeps to the uniform, cultivating the feeling that she is still earning her living, though on a different job. The woman who has never drawn a pay cheque also likes to give an air of professionalism to domesticity. The smock, she thinks, lends a certain dignity to housework. The housekeeper who follows the new order, even if not given to analysis, knows that the garment appeals to her, being comfortable and handy with a desired dash of style; and so it finds its nail in the broom closet.