Jacket or Smock?

[Billy-o]

This is a smock, DPM Gabardine, buttons up the front. But that old geezer above in the farmer's shirt wihtout buttons is also wearing a smock

It is called a smock because it is a garment that goes over and protects you other clothes when you are doing grubby jobs like crawling around in hedges, for whatever purpose

I'd say cagoule or cag to describe a pull-over type of weather proof jacket.

To add more fun the Services often insist on referring to as a shirt or blouse what ordinary mortals would call a jacket

 

[Paul_B]

I am smockered by your verbal ambiance!

English is a Germanic language, so we could expect a bit order and precision......

/

Just been reading up on the origins of English. Angelic and Frisian languages were very close or close to the same. Old Saxton aka old low German were in contact with anglo-frisian and they could probably understand each other. I believe the Polish and Czech can understand each other today in a similar way and I know an Italian and French speaker understanding each other although they're further apart.

Slightly further along the line angelic separated from germanic languages and Frisian which took on more germanic characteristics. Since this separation we got influences from norse and Norman French.

All interesting but going back further all these languages supposedly come from a further back source. How far back do you go when looking at where you come from?

What English is now and what it will become is so distinct from germanic and Frisian languages that one can't understand the other. Perhaps if we still could there wouldn't be all the strife that's happened through the ages and it's happening with Brexit now.

Good summary of smock vs jacket pro's and cons. I didn't spot the answer to the OP's question in the thread hence my reminder about it.

 

[Janne]

Czechs, Poles, Slovenes, Slovaks can understand each other if they speak slowly and pronounce properly.
The situation becomes a little bit more interesting if we realize that there used to be several distinct languages in each of those countries.
My mom was born a Austria into an Austrian-Hungarian family, but she and her dad got stuck in Moravia ( eastern part of todays Czech Rep) at the end of WW2 because the Russkies did not allow people getting back home. Conquer by division.
So she spoke Mahrish in addition to Austrian-German ( and a few chosen swear words in Hungarian.)
Then when she moved to Czech speaking area she had to learn to speak and write 'proper Czech' because the Czechs always thought ( think?) that the Moravians are backwards country bumpkins.

I think there are something like 10 to 13 West Slavic languages that are inter understandable.
Two of them in Eastern Germany.
Upper and Lower Sorbian.

Ethnic coherent areas were chopped up and mixed into sovereign countries by the winning side after WW1. To weaken the countries by internal cultural problems so the own two winning countries got more powerful.

I do not though know what any western Slavic call a Smock!
But I know their traditional men's shirt was designed like a parka, but without the hood.

 

[Billy-o]

This is a real smock. Traditional Shepherds Smock from West England. It's called a Smock because the stye of embroidery was called smocking, it was not just decorative as it allowed the panels to stretch

Do you think it might be a chickenegg, bob, and that the stitching was called smocking because it appeared on a smock

The smocking can be seen to have remained culturally significant if only because of its persistence in the cartoon image of the 70s somerset farmer, hatted, straw between the teeth, filled up with cider and with three crosses on his smock.

 

[Janne]

1970's?

Wow...

Looks like a Hippy....

These days I guess they would be called Rain Forest, Pink Bird or sumting....

 

[Greg]

[QUOTE="Janne, post: 1874464,

Buttoned jacket / parka ?
Do they still exist?

If you lose a button it is not the whole world.
Not as good wind protection as a zip.[/QUOTE]

They are just as windproof when they have a double baffle closure.

 

[Tiley]

The word smok appeared in the English language in about 1300 and referred to a woman's undergarment or chemise. The O.E.D. defines it as "a loose shirtlike garment with the upper part closely gathered in smocking; a loose overall, especially a field-labourer's outer linen garment."

Jacket appears in about 1451 and is borrowed from the Middle French word jaquet, diminutive of Old French jaque - a kind of tunic in turn from jacques, a nickname given to the French peasant in the 1300s.

Time and technology have blurred the original meanings with closures, fabrics and utilisation of the respective garments. They've added layers of further complication with terms like anorak, which first appeared in common usage in English in 1924 and parka which was borrowed from Aleut in about 1813.

Perhaps nowadays, we think of a smock as something with a close-able opening that comes part way down the front of a garment, whereas a jacket is a short garment, opened down its entire length? 'Anorak' was originally used to describe an arctic jacket, often with a hood and a 'parka' was a warm, weatherproof coat with a hood, often fur-trimmed but how should they be described today?

At the end of the day, does it really matter? Fjallraven seem to think it doesn't and maybe we should take a lead from them. As long as your outer garment keep out the elements and keeps you warm, does it really matter whether you pull it over your head or on to your arms, zip it up or button it closed, whether it has a hood and pockets or not...? Choice can be both interesting and dangerous: interesting for its variety; dangerous for the confusion it causes!

 

[Greg]

To cut through all the arguements / discussions of what is what.. The OP asked for the your reasons for choosing what you wear... So for simplicity..

Fully zipped garment
Or
No / half zipped garment

for usage outdoors in a "Bushcraft type environment"

What are your personal choices and why?

PS... I know some of the responses have already answered this question

 

[Paul_B]

I have stay I have for all activities from walking round the shops on a wet day to hillwalking all seasons. I have a full zip jacket but I don't like it because I don't like hard shell layers but it works if paired with waterproof trousers on a wet day I can cope with the rain. I take it off when it stops raining so full zip is easier but half zip wouldn't stop me taking it off. There's more mainstream full zip jackets though so it's easier and cheaper to get one of those ime. Both styles work for intended use.

 

[Erbswurst]

Full length zipper jackets are mainstream, because most people want this, because they are useful in most conditions.

If you watch the temperatures during the day, you will understand, why it is very helpful to use a full length closure.

On top comes, if you are hiking, that the muscles produce on different ways in different speed different heat.

The result is that I often walk in temperatures around 0*C in the shadow, what usually means around 6*C in the sun, in T-Shirt and open button shirt, open fleece jacket and open outer garment made from cotton or breathable waterproof.

When I stop, I close it usually after 5 minutes, after the moisture left the clothing.

This active temperature and insolation management is necessary if you are hiking.
That's why I recommend to choose every layer over the T-shirt with the option to open it in the full length.

 

[Broch]

In the UK - Bushcrafters use them because Uncle Ray used one so it must be good (not).

I used to use an 'over the head' outer garment in the early seventies when backpacking; now I much prefer the flexibility of a zipped outer garment that allows you to get to inner pockets and take it off without pulling your other layers half way up your back!

 

[C_Claycomb]

I have a number of over the head outer garments, four of which were sold by Paramo, who referred to them as smocks, two water proof, one wind proof and one insulated. I also have a number of coats and jackets with full length zips, single and two way.

There is no doubt that having just a half length front zip gives a lighter weight garment than having a full length zip, but I am not a fan of over-the-head and would much rather have a two way front zip. The ventilation is better, they tend to have what I think are more useful pockets (which do tend to add weight) and are much easier to get into and out of.

 

[Billy-o]

Oh, tell us more about the Paramos ... I am getting close to committing to pay for one and am always in search of opinion.

 

[hog]

Smock

Smock

 

[Broch]

Smock

Nah, ….. that's a hoodie