The smokkr is the most iconical of the garments in the Viking age woman’s clothing.. The tortoise brooches belonging to the smokkr are even used to identify Scandinavian women in settlements abroad, e.g. in Russia. The smokkr is also the Viking age garment we know most about, after the shoes.

Despite this, the smokkr is the garment surrounded by the most misunderstandings. You can still see reconstruktions of the smokkr which simply don’t fit with the available sources. There are absolutely variations of the smokkr, but there are also traits which are common to all the known finds. Today I will bring up the common parts together with the most simple version of the smokkr, and then we cand continue with another version tomorrow.

What is common for all remains of smokks, and they are many, is that the are held up with two pairs of straps and two tortoise brooches (in very few finds one or both of the tortoise brooches have been replaced with some other type of brooch, but I think that should be counted as rare exceptions to the rule). The straps consist of narrow strips of fabric which has been folded several times and sewn together into a narrow strap, typically around one centimeter wide. They are often made of linen and if they are made of wool it is normally tabby. The smokkr in itself is typically made of wool in broken diamond twill or a tabby which has a much denser warp than weft. The straps are short at the front and are only visible a few centimeters above the upper edge of the smokkr, while the straps at the back are long enough to reach over the shoulders. The picture to the right shows how it looked. In som cases there are more loops in the tortoise brooches than necessary for a smokkr. In some cases that is because the woman wore two smokks above each other, in other cases straps have been used to hang utensils from the brooches and some straps are without known explanation.

Another common trait among all known finds of smokks is that there is nowhere any find of a fabric corner under the tortoise brooches. This means that the smokkr cannot have been open at the front. On the contrary, there are several finds showing that one and the same piece of fabrics reached all the way between the brooches and beyond. There are also no finds of fabric corners outside of the brooches but the upper edge continues to the sides. In at least two cases there is a seam a few centimeters outside of a tortoise brooch. In the only case we have of a back of a smokkr (from Hedeby) it looks about the same, but here there seems to have been a seam at the back and one a little behind the armpit. Together these finds support the interpretation that the smokkr was sewn together all the way around the body. Practical tests have also shown that with the heavy tortoise brooches common at least during the 900s, the only practical smokkr sits smugly around the upper edge and the straps are also of the exactly correct length to reach above the shoulders and to the brooches.

In addition to this we have to use depictions and finds of sarks to try to understand how long and wide the smokkr could have been. Some finds of sarks indicate that the smokkr was shorter than the sark and there are also depictions showing what can be interpreted as a shorter smokkr (or possibly tunic) worn above a goffered sark. Other finds of sarks indicate that they were hidden underneath the smokkr and there are also depictions showing what could be smokks reaching to the feet. The width could also vary, but it at least seems like they were comfortable to walk in.

The profile on depictions of women usually shows a straight silhouette and it does not look like women used to wear anything around the waist. That fits with archaeological finds where belt buckles are very rare in women’s graves. The back from Hedeby has a narrow fitting seam which shows that some smokks could have been slightly shaped at the waist.

You can buy patterns for smokks here: Sark and Smokkr