DEBORAH CROMBIE: I've been thinking a lot about my mom lately, prompted in part, I think, by our discussion earlier this week about growing up in a tea or coffee household. In the image that immediately comes to mind of my mom in the kitchen, brewing her perocolater coffee, she is wearing a half apron made from a terrycloth dish towel. She made these herself, and I remember them as being striped in the ugliest colors imaginable, perhaps gray, brown, and orange together, with the waistband and ties made from whatever cotton scraps must have been handy. She would not do anything in the kitchen without the everpresent apron.
My mom's aprons did NOT look like this! Nor did she ever serve my dad tea from a teapot.
I also thought of mom and her aprons when I was cooking the other night--without an apron, as usual--and splashed a big spot of hot grease on my thigh. Ouch, and a good thing I was wearing old pants.
How did I not aquire this very practical apron habit from my mom and grandmother (who preferred the pinafore type apron with a bib)? Partly because I am a slob when home and wear such ratty clothes that a spill or a splash is not a disaster, and partly, I think, because aprons had gone out of style by the time I was beginning to cook in my own kitchen.
Aprons have been worn as far back as the 1300s, and the name is thought to have come from the French word napron, "a small piece of cloth." Here's a lovely painting from the French artist Leon Bonvin, circa 1862.
The 1950S and 60s were the heyday of aprons in the US, when ads and TV moms always featured a woman wearing an apron. (June Cleaver, anyone?)
But if the advent of feminism, more casual clothes, and women who worked sounded a death knell for the trusty garmet, it is apparently having a resurgence. Etsy is awash in aprons, vintage and new, and they pop up in upmarket clothing lines, too.
I do remember to put on an apron when I'm cooking for company--therefore wearing nicer clothes! Here's my favorite, from Anthropologie. Who could resist? (It does have to be ironed, unfortunately, as you can tell from my not very professional ironing job...)
How about it, Reddies? Do you have an apron handy in your kitchen?
Of course I have an apron handy in my kitchen. Do I wear it? Of course not [mostly, I think, because it never become a habit and I usually don't think about putting it on . . . . ]
ReplyDeleteI remember wanting one when I was reading Little House books - my mom didn’t have one. Then having to get one for home ec in the 80s. They weren’t very popular at that time, so I remember getting a very ugly pinafore style, the only one I could find at Kmart. Now I have a couple pretty ones hanging in the closet that are rarely used because I a) rarely cook and b) also wear ratty clothes when I do.
ReplyDeleteJust watched “with love, Meghan “ on Netflix and she put on an apron when cooking with Alice Waters.
ReplyDeleteEveryone in my family wears aprons when baking or cooking. I didn’t think about it until you mentioned people wearing aprons. It seems to have gone out of style?
I never used to, but after splattering several of my favorite casual-but-suitable-for-errands shirts with grease, creating spots that won't wash out, I bought a white apron with a bib. And yes, I do wear it, although only when sauteing. I've even considered buying one of those chef's coats to further protect me when I'm being sloppy. But since I'm far, far from being a chef, the idea seems ludicrous.
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