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Vintage-inspired aprons should come with a warning label: This garment increases the risk of cooking, baking, and other exploits of domestic prowess. Hotel Collection Towels
Vintage aprons have surged in popularity as the nation becomes more interested in food, cooking, and quality time amid an economic downturn.
The interesting thing about an apron is it kind of fits with what ’ s happening with the fascination of cooking, said Susan Kaiser, a professor of textiles, clothing and women and gender studies at the University of California, Davis. “ It is that interface between the body and cooking and fashion and food. ”
In a time when our lives are bombarded with media messages, cell phones, a flailing economy, and the feel that things are transient, there ’ s a desire to go back to things that have roots, she said.
“ It ’ s the search for authenticity, what ’ s real and genuine , ” the woman explained .
Vintage-look aprons, part of a larger trend of retro-styled clothing and textiles, can be found in boutiques, kitchen stores, food festivals and farmers markets throughout America , and apron patterns and retro textiles abound both in fabric stores and online.
Sandra Skellenger, a retired mail carrier who has her own vintage-inspired apron business, Aprons by Mema, said the apron patterns are such a hot item in Sacramento-area fabric stores that they are often hard to find.
Skellenger uses several vintage patterns, as well as her own, to make her intricate Donna Reed -style aprons, which are sold online at Taylor ’ s Market, which is owned by daughter and son-in-law Kathleen and Danny Johnson.
Skellenger began making aprons last year, after the avid quilter ’ s relatives indicated they didn’t need more quilts for Christmas that year.
“ They said , ‘ We ’ re about quilted out, Mom , ’” Skellenger said, laughing at the memory. “ I just wanted to do something different. ”
Skellenger, 62, made aprons for her seven granddaughters and four daughters and daughters-in-law, using different fabrics and styles to suit their personalities.
The aprons were an instant hit.
“ They all put them on and wore them all day while we were making Christmas dinner, ” she said.
Skellenger hasn ’ t stopped sewing aprons since, even carting along her sewing machine, fabric and supplies on camping trips in the north ern state.
While her husband and male relatives go out fishing on their boat, Skellenger and the other two wives spend happy hours in a house like tent with power supplied by a generator, their sewing machines humming alongside the chirping crickets and rustling leaves.
“ It ’ s just fun, something I can share with them, ” she said. “ We make quilts, aprons, whatever someone wants to work on. ”
Her apron-making hobby has garnered quite a following.
Taylor sells about 10 to 15 aprons each month, Kathleen Johnson said.
The aprons, made from 100 percent cotton and machine washable and dryer safe, sell for around $40 each.
“ They ’ re a little on the expensive side, but she makes them so beautifully — people see that and appreciate it right away ,” Johnson said.
The aprons ’ appeal doesn ’ t seem to fit just one demographic. Teenage girls and young women also are snapping up the retro aprons.
Claire Steele, owner of Berkeley-based Jessie Steele, a vintage apron business, said their popularity plays off the increasing popularity of vintage fashion — courtesy of shows like AMC’s “ Mad Men ” — and of food and entertaining.
“ For younger generations, it ’ s becoming more and more important to spend time with friends and family and cook at home, ” Steele said.
The company is named for Steele ’ s great-grandmother, who was constantly cooking and always wore an apron.
“ She always made you feel at home, ” Steele said. “ That ’ s the idea of these aprons — making people feel comfortable and enjoying being the hostess. ”
The memories evoked by vintage-inspired aprons also seem to aid in their popularity.
Theresa Balzer, who owns Retro-Fit Aprons in San Luis Obispo, sells about 1,400 aprons a year at street fairs, in boutiques and online.
“ People are tickled when they see them, ” she said. “ Some people will come and just stand and stare. — You can see it just hit them really hard. ”
One young woman ’ s reaction to the retro aprons has become a fond memory for Balzer.
“ She chose one of the aprons and paid for it, and she was holding it next to her heart, ” Balzer said. “ She said ‘ Now maybe I can channel my Nanna. ’ It was so sweet. ”
They were popular in the ‘ 50s when women were sewing aprons with fun fabrics and flounces. But in the ‘ 60s they went away … for decades, says Ellyn Anne Geisel, author of “ The Apron Book: Making, Wearing, and Sharing a Bit of Cloth and Comfort . ”
“ They didn ’ t just go away, they were thrown away ,” Geisel said in a phone interview from her Colorado home. “ They were considered symbols of holding working women back. ”
Enter the 1990s, when celeb chefs on the Food Network sort of brought back aprons. They were in solid colors, often white, and looked like professional bibs.
But hit the stores today and you ’ ll see that the frills are back.
“ They ’ ve made the transition from domestic armor to domestic couture, ” Geisel said. “ Aprons have emerged as smart wear, making that transition from work to home and saving your good clothes again in the process. ”
Geisel thinks the popularity of the apron is on the rise. An apron symbolizes a simpler time of doing more with less, therefore eating at home more, which resonates with people in this current economy.
And aprons tug on the heart strings. They remind us of the women in our lives who are now gone but prepared special recipes and made family get-togethers special.
The apron, once a garment worn mostly by housewives in the kitchen, has been updated as a fashion accessory for today ’ s busy women.
“ This has been the year of the hostess, ” said Elizabeth Shokin, a Nashville-based entrepreneur whose company, Haute Hostess Aprons, produces a line of luxury aprons.
“ Women are enjoying entertaining at home again, so we ’ re going back to the time when hosts and hostesses were polished and dressed up at home while giving incredible dinner parties instead of having only cocktail parties, ” she said.
Ms. Shokin, 50, who has been a luxury-event planner for seven years, said she saw a need for luxury aprons.
“ I kept seeing aprons at these parties, but the aprons were the kind you cooked in. I wanted the hostesses to have aprons that looked more like a cocktail dress, ” she said.
On the market for nearly a year, the aprons, which cost from $100 to $200, are selling well, Ms. Shokin said. “ They are very sophisticated, glamorous and fun. ”
Ms. Hill, 28, said bib aprons with big pockets are her store ’ s best-selling varieties.
“ We sell more to women, and we sell the most aprons around Mother’s Day and Christmas, ” she said. “ We definitely see that on Mother’s Day, people buy the ones that remind them of aprons in the 1950s. ”
Ms. Shokin and Ms. Hill said they wear aprons. Ms. Shokin prefers updated styles, while Ms. Hill chooses the retro look.
“ I wear an apron when I cook , because I grew up with my great-grandmother, and she always wore an apron, ” Ms. Hill said.
It was a grandmother who inspired Ms. Shokin as well.
“ I wanted to produce my grandmother’s apron, which I call the ‘ Give Me Sugar ’ apron, which was not functional but purely for decoration, ” she said. “ It’s the most popular one I sell. ” Her handmade aprons were included in the goody bags given to women at the most recent Academy Awards ceremony, she said.
“Aprons” also are popular with gardeners, said Katherine Roberts, co-owner of Susanna ’ s, a designer fashion boutique in Riverview.
Throughout the month of May, Susanna ’ s is holding a trunk show of Hable Construction aprons.
“ They ’ re completely practical, fun and cute, ” she said, noting that the aprons, which tie around the waist, have useful pockets for gardening utensils and cell phones. Each sells for about $65.
Barbara Dawkins, admissions and public relations director at St. Nicholas School in Chattanooga, wears aprons on a daily basis. She also collects them.
“ My grandmother and mother wore aprons for as long as I can remember, ” she said. “ I can’t tell you how many times I saw my grandmother walking out of her garden carrying tomatoes and squash in her apron.
“ My mother told me that as a child she remembers her mother sewing together flour and tobacco cloth bags into aprons and quilts, ” Ms. Dawkins said.
Crediting her love of aprons to heritage, Ms. Dawkins, 61, said she has a keen appreciation for them. “There’s nothing like putting on an old fashioned apron , or even a new one. ”
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