Keep it clean.

I would like to introduce you to a very well, rather forgotten piece of garment history. When we talk about clothing through the ages, we discuss dresses…, hats…., shoes…, socks…, adornments, (jewelry and lace) and our unmentionables. The garment however that we so woefully forget until we need it and Now it is to late to do us any good, is the wonderful, the ever changing, but ever so useful is the apron.

No I haven’t lost my mind. We really have forgotten it. I cheer when I see an actress put on an apron in a scene. Why do we need it? Or more correctly why has it survived so many centuries. From coverings of one’s skirt to some with covering of one’s whole outfit it had one purpose to keep one clean. Cloth though relatively inexpensive today was once one of the most expensive things someone could own. In a probate record of more than one of the original settlers to early New England a suit could be listed as 10 pounds. The average yearly income in England at the same time for someone of the middle class which the early settlers were, was about 20 to 40 pounds a year. If your clothing cost that much you would protect it too. In paintings it is very rare to find an apron on someone of the upper classes. In pictures/paintings of the middle and lower classes it is almost guaranteed you will see an apron. In some case even some on men. Bakers, blacksmiths and even the occasional carpenter or thatcher is seen with a scrap of cloth dangling at his hip. At work we liked to call them manprons.

David Teniers II 1610-1690 sharpening the stone... look aman wearingan apron

From cooking, gardening, and cleaning this fabric sometimes which was just a simple rectangle protected ones clothing from being spoiled and ruined by stains. A house wife could reach down and use it to pick up a hot frying pan or take a hot pot off of the fire. Though at my modern jobs I can’t use the apron to clean of my hands I have done it in my historical costumes. It doesn’t protect your clothing when you sit down but I have seen my dirty apron after a day at work. I am glad that it wasn’t on my wool skirts. Those are harder to clean.

Vanezo Campi Kitchen 1580
Love the detail of the woman in peaches apron. Two apron strings

So here is to the apron my you never be forgotten, I would like to stay clean.

Apron avalible for sale on my Etsy, Etsy.com/shop/ GrandmasTools

Dirt, if you are mother you know the pains, if you are child you well know the taste and if you are an apron congrats you did your job if you know dirt.