A Pini for Them
If you cook then you probably have one and it might surprise you that it has a history at all, yet it does. Many people would be hard pressed to believe that they’re considered a symbol of popular culture but in fact they are! I have one, you have one, your mother, sister, every real bloke has one. They’re one of the most practical things a person could ever own.
“The apron came about because of practical necessity. In years gone by, people didn’t have the luxury of owning a large wardrobe. Washing and drying clothing was not done on a frequent basis, so aprons served the practical purpose of covering up the dress underneath to protect it from soiling. This made washing much easier.
The apron could be washed every couple of days but the dress or clothing underneath didn’t have to be washed as often, perhaps maybe just once a week. Later they began serving a decorative purpose too, not only housewives wore aprons but school teachers, children, shop-keepers, and secretaries wore different styles of aprons over their clothing every day.
In the 1920’s and ’30’s aprons followed the silhouette of the dress, they were long with no waist line. By the 1940’s, aprons gained a cinched waistline and were often trimmed with rick-rack, buttons and pockets of contrasting color. Many aprons were made from feed cloth. Feed cloth was a heavier fabric and was used as a sack to put seed or four in by farmers.
There was no wasting back then because when the sacks were empty the feedsack fabric was used for quilts and aprons. In fact, when the apron had ‘seen its day’ and was ready to be tossed the remaining best parts were cut out and used for quilts.
The 1950’s brought out the half-aprons of highly starched cotton, feed sack and sheer (a see-through fabric) trimmed with lace for special occasions. Also two-piece aprons and short smocks of bright cotton prints for every day use were popular. At one point, aprons were a serious fashion element not just an after-thought cover-up!
Today the more rugged utilitarian aprons are still in use, usually in commercial kitchens or around the great New Zealand BBQ. The old-fashioned pretty cotton ones are hard to find. The modern aprons are available in both printed and hand stitched designs in a dizzy flurry of appealing color.
There’s a lovely story about “the heroic efforts of William Frederick Hansen during World War I that came to light after a museum was opened to pay tribute to Kiwi tunnellers who toiled for France’s freedom. William Hansen was selected in 1916 to be a member of the New Zealand Tunnelling Company to link a vast underground city of tunnels from the French town of Arras to beyond the German lines.
About 20,000 soldiers poured through the tunnels, emerging to attack the surprised Germans from behind. When he contracted tuberculosis in 1917 and was sent to Oatlands Hospital in England to recuperate, he turned his Kiwi ingenuity to making temporary wooden legs for wounded soldiers and doing embroidery.
His neice says a story passed down the family maintains that Queen Mary visited the hospital and wanted to buy a black satin apron on which he had embroidered a basket of roses, but he said he had already told his mother he was making it for her. The apron is now on display at Te Papa, the Museum of New Zealand, Tongarewa in Wellington.”
These days our kitchens are filled to overflowing with gizmos and gadgets that snap, crack and pop but to me, whether it’s a square or rectangular, that little piece of cloth is one of thee most practical ‘stay-at-homes’ you’re ever likely to have, pure and simple, they’ll get you out of a mess every time. Gotta love that!
