The cover of the new Piecework magazine features an apron. Aprons are Hot. Oprah featured these aprons recently. Daily Candy features these aprons. Is it a new domesticity? A longing to return to the "simpler" June Cleaver lifestyle? (That bitch was so swallowing valium!) How far back will we go?
With any luck, we will not turn back the clocks so far as to revive the apron "style show." There is a report in Piecework on the "style shows" of Evelina Grimes. She had a collection of aprons that audience members would model while she read poetry or history. For example, she would read the poem from the Statue of Liberty ("Give me your huddled masses yearning to breathe free...") while someone modeled her New York apron. She had aprons for all 50 states, several foreign countries, all stages of the lifecycle, and even one for Father's Day for dear old Dad. As I understand it, this was supposed to be some sort of entertainment. While you may think that these shows flourished in, say, the nineteenth century, people--I'm guessing women--attended these shows as late as 1988.
The only thing I can really compare them to are Charles Phoenix's slide shows--a sort of live cultural anthropology show. Only he's loving the kitsch factor. Grimes was earnest. And that is even more difficult for me to understand. (Even when I was a kid and I used to go tap-dance in the old folks homes (really) I used to think, "this is entertainment?") Her collection of handmade aprons now resides at the Vesterheim Norwegian-American Museum in Iowa. May they rest in peace.
3 comments:
Aprons are fantastic for doing a job, no doubt about it. But I get the feeling a lot of the new apron wearing isn't about keeping your clothes clean--as you point out those models aren't wearing them in a useful way. Even wearing them ironically is fine. I had a friend whose job was, as she saw it, part hostess and she wore this glitzy vintage apron as part of her outfit--black jersey, black skirt, black motorcycle boots, and too-little sequined apron. But it was an ironic statement. It's the ones who are reclaiming the apron who worry me. You know?
I read the Piecework article in the bookstore (nothing in that issue called out for me to buy it.)
These small aprons are hostess aprons. The hostess would take off her larger, now presumably dirtied apron and replace with one of these cute, little ones.
A friend and I did a presentation to our book group last year on 1950s cookbooks and she had a large collection of these aprons. We all wore one. Was fun!
I'm looking for more info on Evelina Grimes and found your post. I'm surprised at your disdain for her (although i shouldn't be considering your blog title). Do you realize she was in her 60's by the time she put on these shows? She was born in 1900. How (and why) would you expect her to be an ironic hipster dripping with detached contempt for her own creative efforts? Her shows WERE revolutionary, in their own way considering the time period. Too bad you can't see that.
Post a Comment