Aprons: Once ousted as symbols of oppression, they are back with sass and attitude

Star Tribune (Minneapolis) (MCT) - Rachel Hart remembers her mother always shooing her from the kitchen, making sure she went to college, supporting her work in sales and marketing, applauding her aspiration to be a novelist. Today, Hart earns a living selling aprons that she makes of taffeta and silk, trimmed with rhinestones and tassels.

"My mom just thinks this is so funny," said Hart, 36, who sews her sexy Aprons of Elegance in her home in Duluth, Minn. "The kitchen became the forbidden fruit that also enticed."

Carly Stipe loves it when people buy her aprons made of duct tape and display them as art _ as, frankly, she first intended. But actually wearing them while cooking is cool, too. "I think the apron works to slow us down and remind us to get grounded because we're just zooming through life," said Stipe, who crafts aprons in her basement in St. Paul, Minn.

The apron is experiencing a revival of sorts, an amalgam of feminism, femininity and function. While the apron has been around as long as soup has sloshed, it moved from drab broadcloth to a cross-stitched sash of domestic honor in the 1950s. Then Gloria Steinem trumped June Cleaver, only to be trumped by Martha Stewart. And here we are again, tying one on.

At a fabric shop in Chanhassen, Minn., called the Sampler, patterns for aprons "have become very, very popular," said owner Karen Plocher, "especially the retro type, the aprons that our mothers or grandmothers used to wear." Fabrics printed with scenes from "I Love Lucy" or "The Wizard of Oz" prime the creative pump.

"We're wanting to attract younger people to sewing, and by younger I mean 40 and under," she said. "An apron is a good place to start."

At the Textile Center in Minneapolis, several artists, including Stipe, display their take on the venerated panel. Wendy Richardson scouts out vintage aprons, whether made of organza or trimmed in rick-rack, and overdyes them for a contemporary effect. Diane Muse takes sensible fabrics and silkscreens retro images of percolators and Sunbeam mixers onto them.

The range of styles reflects how aprons served different purposes. Stipe remembers being fascinated by her grandmother's transition, "to see her take off her 'I've been cooking all day' apron and put on her 'company is here' apron."

HOSTESS WITH THE MOSTEST

Hart's fanciest aprons are unabashedly sensuous, even over the top. On her Web site, www.apron-elegance.com, one look at her brocaded Mrs. Robinson model and you hear the clink of a highball glass. The Rosarrrrita begs for a clenched rose between carmine lips. With many prices ranging from $100 to $250, these aren't for those nights when you're deep-frying corn dogs.

Her interest in more retro designs stemmed from doing more entertaining at home but finding only aprons that were, well, frumpy. "So I ordered patterns off eBay from the 1940s," Hart said. But when she opened them, they looked like children's clothes. "Everyone was about 20 pounds lighter back then," she said. She resized them and quickly got fancy. "More bling, bling, bling!"

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That was 2˝ years ago. Today, she also sells cotton aprons you can wear while actually cooking, and a popular line made of terrycloth for "super-messy cooks like me."

In keeping with her love of classier times, she also packs her aprons in lots of tissue paper in fabric boxes _ her reaction to an "everything-made-in-China world," she said. "I try to re-create that feeling of old dress shops where the boxes were as pretty as the item that was made for you."

Stipe's aprons of duct tape sprang from her interest in making garments from everyday materials such as dollar bills, marbles and magnets. While on a run to Seven Corners Hardware in St. Paul, Minn, for goods to make a Halloween costume, she discovered brightly colored duct tape.

As the mother of three young children, she found the medium perfect because it was ready to use. "Plus I like the idea of taking an everyday item and making it beautiful, as well," she said. (Her website is www.carlystipe.com.) "I have good thoughts about aprons because they have a necessariness _ they identify that things might get messy, but you're taking care of your clothing. You're responsible.

"For all the retro buzz, the fact is that protective aprons were real time-savers," Stipe said, "back when washing was a real chore with wringer washers, where today we just push a button."

A PROUD UNIFORM

Dorothy Sauber, who died earlier this year, was known for her collection of more than 500 aprons, which were the centerpiece of an exhibit at the Hennepin History Museum in 2005. Sauber, who taught women's studies at Anoka-Ramsey Community College, once described women and their aprons as representing "kind of a dualism: On one hand they may have been slaves to the stove, but on the other hand they took such care in making the aprons, they show such a love of beauty."

During World War II, the apron even took on the trappings of a uniform. The National Live Stock and Meat Board wrote in its "Victory Meat Extenders" that "the American homemaker has an important part to play in the war effort. Her uniform is her kitchen apron and she may wear it proudly."

In February, the Ironworld Discovery Center in Chisholm, Minn., will host "The Apron Chronicles: A Patchwork of American Recollections," a traveling exhibit of 200 vintage aprons with accompanying photos and text. (For updates, go to www.ironworld.com.)

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Whether you don an apron as a fashion accessory or tie one on without thinking, aprons appear destined to remain a symbol of service, if not subservience. At the recent American Music Awards, Queen Latifah rapped over the melody of Alicia Keyes' hit, "Superwoman," proclaiming, "history in the makin.' And now they realize, it was a cape, not an apron."

Hmm. As everyone who feeds their loved ones knows, it's one and the same.

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© 2008, Star Tribune (Minneapolis)