 |
Text by Darci Smith •
Photography by Borella & Company
Nary a week goes by that Ellynanne giesel doesn’t step out her front door to
find a package, simply addressed to “Apron Lady, Pueblo, Colorado,” leaning
against the slender pole of her mailbox. “My heart quickens,” she says, because
she knows that inside is a piece of someone’s past: an apron lovingly wrapped in
tissue, perhaps with a note about (or photograph of) the woman who once wore it
tucked neatly in a pocket. EllynAnne bought her first apron eight years ago.
“I found it in an antique store and paid for it with pocket change,” she
recalls. It was the beginning of a beautiful friendship. “An apron speaks,” she
says. “The spirit of the person who sewed or wore it is imbued in the fabric,
within those threads.”
Pretty Practical
Aprons fall into three categories: workday, everyday,
and entertaining, EllynAnne says. Cheerful, pretty aprons, like the one marked (a)
were domestic armor for daily chores. (b) The flirty, extra-long sash on
this frivolous berry apron ties into a bouffant bow.
Ellynanne shares stories about her aprons in Apron Chronicles: A Patchwork
of American Recollections. The traveling exhibit, managed by the Women’s
Museum of Texas, features 155 vintage aprons, plus photographs and oral
histories that help bring the textiles to life. During the 1960s and ‘70s,
aprons came to symbolize oppression to some feminists. EllynAnne has always
disagreed with that point of view. “Aprons connect one generation of women to
the next,“ she says. “They don’t hold us back; they take us back. For women who
recall a person who wore one, an apron is a memory trigger that evokes
recollections and storytelling.”
vintage verve
Few aprons are sewn from somber fabrics. Gingham was popular in
the 1950s, with rickrack used extensively for hems, borders, and pocket edges.
Souvenir items, like the California apron (c), have a high kitsch factor, and
fetch a higher price.
Ties to the Past page
1 |
2
archive »
|
