Fashion and the warm, fuzzy feelings of childhood tied up in the history of aprons will be explored Saturday when Fashion and the Automobile: An Exhibit in 10 Eras visits the Clinton-Macomb Public Library.
The Ties that Bind: A History of Aprons will be presented at 10 a.m. at the Clinton-Macomb Public Library South Branch, 35679 South Gratiot in Clinton Township. Attendees are encouraged to wear their favorite aprons to the tea event. For those who cannot make the program, which is already filled, check for future dates at fashionandtheautomobile.com/Home_Page.php
“It is fascinating, we go all the way back to Medieval times and bring people to the present day. We have aprons of various decades all over the room, hanging on a clothesline like they are drying in the wind. We have rare aprons, a beautiful one from Paris, France, World War I,” said Lynn Anderson, the fashion curator for Fashion and the Automobile.
The event will include a display of over 50 aprons and apron modeling. Those who wear aprons to the event are also often invited to stand up and tell the stories of their aprons, according to Anderson. Discussion will focus on the history of aprons, as well as their association with food preparation and changes through the decades, according to Anderson.
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Fashion and the Automobile: An Exhibit in 10 Eras debuted in October 2010 at the Anton Art Center in Mount Clemens. Presented by curators Victoria Mobley, Anderson and Elaine Vermeersch, Fashion and the Automobile highlights changes in popular culture developed by the evolution of the car. The group also hosts a variety of history and fashion oriented programs including Fashions of the Jazz Age, Fashions of “Downton Abbey” Tea, and Crinolines and Classics: Those Fabulous Fifties. The program for The Ties That Bind: The History of Aprons first began in 2015 as a presentation at Villa Bella retirement community in Clinton Township, according to Anderson.
“It came out of a desire with Fashion and the Automobile. We talk about fashion and automobile design but there is a subculture too about how women protected their clothing over the years and we started to delve into it. There’s fascinating information about where the apron came from and how it was derived, and so we decided to create a special program just on the history of aprons,” Anderson said.
Aprons serve not just as a historical fashion piece, but also as a symbol of a simpler time for many in the Baby Boomer generation, who grew up with moms, grandmothers or even TV show influences wearing aprons, according to Anderson.
“There’s the warmth that came with the apron into my generation, the Baby Boomer generation. It meant love, it meant a mother’s love, a grandmother’s love. All the memories of grandmothers walking around with aprons on, drying tears with aprons…That is a connection, a connotation that makes aprons so enduring today,” Anderson said.
Aprons are also recently experiencing a comeback in popularity, according to Anderson.
“We’re seeing a resurgence of it. Lots of ladies are throwing them on as they are cooking. It was thought this died at the end of the last century, but we’re starting to see it come back,” Anderson said. “Area thrift stores and clothing stores, like Max and Ollie’s in Mount Clemens, are selling aprons like you can’t believe.”
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