Not Your Granny's Apron

The shorts-over-leggings look is a trend with staying power. But girls, honestly, it's getting old.

Wouldn't this darling apron, its satin ribbon tied in front, be so much cuter over black leggings or white, especially with a cropped leather jacket up top? Because honestly, there is no way this garment should stay tied to the stove.

New Ways with Old Lace: How to Restyle Vintage Separates

Every so often some fashion expert will declare that vintage is OVER, the 20+ year movement has finally run off its legs. Impossible, I say. There are simply too many ways to wear it, renew it, make it feel fresh--especially those pieces that are not mainline elements but instead played a supporting role in the past. Today's entry is about thinking these sideliners out of old roles and into new.

The January issue of British Vogue, in their essential-reading More Dash than Cash, featured the model above in a vintage petticoat worn as a shrug. Not a look every one of us can pull off--but a great way to rework an underrepresented and easy-to-source piece.

In the brilliant Zuburbia vintage blog (bookmark now if you love old clothes and great writing about them), Mary Kincaid recently highlighted a gorgeous bedjacket that would feel right at home on the street this spring.

My favorite has to be this example from Etsy vintage seller PranceandSwagger. Wear an old frilly apron as a capelet? Absolutely, especially when it looks this cute.

How to Wear Vintage Hostess Aprons

'Tis the season where even the most lightly domesticated among us begin to think seriously about hostessing.

And there is no better helper to moving into that mindset than an adorable party apron.

I resisted aprons for years. But given my love for delicate fabrics and cooking with hot oil, and an innate inability to do things slowly and with great care--the point doesn't need to be belabored. Sautéed silk is not a good look.

Once the mind is opened to aprons, the possibilities are as wide-ranging as fashion itself. Cute little gingham numbers for baking pies. Starched bibbed whites for channeling Julia Child. And my favorite of all, the frilly, frivolous, transluscent organdy and organza half-aprons--like those Betty Draper wore when she was still serving Don dinner on Mad Men. These latter truly are fit for company--showing off a lovely dress underneath while denoting one's status as Goddess of Hearth and Home.

If you can sew your own, pattern sources like the encyclopedic So Vintage Patterns offer some wonderful options, complete with illustrations showing how to most effectively wear your apron (think Dovima modeling the latest Dior).


Or, have a look at dedicated apron blogs like Apronista . . .

Or take a cruise around online sources. Ebay currently offers this charmer, among many others.



Aprons. If you're going to throw a party, go ahead and tie one on.

(photo at top from Woof Nanny at Flickr, many thanks! Vintage pattern center from So Vintage Patterns, thank you too!)