Back tie affair

Part armour, part second skin, the apron has survived thousands of years. It's likely one of our first items of workwear. It is now on runways too. What else can this piece of fabric be?

- Sukanya Datta

If one had to draw Jeremy Allen White in The Bear, the apron would be the key element (that and the hair, most likely).

It serves as part armour for him, and part second skin. It has played this role for centuries, indicating femininity, care and a homely meal upcoming. Or, conversely, welders, butchers and mechanics at work.

What else can an apron be?

That's a question that brought two academics together for a three-month residency titled 1:01 Aprons, at the Chelsea College of Arts (CCA) at University of the Arts London. Together, curators Carol Tulloch, a professor of dress, diaspora and transnationalism at CCA, and Judith Clark, a professor of fashion and museology at London College of Fashion, explored museum collections and archives to study the apron’s many lives.

What's to study; it’s an apron, one might say.

The truth is, it is so much more. Not only has the garment endured over thousands of years (more on that in a bit), it has served, during that time, as a marker of class, race and identity. Think of the blue aprons (and white head wraps) worn by enslaved African-Americans; or the leather ones worn by blacksmiths and butchers.

It remains, in its most enduring avatar, a symbol of domesticity.