Oh dear, rehearsals have started for the show I'm directing, and you can see how easily I begin to neglect my other avenues of creative expression! Three weeks away from the blog...hopefully I'll be able to keep up a little better from now on.
The apron seems to be making a comeback - to me it's a symbol of reclaimed femininity, domesticity as a source of yin-empowerment. My mother's generation had to set their femininity aside in order to be heard, acknowledged, and respected in the world of men. They had to fracture themselves somewhat - all grey flannel and pressed poplin at work, cotton and denim on the weekends to tend hastily to domestic tasks. I do not remember my mother in a dress, ever. She was working 60-hour weeks and traveling almost all the time - there was little time for "fussy" stylings. While I am grateful for the hard-won battles of the women's-libbers, I also feel it is my generation's dharma to come back into balance, honoring and integrating the yang-masculine and the yin-feminine energies within us. Oddly enough, I find this integration most visible in current fashion trends - lacy tops, flirty blouses and even dainty short dresses atop rough-and-tumble jeans and sexy heels. But inside as well, something is being reclaimed by us that, I hope, will not so easily be put down again.
I found my first adult apron at Anthropologie (a store that I love for its absolutely feminine take on even the most mundane clothing) a few months ago, and I wear it whenever I can. I plan to make a few aprons this year, to give to the women in my life. I hope they find their aprons imbued with the same soft power I have - the power to get done what needs to get done, without setting aside a little flounce and lace here and there.
What makes you feel your feminine power?
5 comments:
Aprons remind me of learning to cook with my Gram. She had those smock-type aprons with the big pockets and rick-rack edging. I think those aprons are one reason I love vintage print fabrics from the 50's.
What makes me feel my feminine power? Believe it or not, painting my toenails bright, obnoxious colors and wearing toe rings! Strange, but true.
I think aprons are so feminine! For some reason, I haven't found one that suits me...maybe because I don't cook all that often.
I feel feminine often!
A new feminine power that I'm enjoying is preparing for my wedding! Months ago, I was not embracing this soft, feminine, sensitive side...now I'm really owning it! The other night my guy and I were reading things to each other that we might want to use during out ceremony and I started to cry. It was beautiful...and a little foreign...but it just seems so right.
i love aprons, too. this photo of you is so sassy and sweet!!! i have been looking in thrift stores for the perfect apron for over a year and i think i'm going to have to go and get it and take a self portrait of me, too. what a great book that would be! a bunch of uber-strong women in aprons, showing that flip back to femininity! LOVE YOU.
That's a great apron, but will you actually do housework in it - or is it more of a fashion statement
I actually do housework in it a lot - not all the time yet, because I'm still not used to putting one on like my foremothers, but I'm getting there.
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