Skirt Essay #3 Skirty Genealogy:Rick-Rack and Roses

A friend likes to keep up with the latest and sheikest crafts projects on the market. What is gaining the most popularity is the apron, sans the high heels, vacuum and eight inch strand of pearls. OUCH!

Aside: Forgive me; that would be a ten inch strand of individually selected pearls. Well, maybe the Joan Cleaver look will come back in style; however I think the heat this summer may prevent the cinched waist and voluminous petticoats. A very catty friend told me a joke about Joan Cleaver, the mom on “Leave it to Beaver”. It was something about what men *really* want in a wife, or personal home assistant. It was that when they come home they want a woman vacuuming in stiletto heels , wrapped in an apron, who is willing to receive a pearl necklace after dictation. My eyes, ears and fingertips are a little too delicate to type a further explanation in detail.

Aprons are another item on the list for off the rack ready-to-wear Masonic lines of dressing. After doing a little web research and remembering drawings, the apron is a staple in formal Masonic, maybe even Freemasonry, wear. It symbolizes the weave of grape leaves {or was it oak leaves?} that Adam and Eve dressed themselves with when realizing their nakedness. So, an apron as a symbol of shame is one interpretation. Here are a few others: The apron as a symbol of self-assertiveness in creation or the apron as protection against the “evil eye” or irrespective eye. Personally speaking, I think of kitchen cleaning in an apron and maybe just maybe, still trying to feel feminine while spackling to patch a wall.

The neat thing with this friend, after discussing what embellishments to use to help an apron to sell, she commented that the numbers of Eastern Stars, the female counterpart of Masonic teaching, were dwindling in number and she intended to apply. It is great to see sparkle in a friends eyes when they talk of something that fascinates and inspires them. Dare I laugh and chide her to make aprons for regular everyday house use, not just Sunday dinner or Holy Days? She might not get the joke about degrees of formality and her relaxed nature.

She suggested aprons made of simple white, rick-rack and roses. I could not help to be mindful of red from the roses as the blood of Christ on white funerary dressing cloths made into an apron. The rick-rack a simple wavy design calling to the Mediterranean Sea. I was a little to stunned to explained to her what I understood. It was not the case she would not be able to fathom the Rosicrucian references, but we never talked that way; so I let it lay as it was.

If you put a back on an apron you might run into what some blogger called Skirt Masonry. The pictures looked a little more like older, thinner catholic school girls in uniforms. The article had to do with women’s groups affiliated with Masonry but by all means, they are not. An interpretation might be those who hang around the edge and have tangential purposes to the main goal. Try thinking of an organization like the Masons as compared to the structure of a garment–the apron and later, the skirt. It seems to be that the main purpose and understanding of the main garment is managing human breeding practices. To extend one’s progeny, you do not want a wife of diminished ability, small mindedness or cruelty. In choosing what to make an apron of and how to cover it with would solely depend on personal development, public standing and or of course, family history and genealogies of note. Skirts are a matter of inheritance in a way, especially being cut of the same cloth.

As a corollary, over fifteen years ago, I understood that my life’s history is in my hair. The longer I grow it, meant the more I can relate to what I have done in my past and how it has shaped who I am. It was a way symbolic way to respect my growth patterns. The fall of a skirt from the shortness of an apron is the intellectual heritage of the core covering. The skirt can only make the apron look better. Just as the drape of the fabric of a skirt covers the legs, it is a sign that the wearer is not just quite ready to take that journey back to the obedience Eden imposes and not be afraid to go naked in front of their maker. Is this a quote: “Naked but before the grace of God goeth I”?

by N. Constantine

Poor man’s  copyright April 9, 2012