I believe, it represents something absent in today's culture – recondition that femininity is sacred, mystical, honourable and worth of protection. Aprons are not about kitchen as much as they are about biological function of the woman.

Usually, we understand aprons as something made to protect finer clothes underneath. But that’s not the original purpose of this garment. You see it specifically in my cultural heritage, in pre-revolutionary Russian attire. Here the apron was the most embroidered, the most intricate piece of a married woman’s costume, often adorned heaviest around the womb. The purpose of embroidery or other decoration was spiritual protection. That’s why it would normally find place on the borders of garments – on the edges of the sleeves, the neck. The notion of decorative border as protection is still very much present in our culture – most of the plates we eat off have a decorative border, the original purpose of which was to protect us from any evil entering our bodies with food.

The purpose of the traditional apron, adored with mindful decoration, was recondition of just how sacred what’s underneath is – a body, programmed (of though not always able or willing) to reproduce live. A body, that historically will often not survive it.

Sewing my aprons, I have the same concept in mind – first and foremost a badge of honour, and only secondly something to dry your hands off. Decorative borders – an echo of our great grandmothers forgotten language – is recondition of severity and (luckily former) deadliness of the female life. And of course, the placement of the pocket is not random. It is protecting the womb both subconsciously and mechanically.