Kitchen Kitsch : Exhibition: Nearly 100 aprons reflect social and historical change.

The art gallery at Woodbury University is now showing an exhibition of aprons.

Go ahead and laugh. The feisty curator of the show, Vilma Matchette, won’t mind a bit.

“Yes, I know some people are going to be amused when they hear about the exhibit,” said Matchette, who is a lecturer on costumes and an appraiser for the Abell Auction House. “But I think these kinds of ordinary items are really interesting. And they are worth saving.

“If you want to know what Queen Elizabeth the First wore, you can easily find out. There are great inventories that give details on all her outfits, what materials were used, how much was spent on them. But it is not so easy to find out details about what common people wore then and that’s what tells us something about how these people lived.”

Once you get through the door, it is hard not to be fascinated by the historical and sociological context of the almost 100 aprons in the exhibit, which is called “Ties That Bind.” It will be at the Board Room and Gallery on the university’s Burbank campus through Feb. 24.

The earliest examples in the exhibit are from the 1920s and include a full-length organdy apron with little embroidered flowers. It’s one of Matchette’s favorites. “I think it’s really charming,” she said, “and it tells you something about the period. For the most part, household aprons in the ‘20s speak of domesticity and they are almost always female. They have delightful little embroideries and are in pastel colors.”

Aprons from the Depression era are less decorative and more utilitarian. “That’s when you get the calico aprons, cotton cloth with simple flower prints or gingham,” she said. “They are serviceable, made to protect clothing. But women still strove to make them distinctive in some way.”

During this difficult period, aprons were mostly homemade or made from cutout kits bought in five-and-ten-cent stores.

This simple, utilitarian style continued through World War II, although those years did produce aprons notable for their historical context, such as ones worn by USO volunteers. When the soldiers came home, apron design made a shift to reflect the times. Decorative was in again.

But the big postwar apron news was the popularity of men’s aprons. “Home life became very important when the war was over,” Matchette said. “Home do-it-yourself projects became very big, as did home entertaining. There was the cult of the barbecue.”

There are several examples in the exhibit of men’s aprons to be worn while barbecuing, each printed with a witticism along the lines of “Genius at Work” or “World’s Greatest Chef.” This was also the era of men’s bar aprons. They likewise had funny sayings and drawings--drunken animals seemed to be a favorite motif.

In the 1970s women had witty aprons of their own, most of which carried messages that reflected their dissatisfaction at being considered just homemakers. A couple of aprons on exhibit simply declare, “I Hate Housework.” Others suggest alternatives, including those that say, “The Heck With Housework, Let’s See the Dodgers Play” or “The Hell With Housework, Let’s Go to Las Vegas.”

One has only a single word in big, block letters: “SLAVE.”

Some aprons are in the show simply because of a unique design. There are aprons made of handkerchiefs, quiltlike aprons and souvenir aprons that show tourist highlights of Hollywood.

Matchette, who is donating her apron collection to Woodbury, cautions against jumping to conclusions about their significance. “We thought it was a good thing to preserve these and put them up where people could see them. Studying them in depth is another matter. That kind of work has not been done, yet.”

In the meantime, Woodbury is planning more displays of the ordinary. Rosalie Utterbach, who is director of the fashion design program at the university, said they are planning annual exhibits on clothing items from daily life.

Next year it will be men’s ties.

The “Ties That Bind” exhibit is at the Board Room and Gallery of Woodbury University, 7500 Glenoaks Blvd . , Burbank. It will be on display from noon to 4 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday, until Feb. 24. Admission is free. For more information, call (818) 767-0888.