For many years, I loved baking to relax, but I hated wearing aprons. I could not get mine off quickly enough.
At 5-foot-4, I found most aprons to be more of a hindrance than a help—too long, too wide, too voluminous, threatening to snag and overturn a pot of custard or even catch fire.
But my biggest grievance was that this baking I was doing, ostensibly to “loosen up,” was making me tense. Or more accurately, my around-the-neck apron was.
No matter how I adjusted it or knotted it, the loop urged my neck forward, putting strain on my cervical spine and, in turn, my shoulders.
I tried not wearing an apron, but I’m as messy in the kitchen as I am achy.
The thing is, I can barely remember this dark chapter of my baking life.
The Hedley & Bennett Crossback Apron has been my kitchen companion for more than a year, and as with most great designs, I take it so much for granted that I usually forget I’m wearing it.
I wear it to bake. I wear it to wash up. I wear it to cook dinner. And I often wear it to eat dinner.
I’m not alone in my affection: Out of 30 aprons, this one emerged as the most-liked style in tests for our guide to the best aprons. I anticipate many more years of forgetting that I even have it on.
