Because we've never known different

Why do we, as Masons, in the United States think of a Masonic apron as being a basic square with a triangular flap (with few exceptions)? Again, is it because of the “It has always been that way” mentality? Granted, due to the mail order catalog, there isn’t a Brother alive today who remembers having to ask a family member or a seamstress to make him an apron because there was no other alternative.
We have to go further back in time than our oldest living members can recall to examine why we envision this




as what an apron looks like.
What was the driving force that developed our country after the Civil War? The Industrial Revolution! Bigger, faster, easier and less expensive to produce was the desire of everyone in that age – and even into our own time. The Walton family is proof of that. This desire to mass produce and sell more at a lower cost permeated our culture and even touched our noble Craft. How? Well, re-examine that basically square apron with a triangular flap. How quickly can a minimum wage laborer cut out a simple geometric pattern that can be set up in a series with little or no waste? Simply put its all about saving time and money. The regalia companies that sprang to life during the golden age of Fraternalism knew that. Freemasonry in America was growing quickly and everyone needed an apron. The need was answered by these regalia companies who developed a simple pattern, quick to produce and minimizing waste.
But haven’t aprons always been of that design and looked like that? No. Visit your Grand Lodge museum. Look at the historic aprons on display. Look at the Past Grand Masters portraits prior to the Civil War. Although you may find a few squarish bodies you will be hard pressed to find a triangular flap. Most aprons of the late 18th and early 19th century were unique and had distinctive body and flap shapes. You will also find the overwhelming majority were, to a greater or lesser extent, embellished with symbols and imagery familiar to Master Masons.
The desire to be unique seems to have changed during the Industrial Revolution. So, I ask, has our collective mindset of what a Masonic apron “should” look like been dictated by the large mail order regalia companies? I say it has. I also say its time to re-examine history and reclaim the dignity of what is our true badge as Freemasons.