Apron Line by Highlands Mom Spans Generations

Reminding young children to put on aprons whenever they wanted to cook in the kitchen was commonplace not that long ago. Other people have memories of large family meals, with aunts, moms and grandmothers all in the kitchen with colorful aprons, taking them off just before sitting down for the big meal. D-Lux 57, a company started by Highlands resident Cynthia Berman, is helping to bring back these memories with a line of cooking aprons designed for children, ‘tweens’ and adults alike. ‘It takes women back to their childhood,’ Berman said. ‘They want to recreate those memories for their children and their grandchildren.’ The fully-lined aprons, made of 100-percent cotton and sewed in Los Angeles, went into select stores in January, including Chefmakers on Via de la Paz. The colorful prints come from the quilting market, where Berman selects them. Berman, who grew up in rural Canada and studied design at St. Clair College in Ontario, moved to Los Angeles in the 1980s to enter the apparel industry and women’s fashion. Five years ago, she started a line of fashion T-shirts called Marabou (www.marabouusa.com). She also has a line of T-shirts called Girl Chameleon. The inspiration for D-Lux 57 (www.dlux57.com) came when Berman was cooking one night with her daughter, Hayley, who was wearing an apron that Berman had purchased years before at Harrods in London. Memories of baking bread with an aunt and of her grandmother’s colorful quilts came flooding back, and the company was born. Berman’s role model was her grandmother, who raised five children alone after her husband died. ‘She never wasted anything,’ Berman said. ‘When a shirt was worn out, the buttons were cut off and the material cut up to be used in quilts, or twisted and made into rugs.’ Her grandmother, who lived in Ontario, Canada, put up a quilting rack in her house during the winter to work on the blankets while she watched hockey. Berman still has on her bed one of the quilts her grandmother made, so it seemed natural to take ‘quilting fabric’ and turn it into colorful aprons. ‘They also make great heirloom gifts,’ Berman said. Each apron comes in a matching fabric keepsake envelope or pouch, so that when a child outgrows the apron, it can simply be laundered, put in the pouch and packed away. The pouches stack neatly in a drawer, keeping apron strings from tangling. Matching aprons come in three sizes (children’s 4 to 6X, youth and adult) and retail for $39, $49 and $59 respectively. In just two months, the aprons are striking a chord with buyers and are being sold in Brentwood, San Diego, Orange County, Colorado and Florida in different retail venues including cooking stores, apparel stores, gift shops, tearooms and wineries. Berman lives with her husband Steven, a former wholesale building supply owner, who handles the company’s administrative and technology areas, and their two children, Haley, 14, and Matt, 11, who attend Paul Revere Middle School. Contact: (310) 396-2087.