I cook all the time. Probably cook dinner 6 nights a week. Also baking at least once a week. But I don’t think I"m a messy cook and I’ll never be dressed up when I’m cooking. See above lounging clothes to see what I’m likely to be cooking in. I don’t do dress up entertaining - at all - that’s just me. If someone came over and for some odd reason was dressed up and wanted to help I could find an apron to offer - it might have a few wrinkles in it though!
Really, no one in either side of our family likes cooking enough to be all “oh, let’s stir the spaghetti sauce together”! (Besides, spaghetti sauce comes from a jar as far as I am concerned, so there’s no stirring needed.) I can honestly say I’ve never had a special bonding moment with my mother or sister or anyone else in the kitchen! My H did bake brownies with my kids when they were little and my D does like to cook but not as a group shared activity.
I made a surprise birthday party for my mom. It was a Friday night, so she thought she was coming for a typical Shabbot dinner. I had her bridge friends come early, and park around the corner. Even though I thought I had everything covered, and I had ordered the briscuit and a side dish a week before, there was still lots of last minute things. Two of mom’s friends came eArly, and got right to work in kitchen. I handed them aprons. I was glad I knew where they were. Typical Williams and Sonoma stripes. Wine poured, tons of fun, then they shooed me off tom"dress".
My mom died the next year, the first of her friends. At least we all had fond memories of that lovely night.
OK so tomorrow night I am making a pork tenderloin with a rub, a dipping sauce, a capresse, corn on the cob with yet to be determined flavored butter, mixed berries and store bought lemon cookies. All to take to the neighbor for helping H and I learn to cut glass for glass fusion, I also wear an apron for that.
Yeh, I am bragging a little but I really need those aprons!
However, I am beginning to realize that Whole Foods and such have perfectly decent food. Maybe those aprons
will be retired 
I cook quite a bit but when I’m entertaining I like to have most of it done and the kitchen spotless before guests arrive. It’s just the way I feel comfortable entertaining and will plan my meals around that. All I have left to do generally is toss a salad, heat things up, warm some bread, etc. The easy stuff.
Hey, more power to those of you who cook!
I cook all the time, but if a friend offers her help, I will never hand her an apron! I will pour her a glass of wine and tell her to relax while I am chopping/mixing/pouring/sautéing…etc. 
My mom never “made her guests work,” and I inherited that tradition.
I can dress pretty casually for work, so sometimes I just stay dressed in my work clothes until it’s bedtime. If I have on a dress or skirt or dry-clean-only pants, though, I put on shorts (if it’s hot out), jeans (if it’s not hot), or yoga pants (if I know that no one outside my family will see me). I confess that if I get home really late - which seems to be happening a lot - I put on the pj’s.
I cook, but I never wear an apron. I have a couple, but I don’t know where they are. I have nothing against them, and I am sure I should use them (rather than getting stuff all over myself), but I just don’t really think about putting one on. My mom always wore one (and I have 2 of her aprons - on the top shelf in my closet, probably).
My sister and I decided today that we want the covers, aka ‘bibs’ our mom has at the AFH. Snaps at the neck, covers the front. This after I spilled hollandaise sauce on my shirt. I am considering making a full frontal plastic style like babies have - with a trough at the bottom to catch wayward food scraps. I would use it to put crackers and cheese. Maybe Velcro on either side to attach terry cloth scraps to wipe my fingers…
^will this sell as an apron or a raincoat :))
I wear aprons to protect my clothes when I do light housework. I just swished out a couple of toilets and wiped up sinks and mopped the kitchen floor. I want to be sure I don’t get cleaning fluids on my dresses. I don’t use my sentimental aprons for these tasks because I don’t want to get cleaning fluids on them either. I have heavy cotton ones sort of like zeebamom describes, with a pocket across the front to either put my sponges, dusting clothes, etc, or scraps and clutter I’m picking up as I work my way through the house, neatening up before I toss it in the trash. I just picked up half a rubber band out of the hall. No idea where that came from.
It’s so hot right now up north that I would wear “yuckier” t-shorts and shorts to do any cleaning, vacuuming, wiping out of sinks. etc. And then take a shower.
I can’t imagine being in the south, wearing the multiple layers Alh describes, and then adding a heavy cotton apron over that for chores. Do you just run the a/c all the time?? That must cost a fortune in a big house.
It works for me.
I’m cold natured. My ac is set at 78. My house isn’t big, just fancy. My electric bill for a month this summer with record breaking heat was $150. That seemed pretty low to me. I run a dishwasher daily, and laundry several times a week, using the dryer. That bill includes a well pump, which some of you won’t have. And two hot water heaters. And electric for two small auxiliary buildings, one of which has ac running all the time, also at 78. When we renovated this house, we did a whole lot of insulating. But it was built to be cool in a time when ac didn’t exist.
I have on cotton seersucker today. It is a summer fabric invented to stay cool in this climate.
eta: of course, a cotton caftan, with no undergarments is about as cool as it gets.
I really am dying for pictures of your house and your clothing
^ no, you post yours
Ha! Well, my house is a typical Georgian, symmetrical, red brick with white shutters, circular driveway on a winding street in a typical upper middle class suburb. Pleasant, but nothing architecturally interesting to write home about. As I write this, I am sitting on my bed, which has a typical flowered bedspread pattern. I am wearing a pair of black Zella shorts and a white sports bra with a white t-shirt over it. My hair is in a ponytail. I am pretty straight norm core. I am putting myself to sleep with my own description
okay - picture a very small vernacular steamboat gothic in the middle of nowhere. I am sitting, with my computer, still in my apron, on my upstairs porch in an antique wicker chair and can’t see anything 20th c from this vantage point. I can’t see the road. Every now and then I holler at the deer that want to graze the flowers in my front yard. They don’t pay much attention to me, especially the young ones that I’ve been hollering at since they were spotted fawns. If I could see the road and across the fields, there would be a collection of deer stands. Any minute a neighbor will bring me a weekly egg delivery. We may drink some prosecco, but I still have a half a pot of coffee on. Her choice. My bet = prosecco. I will hear some local gossip. She will be wearing jeans or overalls and beautiful nails. Her nails are always beautifully manicured. She must wear gloves a whole lot, if not aprons. Some of those deer stands belong to her family. She is keeping an eye on “my” deer herd till hunting season.
Now - it’s everyone else’s turn!
See? I knew you would be far more interesting
How about a new thread for this ^^^? Super interesting, but it should have a home of it’s own. Go ahead.
PG: You worked in marketing, right? “Interesting” is all presentation and spin. I think. You are the expert
abasket: Your turn!!
adding: nottelling: I see you… your turn, too.