Cross-back apron · washed linen

The strap crosses behind your back rather than looping around your neck, which is the whole reason to buy this rather than the cheaper kind. A neck loop hangs the weight of wet linen off four centimetres of cervical spine, and after three hours of cooking you can feel exactly where. A cross-back hangs it off both shoulders and you stop noticing it. The linen is washed before it is cut, so it arrives soft and it will not shrink into a different garment on you. Two patch pockets, and the right-hand one is split down the middle so a thermometer stands up instead of lying flat. Two sizes rather than four, and they overlap generously; if you are between them, take the smaller, because the straps have 12 cm of adjustment and a long apron on a short cook is a trip hazard at the oven door.