Listen Up, Baby: There’s a Bib of History Under That Chinny-Chin-Chin

Remember when you were sitting upright in a highchair, playing with your mashed peas and carrots on a plastic table? You were probably wearing a bib at the time. Most parents agree that a bib only does a partial job of deflecting food from children’s clothes, but it does offer some protection.

After we’ve learn some dexterity with the fork and spoon, we don’t usually wear a bib again, perhaps until we’re tempted with lobster in a restaurant. Even then, most adult diners forgo the complimentary bib because they feel it makes them look silly.

But that wasn’t always the case.

In 17th-Century Europe, when men and women were invited to dinner at a nobleman’s house, it was expected that they would take their own bibs to protect their clothing (dry cleaning was some years away).

The bib, which eventually descended on the lap and was called a napkin, was tied around the man’s neck just before the first course. Women used the same cloth as men; however, they tucked one of the corners into the high necks of their blouses. A couple who went to a dinner party with their “best bib and tucker” were assured they would be socially acceptable for the evening.

As the custom spread throughout the social classes, eventually even the peasant farmer had a cloth bib.

When a man tried to tie it over his high-necked, thick ruffled shirt, he often had problems “making the ends meet,” a phrase that became associated with the problems of not enough money and too many expenses.

Today’s bibs are exclusively for small children. Plastic, which is easy to wipe off, is the standard for bibs, which get such heavy use. But elaborate, harder-to-clean cotton and lace bibs are often for special occasions. Some attach with strings, but many parents prefer easy-to-remove snaps or Velcro fasteners to make ends meet.