How These Founders Reinvented the Apron and Won Over Celebrity ChefsFounded in 2012, H&B now supplies aprons for more than 700 restaurant clients across the globe.

It's about as humdrum an item of apparel as you can get. But in the hands of an impassioned Los Angeles-based designer, the humble apron has become the cornerstone for a successful business.

Hedley & Bennett (H&B) got its start in 2012, when Ellen Bennett—then a line cook for trendy L.A. restaurants Providence and Bäco Mercat, and a personal chef—finally had enough. "An apron is something that every single chef uses besides a knife," says Bennett, who juggled all three jobs while launching her company. "It was this thing that we all wore, and it was ugly and gross and weird."