Glove Fashion

Happy New Year Everyone!

How elegant was your New Year’s Eve? Was it chic enough to wear evening gloves? Just wondering if it’s still fashionable for some to wear gloves, other than for the simple reason of keeping warm…

Here in Canada’s bitter cold winter, there’s no way I’d even dream of leaving home without a pair of warm gloves. I’m sure that in the 1800’s, keeping one’s hands warm may also have been a consideration, but more importantly, these were an important part of a person’s formal wardrobe.

Thanks to Josephine and Napoleon, gloves were all the rave in the 1800’s. ‘The Emperor had over 200 pairs and Josephine also started a trend. It was said that she thought her hands were not her best feature and so she covered these gracefully with gloves. Also the style of dresses in the 1800’s was short puffed sleeves, so it was fashionable to wear long gloves to cover the skin for modesty. Gloves were such an important part of the wardrobe that these were worn as much during the day (even indoors) as they were in the evening. It was considered very improper to put on or take off gloves in public’.

Bigelow, Marybelle S. Fashion in History: Western Dress, Prehistoric to Present. Minneapolis, MN: Burgess Publishing, 1970.

Yarwood, Doreen. Fashion in the Western World: 1500–1900. New York: Drama Book Publishers, 1992.

Except for fall and winter gloves, I hardly ever see anyone wearing gloves as formal accessories…well, maybe sometimes at a gala or at a very ritzy event. I wonder if we’ve replaced these with fancier manicures instead? Hmm… the glove look is actually very sophisticated and elegant; yet fashion slowly dictated against them.