The Gloved One

Honore de Balzac once said: „Woman is the most charming creature, who changes her heart as easily as she does her gloves.”

There is something rather special in gloves. We often carry handbags, and wear shoes, belts and even hats, but gloves…not so much. Gloves had a huge role in fashion and in development of man kind, but they have always been a bit special. Firstly worn for protection in cold winter days, later they developed into a status symbol. I would give anything to live in the days when it was perfectly normal to wear gloves to the theatre, parties, dinners…even just walking around town. So these days cold weather is the perfect excuse to let my glove collection do all the talking! These black and red leather gloves are the first pair of gloves I have ever bought…they protect my hands of course, but with them I feel elegant, special and a bit devilish all at the same time :).

Arka Hand Made wool cap

The Art Company boots

Zara leather gloves

Koke, Šibenik wool jacket and Desigual wool skirt

The history has a lot of facts of using the gloves in ancient times. They were first worn by cavemen to protect their hands – a glove with fingers and a gauntlet covering the forearm.

They were popular and served as a protection of the hands in Old Egypt. The Pharaohs wore them as s symbol of their high position, and women wore them to protect the beauty of their hands.

The Romans put the gloves on while eating. These gloves were made from linen and silk. It was safe to take hot meat because the Romans did not use forks in those times. Such kind of gloves was called «Digitalia» and they were also used for cooking.

In England after the Norman Conquest, royalty and dignitaries wore gloves as a badge of distinction.

15th century royal gloves

The glove became meaningful as a token; it became custom to fling a gauntlet at the feet of the adversary and and inviting satisfaction by duel. The glove to challenge personal battle became an integral part of English Law for nearly 800 years. It was a right any free man could claim.

But receiving a glove from a woman had a different meaning. It was a symbol of a great benevolence and favor. The knight wore this symbol on his neck in a special bag and never left it.

In the 12^th Century gloves became a definite part of fashionable dress. During the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, no well-dressed woman would appear in public without them. Gloves were becoming more accessible to the common people and their popularity grew.

Queen Elizabeth I with one of her many pair of gloves

In the 16^thand 17^th century gloves were extravagantly ornamented; after the 17^th Century however, the emphasis was on proper fit, and gloves became less ornamented.

By the 17^th Century, London had become the hub of the glove trade on which apprentices and journeymen, seeking a wider experience, converged.

In the 20-th century the industry of gloves production was dramatically changed. The gloves were a symbol of elegance and a symbol of a true lady, who wore the gloves, a hat and pants the whole year.

Glove fitting

Gloves during the 50s with famous pink gloves worn by Marilyn Monroe in movie Gentlemen Prefer Blondes

Memorable long sleeved gloves worn by Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany’s

Rita Hayworth in Gilda – famous Put the blame on Mame scene

Elizabeth Taylor with her white dame gloves

Sunburned hands meant belonging to a working class in 1930-s years.The top of it was in 1968.This accessory was recognition of a bourgeois symbol, a symbol of official relations, riches and hypocrisy.