The Gloves are On!
Vintage 60s periwinkle nylon gloves, worn with modern silk blouse Except in winter, or other special occasions, gloves have long since been a discarded accessory. Once upon a time, they were an indispensible component of a woman’s sartorial arsenal. And then decades ago, women became emancipated from fashion diktats, and the gloves – along with the hats and stockings – were joyfully tossed aside.
What a pity! All these additional accessories are one of the main reasons I welcome cooler weather: so many more opportunities to express oneself through fashion! Of course in summer there are still hats, and I’ve adopted the parasol too for pragmatic reasons, but in hot, sultry weather as we often have here in summer in my hometown of Melbourne, I am reluctant to load myself down with decorative accessories, such as scarves, or gloves.
Once upon a time, [gloves] were an indispensible component of a woman’s sartorial arsenal.
However, I really have no such excuse in spring, for this season is one of the most changeable in this climate. One day in the last month we literally went from morning sunshine, to noon thunderstorms and imminent hurricanes, and then less than half an hour later, the sun was gloriously shining again. In such a climate, it really is necessary to be prepared for anything, every day. So why not gloves?
Vintage 1940s buff leather gloves, worn with 1940s hat and 1970s dressIt is difficult, I have discovered, to find new gloves that are anything more than pedestrian or basic in design. Colours, lengths, styles, trims – everything is extremely limited. Even in Spain and Portugal a few years ago I found nothing very unusual, and I visited a specialist glove store in Lisbon only to be bitterly disappointed.
So I have turned to vintage gloves. I am lucky that I have quite small hands (about a size 7), so that I can find many that actually fit me. As Valerie Cummings, author of Gloves (B. T. Batsford, 1982) writes in her introduction: For several hundred years gloves were worn throughout the year, they were bought in dozens rather than pairs, and they came in a wide range of materials, colours, styles and sizes. This is why there are so many to choose from when purchasing vintage, although you’ll probably have more luck finding gloves that fit from the last five or six decades of the twentieth century.
I have amassed quite a large collection of really lovely vintage gloves; here are two pairs: buff kid leather 1940s French gloves – never worn – bought on Etsy, and a pair of periwinkle 1960s nylon gloves made in Hong Kong, purchased in a vintage bazaar in Geelong (a small city not far from Melbourne). Admittedly, I have not worn my collection as often as I should: just for fun, and at least occasionally. This must change – like the weather!
(Photo: March, 2014)