Of course, those of us in northern climes wear gloves to protect from the cold. But I'd like to ask about the other kind of gloves - you know the sort that ladies used to wear to church or to the store. Can anyone tell me when and why this fashion custom has disappeared?

As our lives get less formal, all these niceties seem to fall by the wayside. I wish they wouldn't.

Isabella, as a teenager I had white kid gloves for dress wear. They got dirty very fast and I can remember hand-washing them and drying them on a paper towel on the radiator (teenage-approved method). Interestingly, my mom, the older generation, didn't bother. When I first started driving I had these neat leather and woven driving gloves--something like these. Made me feel like a serious driver!




Hey, I got that picture off the Internet! That means they still have them! But oops, no car now!

I've heard, rather anecdotally from women who wore gloves way back when, and one of their chief functions was to keep your hands clean. Back then, people burned more coal and other things, so the air was a lot dirtier with soot than it is now.

One older friend remembers how filthy her gloves would get just from the air, never mind any smudges they'd acquire from the buses and subways.

What crossed my mind is that women are much more hands-on. The gloves would be an on-and-off-and-on-and-off nuisance.

I was still wearing kid gloves (I preferred black to white) to job interviews in 1965-65. That was just about the last year women wore them when it wasn't cold out. In the summer, when it was too hot for leather, I wore cotton string gloves. Once tank tops and jeans, came to be acceptable street and office wear, it was the end of the glove, to say nothing of the hat, which had given u the ghost a few years earlier.

Looking at the sunspots on the backs of my hands, I wish they hadn't gone out of fashion! Think how much less hand cream we'd need to use, too. And we'd have fewer broken fingernails.

Seriously, I think the gloves came off when the pants suit went on.

Fiveoaks, I still have two pair of gloves just like these. One pair brown leather and the others green leather, they were so fashionable in London before I married and I just thought they were so cool. They were called driving gloves but I didn't drive. Ha! :-)

Women use to wear hats all the time, not just for church. Just like gloves they're not worn anymore.

I wear gloves to keep my hands warm but I love fashion gloves too I think they look so sharp and sexy.

It deprends on how unusual you're willing to look. I wear hats all the time. They're often men's hats, but some are vintage women's hats. Gloves have come into style as part of twee indie attire and runway fashion over the last few years, but I consider them highly incompatable with all the things I do that require manual dexterity. Long gloves and fingerless gloves, both not very attractive in my opinion, have been very popular recently.

Those who really feel stain-prone cloth on the hands are a loss to human culture can buy unused vintage gloves on eBay and sometimes on etsy.

http://fashion.about.com/od/accessories/ss...accessory_5.htm
http://www.fashionisspinach.com/2007/11/gl...fused-with.html

Corollary: "Hats Are BACK"! said a big headline in the fashion section of the newspaper this week. A sure sign of Spring, as much as the blooming crocus and the longer day. Hopeful hat- lovers trumpet this proclamation every year.

Gloves, and hats too, went out when the T-shirt n' jeans look for every-day clothing took over. Street fashion spilled over into designer fashion, and the mini-skirt and the ethnic looks took the place of the formal structured suit. As hats for men, and women, became passe, the wearing of gloves had to follow. The Hollywood designer Edith Head wore little white gloves on every conceivable occasion. She died in the 80's. I wonder what she thought of the things movie stars wore on screen after her day was done.

Hats are getting more and more popular in LA. Both men and women wear that masculine "Frank Sinatra" type hat or a Trilby (recently seen on Prince William's girlfriend). I have three myself and hope they make a straw version for summer.

Patterned trilbys

I have a small glove collection, and I do wear them occasionally. The wrist-length green gloves get the most wear, except for when I visit my parents in MN-- then I break out the woolies.

My favorites are still my first acquisition. I stopped in an antique store and realized that I knew the proprietor. He asked if there was anything I was in the market for and I, half-joking, said "A pair of fiestaware-orange gloves."

Three weeks later I stopped in to see what he had in stock, and he waved a pair of tangerine woven nylon, shirred 8-button gloves. "Where have you been?" he asked. "I kept them behind the counter for you, so of course everybody wanted to buy them."

They're terribly impractical, but they were cheap ($4), and I feel great affection for them. Also, they make me easy to find when I meet people at the airport.

I, too, think it's sad how informal everyone is ALL the time. I really wish it was more fashionable to be 'dressed up".

Once, I went to the grocery store, and a grown man- not of the homeless variety- was happily shopping in his pajamas. To me, his choice of clothing showed a lack of respect for others.

I love my hands, they're the only part of me that consistently gets compliments. That said, I naturally want to protect them, and I'd like to wear gloves, but in Southern California, one gets funny looks, especially in summer. I have a pair of cotton gloves that I wear while driving, though, I can't bear my hands getting rough and dry from the sun. I do feel very self-conscious wearing them in warm weather.

I agree Isabella, At one time going to the theatre meant dressing up, a long skirt if you wish. Now people wear extremely casual clothes. It's the same in my church on Sundays, some people still wear their "Sunday best" but jeans and t-shirt in the winter and shorts and sandals in the summer are quite common.

I love hats for sun, but it is rare that a hat is sized big enough for me to look the way I'd like it to look, to really come down and cover the sides of my face. I think if everyone wore hats, they'd have to size at least some a bit differently.

I still have gloves I used to wear, but there really isn't any need here in the deep south.

I see glorious white kid and cotton gloves at the Goodwill a lot. Even the full length up to the elbow ones. It takes me mentally repeating "You don't need those" over and over to not put all of them in my cart. Oh my the sophistication and ritual of donning and removing a pair of gloves! Audry Hepburn comes to mind. What a civilized and refined and magnificently feminine practice! Grace Kelly! It was stripping done by good girls.

As late as 1968, girls wore white gloves to sorority rush at Florida State University, as well as to church.

I have vintage fuschia velvet gloves and a matching clutch evening bag that it thrills me to wear and carry at Christmas to the one or two really fancy parties we're invited to. My outfit is fuschia and black, with a vintage black faux fur coat. The perfume? Usually "1000."

Reiha, how about these:



Here is the link to that site too. It's a blog by a lady who loves to wear gloves (scroll down a little):

http://jillthinksdifferent.blogspot.com/20...-occasions.html

She makes a very good case for wearing gloves in a warm climate on a regular basis.



Boxwood, that outfit sounds great! Fuschia + black + 1000! Stunning!

I love gloves, but do not wear them as much as I would like to. I wear them while driving to keep the sun off of my hands. I also wear gloves to events in the evening for the look and to protect my hands from germs from those who insist on shaking hands. My mother, who was southern, told me the reason her hands were so beautiful and free of age spots was that she always wore gloves when outside. Seh said that that was what southern ladies did.

Fabulous ! I like that!

Always felt I was born too late - love hats, gloves, love men opening doors for me , it all goes together , don't you think ?

People on dates seem to dress nicely to go to chain movie theaters, but otherwise I think it's such a pedestrian place no one is particularly inspired. I've never seen jeans at larger live theatres or symphony, opera & ballet performances, except at events specifically billed as "casual." The Dallas area has two independent movie theaters which seem to attract people wearing a wide range of attire. I think urban areas contain more people who err on the side of dressing nicely.

I think it went out with the pill box hat. Cinch belts..........you know.

Yes, the disappearance of gloves from our wardrobes is a real loss.

Mention gloves to my husband, and the thought that comes to his mind is Rita Hayworth in Gilda. Do you remember her singing "Mame"?

Simply stunning!

By the way, although she had a good voice, Hayworth was always dubbed - in this case by Anita Ellis.

It seems like lots of you like to be a bit more dressy or formal in your attire. What touches to you add to your daily clothing to 'kick it up' a little?

I was sorry to see gloves go out of fashion...taking them on and off was such a flirty, graceful practice...and I did not have to use hand sanitizer. If I live long enough, I am sure they will be fashionable again.

But cinch belts came back last year! So there is hope!



No sunscreen in those days; hence, large hats and parasols, too.

Jewelry! I wear jeans almost every day and exotic jewelry every day.

A big second to Fiveoaks response here. And I carry a bag that I love.
This will be either vintage or new but always eye catching and unusual.

In my neck of the woods (California), daytime gloves disappeared after the mid-sixties "cultural revolution."

A lot of things happened seemingly overnight then. Dress and manners changed radically.

I had a cute little suit that was lime green and hot pink. I had the poorboy tops to match (one lime, one hot pink), lime suede flats (mary-quantish), and the little billed caps to go with. AND a pair of lime green "racing gloves" that were popular then.

That was 1966, and was the last time I wore gloves with a suit.

I wear leopard gloves in the winter now... my hands get cold!

OH! MY! GOD!!! I do believe I had that exact same outfit!!! Including shoes, tops, and the little cap! (I do remember the racing glove style that was popular in those years, but never wore any).


Oh, How I Wish I had photos of those days to share. Magdalene, you and I never looked more stylin'!

I'd say we burned the gloves when we burned the bras. Gloves were over before pantsuits were accepted. I can't remember wearing gloves past the age of maybe 5 or 6, so kindergarten/first grade. In 9th grade, my friend Julie and I were on the local news, protesting that girls were not allowed to wear pants to school -- in 13 degree weather!

ahem.

Long before I met Mrs. T I dated a redhead from work, and for one date she wore black kid opera gloves, well past the elbow. I still remember watching her remove the gloves.

http://www.publicationarchive.com/ArchiveA...184&ID=4206

essential item in 1872


sillage