History's Runway: A Pair of Leather Gloves with Silver Embroidery, 1660

The Victoria & Albert Museum

In the Seventeenth Century, no one dared leave the house without gloves, both for reasons of fashion and hygiene.  A person’s gloves, like the rest of his or her ensemble, would have been a great indicator of their class and social status.  Here’s a pair of gloves which would have belonged to someone well-born and very wealthy.

Let’s remember that this was a period of history when personal hygiene revolved around the masking of body odors rather than something more practical like washing them away.  So, very often gloves were perfumed, allowing a convenient, literally handy way of masking unpleasant natural aromas.   During this period, gloves were scented with ingredients such as musk, ambergris, floral extracts and aromatic spices.

A glove like this one would certainly have been scented with spices.   A work of lushly deocarted leather, these gloves are adorned with silver and silver-gilt embroidery on the gauntlet, with an underlay of coral-coloured silk ribbon.


The silver and gold have been applied in a variety of forms: strip (broad, flat length of metal), purl (a tube of densely coiled metal), thread (a thin strip of metal wrapped around a linen or silk thread) and spangles (known today as sequins).  This is the perfect example of a Seventeenth Century glove when the gauntlets became smaller and the length of the fingers shortened to more natural proportions. 

Friday Fashion: The Opera-Length Glove

Portrait by F.W. Baker, from my collection.

In the Victorian and Edwardian eras, gloves were an essential garment for both men and women. In fact, most people were encouraged to wear their gloves at all times—even in the home. During this era where the body was completely covered from the neck down for the sake of propriety, gloves served a variety of purposes. Though many like to consider the Victorian era to be a prudish time, really, the purpose of gloves was to keep the hands and arms clean from the soot and dirt in most cities. Opera-length gloves developed over time from the long gloves popular in women’s fashion of the early Seventeenth Century. As styles changed, so did the length of the gloves.


By the 1860’s gloves had become so form-fitting that a lady couldn’t button them without assistance. Considered ill form to be seen putting on or removing a glove in public, a lady would have her personal maid assist her in securing her gloves before leaving the house. Occasionally, the gloves were fingerless to allow for greater ease in daily tasks or the pursuit of the arts and music (fashionable and appropriate distractions for women of the time).

This detail from a portrait of a young woman by F.W. Baker dates from the mid 1870’s. Here, we can see the snugness of the gloves. This young lady is quite free. Her gloves have no fingers. Clearly, however, that’s because she’s about to play an instrument. We’re alerted to that fact by the sheet music in her hands. Though probably quite uncomfortable, these opera gloves were most assuredly elegant.