Gloves Belong to the Past

“‘Mrs. Gardiner would be happy to see Miss March and Miss Josephine at a little dance on New Year’s Eve.’ Marmee is willing we should go, now what shall we wear?”

“What’s the use of asking that, when you know we shall wear our poplins, because we haven’t got anything else?” answered Jo with her mouth full.

“If I only had a silk!” sighed Meg. “Mother says I may when I’m eighteen perhaps, but two years is an everlasting time to wait.”

“I’m sure our pops look like silk, and they are nice enough for us. Yours is as good as new, but I forgot the burn and the tear in mine. Whatever shall I do? The burn shows badly, and I can’t take any out.”

“You must sit still all you can and keep your back out of sight. The front is all right. I shall have a new ribbon for my hair, and Marmee will lend me her little pearl pin, and my new slippers are lovely, and my gloves will do, though they aren’t as nice as I’d like.”

“Mine are spoiled with lemonade, and I can’t get any new ones, so I shall have to go without,” said Jo, who never troubled herself much about dress.

“You must have gloves, or I won’t go,” cried Meg decidedly. “Gloves are more important than anything else. You can’t dance without them, and if you don’t I should be so mortified.”

Anita Ekberg, Ingrid Bergman and Marlene Dietrich

The fragment above is part of the novel Little Women, written by Louisa May Alcott in 1867. How the times have changed, as it was unthinkable for a lady to leave home for a party without wearing gloves. At those times they didn't really need to worry so much about their manicure at least. Or perhaps, yes, as some etiquette rules used to say a lady should always remove their gloves while eating or smoking, for example. Nevertheless, i can't picture Jo and Meg smoking. Even almost half century later, it could have been considered unappropriate for an upper class young lady to do so. Just picture Kate Winslet in Titanic. Maybe during the 1960s it was different? Hard to forget the iconic figure of Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany's and her long cigarette holder in marvelous black satin opera gloves. Dancing, though, would require gloves and no need to take them off. Picture Audrey again, this time in My Fair Lady, during the ball which will present us to her deep appearance change, from a flower girl to an aristocrat.

Women freed themselves from numerous social conventions along the 20th century. Hats were no longer an obligation, and neither were gloves. Along with 1970s sexual liberation, heads and hands were bared forever. Hats are still used now and them, in winter, for warmth and on the beaches during summer time. Gloves, and I'm not talking about leather winter gloves or any of this sort, but those gloves which were always worn with adornment purposes have disappeared long time ago. Satin opera gloves are hardly worn these days, for a few exceptions: Brides, debutante/prom gowns and a few celebrities in big red carpet events. Ah, and Dita Von Teese, Dita Von Teese and Dita Von Teese.

Ava Gardner, Marilyn Monroe and Rita Hayworth

Gloves can also be seen more often during Haute Couture shows, but imagine only women who are able to afford any of those gowns would (perhaps) be wearing evening gloves along them. At least if more Hollywood celebrities wore gloves often on the red carpet... It sounds really artificial to picture many of today's celebrities doing so. Gloves truly belong to another age, to an age of innocence which was buried right after the first world war. Of course there was a rebirth during the 1950s, the decade of feminity. And besides all that, how gloves and classic Hollywood were inseparable. From the first Hollywood films until its last golden decade, gloves were commonly worn in all glamourous ways. From a film set to the red carpet, from a photo shoot to an usual dinner in a restaurant. Movie stars were supposed to be goddesses and could never reveal their human nature. They made the audience believe they woke up as beautiful as ever and kept its perfection along the day.

Picture recent Hollywood films which take place in these classic times, like The Aviator and Hollywoodland. Scandals and any sort of dirty facts that were part of the actresses personal lives would never come out in public. After Marilyn Monroe's death, things drastically changed. The star system died and so did glamour and the above-the elbow length gloves. Celebrities these days are very much human and of course there are thousands of paparazzi who will always help us to think so. Many of them dress as trash as they can as well.

The obvious choices of the photographs in this post are due to my fascination for classic Hollywood actresses and their gloves. I've tried to find more about contemporary actresses and gloves, but most of them wear it with a hideous dress (Think of Geena Davis) or totally naked for a male magazine photo shoot. As for the gloves themselves, it seems like the opera ones have been worn since at least the late 18th century, and gloves reaching to or just below the elbow have been worn by women in Western countries since the 17th century. If you're interested about Fashion History, you'll certainly want to read a lot more about gloves here.

2007's Red Carpet Gloves: Heidi Klum and Evan Rachel Wood