By 1880 we see evening gloves extending even beyond the elbow, sometimes with 20 buttons to fasten. Then, we see them increasing in inches with each passing year. And while some may imagine such things being worn on a hot summer day as incredibly unbearable, keep in mind that a lot of the fabrics of the time, including kid leather, were far more breathable than those we use in clothing today.įollowing in the fashion of the wrist-to-below-elbow styles of day gloves, up until the 1860s evening gloves followed the same rules. Swoon.Īs I will come back to, it is important to remember that such gloves were worn for purposes of modesty rather than comfort/weather. The embellishments most often found were lovely embroidered flowers. In the early Victorian era such gloves may have had a ribboned top, but this fell out of fashion by the mid-1800s. Started to extend toward the elbow in later Victorian era. Your gloves should always be of kid: silk or cotton gloves are very vulgar.” ( Lady’s Book of Etiquette, 1860)ĭaytime gloves were short, just extending to the wrist, and often of pale colors.

You should no more be seen puling on your gloves in the street than tying the strings of your bonnet. “Never go out without gloves put them on before you leave the house. Says the 1860’s Lady’s Book of Etiquette:

The standard daytime glove during the Victorian era was the “kid” glove, with “kid” being the type of leather used (I used to think “kid” referred to the length of the glove, but I was wrong!). And how to select which pair to wear? Here are some basics But if one did venture into public, gloves were on. In a society with such strict rules, this is something that would have been seen as odd behavior. Gloves were not required or expected inside of one’s own home when not entertaining. Instead, wearing gloves in public was seen as being as mandatory as wearing shoes, and different gloves were available for casual and formal settings. While today we may think that wearing gloves for any occasion may feel like being a bit dressed up, that wasn’t the case at the time. A woman of any social class would have owned many pairs of gloves during the Victorian period.

Women wearing opera gloves