Gloves: sizing, etiquette and all other stuff

[Paul]

Finger rings and ladies gloves

Please can the ladies help me with a answer to this question.

When wearing opera length kid gloves did ladies ever wear a finger ring over the gloved finger and if so what period?
Thank Paul.

 

[scotrace]

I can tell you that Mary Lincoln was criticized for "not having enough sense" to wear her rings on the outside of her gloves. 1860's.

 

[Cherriexo]

I wanna wear gloves as my Mom would always say my Aunt never,ever went anywhere without hat and gloves,but above ALL gloves.

I was at Claire's the other day and thought about buying a simple pair to go with this mink/black late 50's coat my Grandmother gave to me (which floors any man at a bar.)

So any advice on glove buying? Since everywhere Ive gone to vintage stores Ive seen hands made for miniture people.

 

[NicolettaRose]

I have the opposite problem of many people, my fingers are too slender ( Size 4.5 ring), so the best gloves for are generally the ones from the Edwardian era and the 1920's, but some from 1950's and 1940's work.

Does anyone have any gloves from the Edwardian Era or the 1920's, I've been looking at some lovely, (but rather expenisve) ones, and am deciding if they are worth the investment.

 

[Sunny]

I can tell you that Mary Lincoln was criticized for "not having enough sense" to wear her rings on the outside of her gloves. 1860's.

Hmm, I'd never heard that. As a CW reenactor, I ought to look into that. The poor woman certainly got a lot of abuse, not all of it deserved. From what I do know, this was likely an evening occasion. For the most part in the 1860s, gloves were liable to be put on and taken off a good deal during the day, and it would be extremely ungenteel to be fighting with one's finger jewelry in the foyer of a friend's home.

 

[BettyValentine]

Did they have certain rings they could only wear with gloves? I couldn't wear any of my rings over gloves. I'd have to have separate rings that were worn over gloves if I were going to do that. Or wear those funny adjustable ones. ^_^

All I know of the situation was from an episode of Green Acres where Oliver's mother came to visit and he said 'Mother! You've got a swollen knuckle!" and she said, "Oh, no I don't. That's just this:" and whipped off her glove to reveal a 2" diamond. But those weren't opera gloves, I just thought it was funny.

 

[mysterygal]

Never. If I wear gloves, they are the only accessory on my hands. I may choose to wear a pearl or diamond bracelet however. Generally, I want the attention to be my face, therefore, wear earings and a nice necklace. A flashy ring on the finger of a gloved hand would just be too much distraction (of course there are always those who can pull such things off!)

 

[Lady Day]

Well...
I find most of my vintage gloves to fit fully on the thumb, but be a bit short on the digits. Maybe that gap between fabric and finger was to compensate for some jewelry? [huh]

LD

 

[Elle]

The very few times I wore my rings on the outside, I always ended up taking them off and forgetting they were there. I would then spend the next morning running around like a chicken with her head cut off looking for the darn thing.

I don't find that to be very practical.

 

[Miss Match]

I've heard about gloves that had a little hole over the third finger of the left hand, so a lady could show off her engagement/wedding ring, but they were considered kind of tacky.

 

[Paul]

Thank you all it's nice to here the thoughts on this slightly odd subject.

 

[jitterbugdoll]

Here is an good site which discusses the etiquette of opera gloves:

http://home.att.net/~design-house/etiquette_gloves.htm

 

[MissElizabeth]

According to my copy of Emily Post:

"Jewelry, including watches, is worn underneath gloves."

And just for fun:

[When dressing for a ball] "...women may wear long gloves, which they leave on through the beginning of the ball but remove when they begin dancing or eating."

 

[mysterygal]

OK, I've been doing some faux pas! eating with gloves off is a bit of a no-brainer, but, I always thought you kept the gloves on when you're dancing...or does it really matter?
jewelry; I do where rings under mine, their small anyways and the hassle of taking them off (and the fear of losing them- which is so like me ) it seems though that if you had a large ring underneath a glove, it would stand out too much! It actually would look nice wearing a bigger piece on the outside, just no flinging of the hands!

 

[Brooksie]

I love hats and gloves, I probably have about 10 hats and 20 pairs of gloves. I have a couple pairs of long black gloves from the victorian era that were passed down to me. I recently found two very nice pairs of leather gloves (with the tags still on them even) for $3.00ea, they look to be from the 1950's, I found them at my favorite thrift store. One pair is cream colored (they are very soft like a kid skin kind of leather) the other is black leather trimmed with white stitching. I end up wearing gloves far more often then hats because my hands are always cold.

Brooksie

 

[Etienne]

There are literally THOUSANDS of vintage gloves on eBay!! And they go for very modest prices. The ones I collect are those that come in colors--from the 40's, and I choose those which coordinate with either my hats or handbags or belts. I only wear 40's vintage (or even current clothing with a 40's feel) so it helps to narrow down my choice of accessories. I don't have any gloves longer than mid-forearm and I LOVE the ones that sort of scrunch down a bit. Short ones are easy to find and I think I have all that I need now. The vibrant colors pull the whole outfit together with the hat or purse, jewelry, or belt in the same shade. A great place see the looks you might gravitate toward is vintage clothing patterns. They usually have the dress or outfit shown with the right type of hat, gloves, bag, etc. VERY inspirational!

 

[pigeon toe]

Hamilton Honey, you look adorable! I love that hat on you.

I'm another Bay Area person too (well, originally, now I live in LA for school). I used to live in Kentfield (right next to San Rafael). One of my best friends lived up in Novato. I'm so excited to be going home in a few weeks, even though I love LA it just isn't the same as the Bay!

 

[ShooShooBaby]

i can't seem to get myself together enough to be fully coordinated with gloves and hat. occasionally i will wear one or the other, if stuff matches nicely, but i def don't wear them as a necessary part of a vintage outfit, even though it may be part of it. like others have said, i tend to feel a bit costumey or over-the-top with them as well.

this only applies to when i'm wearing vintage though... it's cold here so i've been wearing my knitted hats and fingerless gloves and stuff every day!

 

[Nashoba]

Dying Gloves

Has anyone ever done this? I was cleaning the other day and going through my gloves and realized that I have a large number (bordering on ridiculous) of white gloves. Obviously I'm not going to dye my kidskin ones but I have a large number of cotton and other fabric gloves that I think would take to dye fairly well. I can't imagine it being any different than dying any other fabric but I was wondering if anyone had done it and with any success. I was also concerned about the color coming off on my hands. No matter how I try to set the dye I always end up with a period of 'bleeding' where I have to be careful how I wash it and the weather I wear it in. The last thing I want to do is dye a pair blue and end up with blue hands while wearing them! So has anyone tried it? Did it work? Did it look good?
I need to stop buying white gloves....

 

[Foofoogal]

fftopic: Everytime I see your little note at bottom of your page I say a prayer for all our soldiers and their loved ones. Have 2 nephews in Iraq currently and one fixing to go into the service.
You just look so vintage cute in your avatar.