All images: Fashion Museum.
One of the most comprehensive collections of gloves in the world is on display at the Fashion Museum in Bath until March 2020. Glove Stories showcases the breadth and depth of The Glove Collection of the Worshipful Company of Glovers of London, cared for and housed at the Fashion Museum.
It includes exquisite examples of historical gloves from the past 400 years, many of which have never been displayed to the public before. For example, heavily embroidered gauntlet gloves from the 1600s, an unusual pair of gloves in a walnut shell from the 1830s, and the Duke of Edinburgh’s carriage-driving gloves. The exhibition also touches on outer space with a Soviet cosmonaut’s glove and a costume glove from the Star Wars film The Empire Strikes Back.
Rosemary Harden, Fashion Museum Manager, said, “Glove Stories is a celebration of the long-standing relationship between the Fashion Museum and The Worshipful Company of Glovers of London. The Company has most generously loaned their superb Glove Collection to the Museum since the 1980s.”
“For some years now, we have been conscious that different gloves in the Collection have been housed in different locations. So, two years ago we set about bringing all the gloves in the Collection together under one roof at the Fashion Museum in Bath, so that they can be more easily presented on display and brought to the attention of a wider audience. The display features groups of gloves and focuses on uncovering unique and different stories, while also celebrating the incredible craftsmanship and skills involved in this often-overlooked area of fashion along the way.”
Glove Stories shines a light on the British glove industry. At one time there were hundreds of glove makers across Britain, centred in the towns and villages of Somerset, Dorset and West Wiltshire.
For details, visit Selvedge’s event listings.
Fashion Museum, Bath, UK.
My glove story is very personal.I was visiting Florence(Italy) with my husband,for just a few days, during a long overseas trip in 2010.(Australians take long trips because we have to travel so long to get anywhere!!) On the way to the Uffizi Gallery,from our hotel, we passed a shop window FULL of just gloves-every colour imaginable, and all made of leather. Now, I have very large hands for a woman(easily larger than a 7), but on our way back, later in the day, I just had to visit the shop and admire the beauties. I fell in love with RED gloves (red being my favourite colour) and the kind staff helped me try on a few pairs, but few fit…Finally, after being smitten by a fire engine red suede pair, they found the very largest pair would actually fit me!! BLISS!! My mother, in palliative care just after we returned home, loved my gloves and tried them on her, by then, tiny hands. I wore those gloves to my mother’s funeral, explaining during my eulogy, why they were meant to be at such a sombre occasion. They were one of my last links with my mother before she passed away.