This very specific garment first appeared in the Middle Ages. Practical, it was designed to protect hands from the damage caused by hard labor, when it was not, on the contrary, the privilege of the ruling classes, whose hands were spared from work. Its luxurious symbolism grew stronger over the following centuries, until it became a refined and socially coded marker. “In the second half of the 19th century (...) the type of gloves worn, but also the way they were held, put on, or taken off, were signs that could be interpreted,” recalls historian Denis Bruna in the chapter on gloves in his book Petites histoires de nos vêtements (ed. Textuel).
Their presence then faded dramatically: “From the 1960s onwards, with women becoming more involved in professional life and needing to wear more practical clothing on a daily basis, and the baby-boom generation no longer wanting to dress like their parents, gloves fell out of favor.” No more suited to contemporary lifestyles than they were sixty years ago, gloves are nevertheless making a comeback today.