Gloves, Past and Present

by Willard M. Smith

The thumbs now are stitched together individually and then are put into the glove itself. The next set of sewers stitch in the fourchettes—or sections forming the sides of the fingers—seam up all the fingers, and close up the long seam running from end to end of the glove. Passing into other hands, the openings at the wrists are skilfully bound and stiffened, or faced. Trimmers clip off all superfluous silk in the seams and turn the gloves right side out on wooden sticks. The wrists are then neatly hemmed. Clasps of metal, pearl, or covered with the silk, are stamped into the wrist facings by machinery—and the glove is ready for the examiner.

This is one of the most important steps in the whole process. It guarantees the perfect condition of every pair of gloves which leaves this factory, and ensures the merchant and his customer against any possibility of fraud in handling or buying the output of this company. The finished glove is turned on a stick resembling the glove stretcher commonly used at the counter; every seam and crevice is carefully tested and scrutinized. If no flaw is discovered the glove is pronounced ready for the packing room.

In order that the goods may present the finest appearance possible and that it may be restored to perfect freshness and shapeliness after passing through so many hands in the making, the gloves are placed on wooden forms in the packing room and enclosed in a heated box for from six to seven minutes. They are then taken out, slipped off the forms, and given to operators who stitch them together in pairs, label and tie them, and pack them in pasteboard boxes according to size and color. The finished glove is now ready to be placed on sale, and is fit to tempt the most discriminating customer of either sex.

But while the silk glove of recent years has become a truly progressive industry, let it not be imagined that the kid glove to-day is resting upon its laurels—great as its historical prestige certainly is! The methods of kid glove manufacture are being tirelessly improved upon; the product itself is of finer grade than ever before, it presents greater variety, it is all the time more cleverly adapted to modern uses. But only the designer of new styles in this important phase of apparel can fully appreciate the possibilities of the glove art as they open before him at the present hour.

The designer of French kid gloves, it goes without saying, is an artist. He may not be a Frenchman, however. It is a mistake to suppose that all the originality and all the inspiration to create a beautiful article of dress, acceptable to the fastidious of every land, must be of French origin. French influence, to be sure, plays an invaluable part in the education of such artists; but an American, with long training in the glove business, may have both the taste and the talent to invent glove masterpieces which will be eagerly adopted, not only in New York, but also in Paris. A few American experts actually have accomplished this thing, and their work is not to be lightly mentioned and passed over. It deserves our very special attention.

An artist who designs kid gloves, first of all has the feeling for gloves as gloves. His object is to originate something beautiful in glove form. Next, he knows the technique of glove-making from A to Z, just as the painter knows his pigments, the laws of color and of drawing. The glove designer realizes the physical limitations of his art, and equally he divines the developments of which that art is susceptible. He is thoroughly familiar with the materials at his disposal, with the machines and the skilled workers he must employ to execute his ideas.

At the same time, he has to be something of a journalist; he must keep his finger on the public pulse, and be able to prophesy what styles men, and especially women, will take kindly to wearing a season hence. Gloves, like everything else in dress, must satisfy the demands of fashion. They must change because life itself is change. They must adapt themselves to the costumes the shops are showing, to the mode of the hour, the latest conception of smartness and good taste.

In the hands of the designer of practical experience, who is also an artist, this becomes possible. Yet, to most people, gloves would appear a very limited field for the expression of originality! Examine, then, some of the new designs for this year and season. They will answer the question whether so simple and necessarily uniform an article as the modern glove is capable of much artistic variation, and from them also we can learn how such novelties are evolved.

Every large glove company has its own classical models—that is, there are certain standard styles of kid gloves of the best manufacture which virtually do not change from season to season. These have names, which are as well known in the glove trade as the names of real laces, of old, established design, to exporters and importers of that delightful commodity. For instance, in a famous glove shop on Fifth Avenue, New York, we are introduced to three classical styles—the Florine, the Seville and the Isère. These are all fine French gloves, of a cut and finish familiar to many of us. They are the foundation of all the other styles, which are simply clever variations of these three.

For example, the Florine, a simple, overseam glove, acquires a one-inch cuff of a contrasting color—and with it the romantic title of Bandallette. Many beautiful color combinations may be seen in the new Bandallette—alabaster with a brown cuff, canary with white, gunmetal with pale grey.