Victorian Fingerless Gloves, Glove Rules and Styles

Clockwise from upper left to lower left:

1. Butterfly Snap Gloves - Radjuli 

2. Perfect Fall Mitties - sevndreams 

3. Pewter Cuff - skywatcher1121

4. Angor and Soysilk Lace Gauntelts - Lacewood

 

I was recently approached by an acquaintance who, once he found out that I made steampunk-inspired jewelry, told me that he had his mind set on selling fingerless gloves with a steampunk aura to them.  He showed me a printed photograph of some ugly misshapen rainbow-colored mitts that in my opinion had more of a grandma aura to them than steampunk.  I thought he was crazy.

So I Googled "Victorian gloves", and sure enough, the demure little fingerless gloves were mentioned in several articles about the time period.

It seems that these gloves, called "mitts", had a run of popularity until the 1840's as an informal accessory.  Ladies always wore gloves in public, and often wore them indoors as well.  The etiquette surrounding hand wear could take up volumes, but here are a couple of web sites that sum up the topic tidily.

http://www.shootingstarhistory.com/gloves.html

And at the top, you will find a few items from Etsy that I liked.

~ DS