19th century woman wearing gloves (Public Domain)
If you are a typical Texan you might wear gloves to keep your hands warm in winter, or to prune rosebushes, or as a welder. They are not at the top of the list of sartorial accouterments. But at one time they were.
In Great Britain and fashionable cities like New York and Boston during the 1800s, gloves were iconic symbols of well-dressed individuals. Without the right style of gloves you were snubbed as being lower class. No self-respectable Victorian lady would be caught dead with bared hands. Boarding school required students, both male and female, to bring an assortment of about twenty-one glove styles to learn their proper roles as upper-class citizens.
Gloves were changed multiple times during the day. They must fit smoothly and be immaculately clean; the very rich bought new gloves instead of having them cleaned. Ladies stored their collection of gloves in boxes with sweet smelling sachets.
Strict rules similar to those for men and their hats were part of social life in the 19th century. No one should go out of the house without gloves on. However, there were two exceptions, dancing and eating. Men never wore gloves into the dining room but ladies did. Before the meal began, women removed their gloves with hands in laps. No one was to see this ritual. Gloves were put in the lady’s lap and covered with her napkin. When the final course of the meal ended, the lady dipped her fingers in the finger bowl or cup, dried them with her napkin in her lap, and put the gloves back on, all the while keeping her hands below the table. Most of the time, the gloves were elbow length.
Men could not offer a woman his gloved hand so where greeting others was expected, the man removed the gloves from his right hand only. In his home no man wore gloves. Gloves were worn outdoors for comfort and warmth, but again removed to shake hands. Yet it was impolite to offer a lady a cold hand. Country gloves were stouter, but made of kid with a perfect fit.
Woman, probably in mourning, wearing gloves (Wikipedia)
At a Victorian funeral on either side of the Atlantic Ocean, the family of the deceased provided gloves for those attending with no intention of guests returning them. If the deceased was a child, unmarried, or a woman who died in childbirth, the mourners received white kid gloves. For services of married adults, widows or widowers, the gloves were black. This custom often left the family hard strapped for cash.
The zenith of the glove protocol was 1900. Such strict guidelines were fading with society. With the arrival and upheaval caused by the Great War that we refer to as World War I today, leather gloves became more and more difficult to obtain. The depletion of leather by the war cause drove prices of gloves sky-high. It actually decimated the industry. Some fifteen years later World War II finished off the ritual of gloves. Fabric rationing and the rise of sensible dress as a fashion trend ended the century long custom. Yet, women continued wearing gloves and hats to church and some social events through the 1950s.
While these social regulations prospered among the elite in Europe and the East Coast of the US, frontier residents could have cared less. From the 1880s forward, wives of prominent businessmen, bankers, cattle barons, and cotton brokers emulated the fashion for some time. However, when was the last time you saw a man or woman wearing gloves at a social event?