Fashion-Conscious Are Giving Gloves a Big Hand

If fashion designers gave an award each season to the most improved accessory, the winner this fall would be gloves--hands down.

Once gloves discreetly complemented one’s clothing. Now the most outrageous, attention-getting feature of an outfit might be a pair of red plaid shorties or black suede gauntlet gloves, their cuffs lined in patent leather.

“You can do everything on the body in basic black, and have a fun print on your hands,” says Jay Ruckle, product director for LaCrasia, glove makers in New York City. As a sign of the glove’s growing clout, in March the company made gloves for more than 130 designers on Seventh Avenue.

“This year has been the hottest for gloves,” says Tally Basha, a New York City glove designer who has created some of the more whimsical styles of the season. Her gloves come adorned with trinkets such as gold crocodile charms or wooden beads.

“Women are not buying gloves just because of the cold,” she says. “They’re treating them more as a fashion look.”

A year ago, fun gloves were a scarcity--especially in sunny Orange County. Few retailers stocked more than a paltry selection of gloves, usually in plain leather and in conservative colors.

Now gloves come decorated with sequins, ostrich feathers, metal studs, pearls, whipstitching, fringe, big jewels and fabric-covered buttons. New textiles for gloves include patent leather, velvet, satin in a rainbow of hues and stretch Lycra printed with a mock houndstooth check or tartan.

“Everything before was quite basic. Now it’s a lot more fun to wear gloves,” Basha says.

Debbie Kuchinski, the Southern California glove buyer for Nordstrom, has found a wide variety of gloves, from sporty deerskin driving gloves to satin opera-length gloves.

“Gloves are the finishing touch,” Kuchinski says. “They look great with the Kelly bag (the short-strapped purse Grace Kelly made famous) that’s really important this fall. There’s more attention drawn to the hands.”

For high drama, try a pair of opera-length gloves in black stretch velveteen that crown the upper arms with ostrich feathers for $118 at Nordstrom in South Coast Plaza, Costa Mesa. They’re a perfect foil to a strapless gown.

To complement coats or motorcycle jackets, there’s a pair of black suede gloves that zip down to reveal a black patent leather lining, for $110 by Naomi Misle. They’re also available in cream-colored leather with a red patent leather lining.

Basha designed black suede gloves trimmed with dangling jet beads for $245 at Nordstrom, and a brown suede pair with a cluster of metal-studded wood beads wrapped around the wrist for $179. She created shorty gloves in black leather with gold heart charms and a red leather pair with crocodiles, both $119.

“A lot of my collection is based on nature--the wood beads, the animal (charms),” Basha says. “It comes from traveling around and being exposed to different cultures.”

Designer Carolina Amato created a Chanel-inspired glove with a quilted velvet cuff adorned with a pearl button and a tan suede pair bordered with 1-inch fringe that can match the season’s denim and Navajo looks, both $76 at Nordstrom.

“Designers and manufacturers have sparked the industry,” says Robert Rosenthal, fashion director for Macy’s South and Bullock’s.

“There’s a lot of color being used and a lot of detail, from whipstitching to studding. Anything with a unique detail is hot.”

Gloves tend to follow fashion’s footsteps, he says. Plaids, which are all over ready-to-wear, have also turned up on gloves, whether as trim or covering the entire piece.

LaCrasia has seen strong demand for the company’s gauntlet gloves, Ruckle says. Their gauntlets have extended cuffs or flare out above the wrist and are trimmed with metal studs, Chanel-like chains or pearls.

“It’s the elegant motorcycle look,” Ruckle says.

One prime pair: black knit gloves with a contrasting cuff of black and white houndstooth check, $38 at Bullock’s in South Coast Plaza.

“We’re also starting to do a lot of denim gloves, whether a full denim or just on the cuff,” he says. “And pearls are all over the place.”

The fun styles are attracting buyers who have never worn gloves before, Basha says. Many are young women who are discovering what their mothers already know: Gloves give an outfit the finishing touch.

For them, buying gloves sometimes requires an education.

“Gloves, like hemlines, come in all different lengths,” Kuchinski says.

Gloves are measured in “buttons,” with the first button measuring an inch from the base of the thumb, she says. The system of measurement hasn’t changed since the days of Napoleon when gloves had buttons.

Women can choose from the shorty two-button style to the long 16-button, opera-length gloves.

They can also wear the gloves when and where they want, unlike their mothers and grandmothers, who at times were forced into plain white gloves by the dictates of society.

Kuchinski wears gloves driving or walking around Laguna Beach in the evenings.

Basha has seen a lot of women wearing her more outrageous gloves in the daytime, “even the feather ones.”

“They go well with the biker leather look that’s going on,” she says.