Gloves

Anne Green is Emeritus Professor of French at King’s College London. Her most recent book is Gustave Flaubert (Reaktion, 2017).

"This little book leaves one looking at gloves with new eyes. And with the conclusion that in losing them we have not only lost an attractive accessory, but a rich, symbolic language. The language of glove." - World of Interiors"Between Carrie’s rubber dish gloves for her daily smoke and that grand gown finale on the bridge in Paris, gloves played a memorable supporting role in the Sex and the City reboot And Just Like That . . . This lively new book uses photographs and pop culture to unfurl the cultural significance of the humble glove across eras, and never were manners and mores more important than in the etiquette-obsessed Gilded Age. Read it to be armed for their imminent revival." - Zoomer Magazine, Canada"Absolutely fascinating: a timely foray into the strange world of gloves in all their symbolic and functional glory." - Claire Wilcox, senior curator of fashion, V&A, and author of Patch Work: A Life Amongst Clothes (2020)"At once erudite and accessible, Anne Green’s magnificent “glove story” unearths the cultural history of an accessory whose meanings and functions are as varied as its forms. Protecting the humble worker’s hands and epitomizing fashion’s glittering power, gloves reveal insights into social rituals, tastes, and morals, as well as individual passions." - Susan Hiner, Professor of French, Vassar College, and author of Accessories to Modernity: Fashion and the Feminine in Nineteenth-Century France