Our story
In 1890 in the town of Millau, Henry Apollinaire married his childhood sweetheart Delphine. The families were close, sharing the esteemed trade of glove makers. The couple were very happy and very much in love.
So it came as no surprise two years later, when Henry decided to establish his own glove making company, that he named it after his dear wife, Delphine Apollinaire.
At first the couple were worried they would never have a child, but in 1896 all of their dreams came true and they were blessed with a beautiful baby girl who they named Amelie. She was an extraordinary girl, and quite unlike any of her peers. You would not find Amelie with the other young ladies chattering about young men and the fashions of the time. From the moment she could walk Amelie spent all of her time at her father’s side. There were times her mother would be quite exasperated when Amelie would return home with her dresses stained from being in the tannery. But their daughter loved her father and loved glove making.
The First World War ravaged France, as it did the rest of Europe, and there was much heartbreak and businesses were hit hard. But in 1916, Amelie met a young English soldier called Charles who would change the course of her life forever.
At the end of the war Charles returned to England, much to the dismay of Amelie. Life began to settle down and Amelie went back to working with her father. But as much as she tried to deny it, Amelie’s heart was elsewhere and after much arguing with her father she moved to England in 1920 to marry Charles.
In 1921 Charles and Amelie were blessed with their first and only son, François. It was a difficult birth and Emily only just survived. The doctors warned her she must never have another child. Amelie loved François as any mother would love her son, but life in England was difficult and the woman who was used to working by her father’s side, with no prospect of having any more children, soon became restless and dissatisfied.
After many conversations with Charles and her father in 1925, Amelie started to establish own small glove making business in England under the family name of Delphine Apollinaire. Initially her father shipped her leather and patterns from France, but over the years Amelie started to make her own contacts, find her own suppliers and train a small team of glove makers. By 1935 she was in the position to open her own small glove making factory near Salisbury.
In 1937 the family sadly lost Henri, Amelie’s father, who died peacefully in his sleep. Jules, Amelie’s younger brother took over the family business. Unfortunately, in 1943 he died in a terrible car accident, and the French arm of the business was forced to regretfully and quietly wind down.
In 1950, François had his own daughter who he named Philippa, and in 1953 had a son who he named after his father Charles.
By now, business in England is booming, François works with his mother to build the business. They sell their gloves internationally. Their work is used on television and in film. François and Amelie are adaptable and move with the times.
The business and the traditions that come with it, continue to be passed down through the generations. In 1975 the first Delphine Apollinaire’s Boutique for the Hand is opened in Salisbury. Philippa, like her grandmother before her, works at her father’s side and takes over the business in 1981, which she runs until 2015.
Phillipa’s twins Chloe and Robert took over the business in 2015 and opened a second boutique in Paris. They have been working with suppliers and designers trying to make the gloves more sustainable and environmentally friendly, and have gone back to their roots and started to work with the few remaining esteemed glove makers of Millau, while at the same time courting the fashion houses, magazine shoots and influencers of our time. Who knows what the next generation of the Apollinaire dynasty will bring?