The Glove Makers Art
Originally, the leathers we used came from all around the world: from Yemen to Ethiopia for the kid, from North and South America for the deer and peccary (wild boar), from Africa for the crocodile, to Australia for the ostrich. These days we are working with our suppliers to encourage more sustainable and environmentally sensitive ways of working.
Each pair of our gloves go through twenty eight processing steps and are made by hand, using traditional methods by our dedicated team of craftsmen and women. Our team make a complete glove from start to finish so that each pair can be offered with pride. A pair of gloves takes a minimum of two hours, and an average of eight hours, to make. A special-order couture glove can take days.
We hope to never lose sight of the fact that every glove we make is going to end up on the hand of someone who will feel that little bit better for wearing them.
In our tanneries we select the best leather. We look for elasticity and the correct grain. The leather then goes through a colour bath to determine the correct finish. The leather is then dampened, so it can be worked.
Once this has been done it’s time to cut the leather. A cardboard pattern is placed, and a rectangle is traced around the pattern. After the fabric is cut with the hallow cutter, the shape of the glove is carefully finished with scissors. The shape of the thumb follows a particular procedure and is made individually.
All of the individual elements needed for making a pair of gloves are then assembled: the body of the gloves, the thumbs and the fourchettes, or the pieces that go in between the fingers. A series of gloves is called a pass; within a pass each pair of gloves is numbered to ensure that the pieces of a glove remain together.
First the pieces will be embroidered by hand or machine. There are six different stitching styles to choose from for the thumb alone, and eleven more for the rest of the glove. The piqué style, where one edge is lapped over the other and stitched on the very edge, so the seam is flat, elastic and smooth, is mostly used for fine gloves.
The elements are sewn up by a sewist or on one of our vintage Singer sewing machines. The thumb is then sewn to the body of the glove, and the fourchettes (the pieces that go in between the fingers) are matched perfectly to the length of the fingers. Once all of this is done, the glove is almost finished and really starting to take shape.
The lining – in fur, silk or cashmere – is inserted into the leather glove in the last phase of its packaging.
The final step consists of placing the gloves on the metal hand shaped irons known as “hot hands” in French. These tools, found only in glove making, use electrical resistance and heat to give the gloves their standard and final smoothed form.