The Golden Age of the Opera Glove: Fashions of the Late Victorian and Edwardian Eras
When most people think of opera gloves, perhaps one of the historical periods they most commonly associate them is the later part of Victoria's reign up through the beginning of World War I (1880 - 1914). This is as it should be, for the mousquetaire opera glove truly reached its first great height of popularity at that time. During the earlier Victorian period, gloves had tended to be elbow-length, if even that long, for evening wear, and sleeves, being worn long in the day, mandated short, wrist-length gloves. However, during the 1870's and 1880's, the mousquetaire, in elbow length (14 to 17 inches) and the classic "opera" length (19 inches to 22 inches and even longer) began to popularize itself with fashionable women throughout North America and Europe, in no small part due to the influence of Sarah Bernhardt (see The History of the Opera Glove for more). As sleeves for evening wear grew shorter and often disappeared entirely, and necklines dipped again, gloves grew correspondingly longer (your webmaster sometimes thinks that there is some kind of informal fashion rule to the effect that, the lower the bustline, the longer the glove!) This gallery, the first in the series dedicated to the Edwardian Era, is intended to show a representative sampling of the glove fashions of the fin-de-siecle era. (For more pictures, see The Harrison Fisher Gallery of Gloved Ladies, Gibson Girls in Opera Gloves, and The Sarah Bernhardt Glove Gallery, the Edwardian Celebrities Glove Gallery, and, of course, all the other Edwardian Era Fashion Opera Glove Galleries!
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Many of the fashion plates in this gallery were excerpted from The Costumer's Manifesto. This site provides extensive resources and links for researchers interested in the fashions of the Victorian and Edwardian eras. Some illustrations also contributed by Stephen, webmaster of The Tight Skirts Page
Email me at webmaster@operagloves.com or jadmirel@earthlink.netwith comments, questions and suggestions
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