Collecting vintage and new opera gloves is fun and easy - and it doesn't have to put a big hole in your wallet!

For vintage gloves, your absolute best bet online is eBay, the world's largest online auction house. There are dozens, sometimes hundreds, of auctions ongoing every day of the year for vintage leather gloves, including opera-length and other long gloves. All you have to do is enter a search with keywords such as "kid gloves" or "opera gloves" and you're on your way!

Antique stores and vintage-clothing stores are also good sources for vintage opera gloves. Many towns have large numbers of antique stores, and some towns - Selma, N.C. and Leesburg, Va., for example - are known as antique havens. Just about every good-sized city has at least one vintage clothing or consignment store where you may be likely to find opera gloves: for instance, in my area (Washington, DC), two good stores to visit are Vintage to Vogue in Bethesda, Md., and Odessa's Daughters in Fairfax, Va.

If you want to wear your vintage opera gloves, you should look for at least a size 7, preferably a size 8, depending on the size of your hands. Vintage glove sizes are about a size smaller than modern glove sizes, and vintage size 6, which is one of the most common vintage sizes, is too small for many modern hands (petite women, though, may be in luck!). Those who are collecting vintage gloves for display purposes don't need to worry so much about size.

The pricing of a vintage glove will depend to a large extent on its condition. Brand-new kidskin opera gloves will sell from anywhere from $150 to $265, depending on vendor, but you can get good-condition vintage kidskin opera gloves for much, much less from eBay or an antique or vintage clothing store. I have found that you can get a pair of vintage kidskin opera gloves in good condition (the leather is still soft, smooth and supple, and reasonably clean with minimal spotting and/or staining) for as little as $10 depending on where you shop. $10 - $40 per pair is a reasonable price range.

Virtually all kidskin opera gloves, vintage or new, come in white (or a related color such as ivory or taupe), or black. If you are looking for another color, such as red or blue, you will probably have to settle for another material such as silk or satin. However, shorter gloves (such as the 14" "three-quarters-length" type), when made of kidskin, can come in an extremely wide variety of colors and decorations. Some kidskin opera gloves are decorated with rhinestones, sequins or elaborate stitching.

The length of a glove is traditionally expressed in "buttons", an antique French unit of measure which is slightly longer than one inch. Button measures are customarily taken from the bottom of the thumb seam to the top of the glove, and the actual length of the glove in inches is 6 to 7 inches longer than the length in buttons. The various traditional lengths are:

2-button: Also known as "shorties", these are wrist-length gloves, generally 8 to 9 inches long.

4-button: These gloves are 10 to 11 inches long and cover the wrist, reaching a couple of inches up onto the forearm.

6-button: 12 to 13 inches long, these gloves reach well up onto the forearm. Many "gauntlet" type gloves (i.e., these gloves with flared armpieces in the style of equestrian gauntlets) are this length. A favorite length for daytime wear.

8-button: 14 to 15 inches long, this type of glove reaches to the upper forearm. This is also known as the "three-quarter" length glove, and is the style most closely associated with the great actress Audrey Hepburn.

12-button: Approximately 18 to 19 inches long, this type of glove reaches up to and just over the wearer's elbow. Known as "elbow-length" in common parlance, and many have mousquetaire wrist openings, but not to be confused with:

16-button: 22 to 23 inches long - this is the classic OPERA length, and as a general rule comes with the mousquetaire wrist opening. The very longest length of glove is...

21-button: 27 to 29 inches long, this glove generally reaches all the way to the wearer's armpits. This is possibly the most dramatic length of glove, and is generally worn only with strapless or sleeveless evening outfits.

TAKING CARE OF YOUR VINTAGE GLOVES

Vintage gloves are best stored in dry places, wrapped in tissue paper or kept in a specially made glove box (you can find lovely glove boxes at just about any good antique store) or in plastic containers (the kind you can get at any dollar store) with tight, sturdy lids. The objective in storing vintage gloves is to keep the leather in its original condition of softness, smoothness and suppleness.

Cleaning vintage leather gloves can sometimes be problematic, especially with white kid gloves, when the stains have been in the leather for a long time. The best substance I have found so far for cleaning leather gloves is Horseman's One-Step, a lanolin-based cream which you can purchase at any tack shop (a store specializing in saddlery) and at some leather-goods stores. Lexol, a liquid which comes in two varieties (cleaner and conditioner) is available at many leather-goods stores and can also be used, but must be used with caution because it will tend to stiffen and darken leather if improperly applied. As a last resort, you could have a leather repair store redye the leather to its original color, though this might or might not have a deletrious effect on the suppleness of the leather.

Two articles from 1868 and 1911 give different approaches to cleaning kid gloves. The first, from the 1911 book The Practical Drycleaner, Scourer, and Garment Dyer, edited by William T. Brannt, is not really practical for the average glove collector, calling as it does for large quantities of benzene, ether and chloroform (running the risk of accidentially knocking yourself out while cleaning your operas! The second article, a cleaning recipe from an 1868 Ladies Friend (later to be called Peterson's Magazine), presents a more feasible method, which calls for milk, "yellow soap", and white flannel. The original scans of the articles, contributed by Marna Jean Davis of Shooting Star Enterprises, are provided below for your review and edification; for the 1911 article, the first, second and third images are the most relevant to kid gloves. A third recipe, originally presented in Godey's Lady's Book in 1865, calls for pipe clay (not as odd as it sounds; in the 18th century, it was a standard part of a British soldier's kit for keeping the white parts of his uniform spotless) and yellow ocher, mixed in proportion according to the exact color of the glove.

The 1868 glove-cleaning recipe:
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The 1911 glove-cleaning procedure:
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