A second skin

Gilda takes off her gloves

'Mother said you could always tell a lady by her hands' whined Suellen in 'Gone With the Wind' as she looking longingly at her own dirty fingers and ragged nails. (Poor Suellen, she had it hard after the civil war!)

Gloves played a huge part in everyday society for many centuries defining a 'Lady' and her worth. Pretty pink pale hands untouched by sun and hard work marked you out as upper class and civilised.

Gloves, for women at least, continued to play a huge role in dress and couture after the Second world war, and there was even a glove ettiquette as outlined by Lady Bagot in the introduction to her clothing exhibition; 'Long evening dresses were worn on all formal occassions with long white gloves'. Although she quite daringly rebelled against this rule by wearing pink kid elbow gloves with many of her evening ensembles!

There is something so tactile and alluring about gloves. When not being worn simply as a device to keep warm, they also elevate the wearer to someone untouchable and unable to touch making them different and intriguing!

In her 1946 film Rita Hayworth played her defining role as Gilda, a sizzling temptress who knew how to use her gloves to captivate an audience and her man. In fact the best striptease I have ever seen was performed by the elegant Dirty Martini. The audience were spellbound and completely silent as they watched her inch her long gloves slowly down her full arms pulling each finger loose seductivley with her teeth. She removed all her clothes after this but it was the act of removing her gloves and freeing her hands which stayed in my mind and entranced me the most.

All these thoughts were racing around the back off my mind when I viewed the gloves housed in Stoke's Potteries Museum and Art Gallery for my collaborative project. The immense number of ladies gloves they have was overwhemling but oh so bewitching!

Peeling back the tissue paper to uncover each enchanting pair was a joy; Mitts, gauntlets mittens and muffs. How intiguing to think they once graced a lady's hands, for evening entertainment, lunchtime engagments and dangerous liasons? Needless to say gloves will feature in my dressing room set adding to the overall story.

It seems the meaning and symbolism about gloves faded as they became less and less necessary from the 60's onwards. As with many things the romance has evaporated. But I know there are still a few glove afficiandos out there who have supreme respect for the hand coverings which single out a lady from the rest of the crowd. I often have enjoyed donning a pair of half length leather beauties for a night out and the attention they have got me!

But to illustrate how powerful gloves could be in their heyday here is a nice little anecdote told to me by the Museum's Collections Officer:

If a gent really liked a girl he would show his affections by giving her a gift of gloves. The gloves would have to reflect her in some way and couldn't be too racey! As gloves were part of everyday wear they were quite a personal item to buy and the man had to be thoughtful in his choice.

If the lady reciprocated his affections she would show this by wearing the gloves to church the following Sunday. What a compliment! But if she didn't like the man or wished to discourage him, she would wear mittens instead.

So next time you see a woman in a pair of gloves (excluding the rubber and woolly kind) show her the respect those gloves demand, she is a lady after all!

The fictional Wife

The many gentlemen candidates for 'The Husband'

I was back in Stoke last Tuesday continuing my collaborative project with Stoke Potteries Museum and Art Gallery.

I am using the Decorative Arts collection at the museum to create a dressing room set. It is my intention that every item of clothing, every object and placement will help to illustrate a story. Like looking at a crime scene it will be the viewers job to piece the clues together and come to a conclusion. To find out more and see where my ideas came from see some of my older posts.

Tuesday's visit was all about photographs. After rifling through handbags, cosmetics, jewelllery and accessories all of which are housed in the museum's extensive Decorative Arts collection, I am now looking for more personal touches to anchor the narrative. I was looking for photos to represent the main character and owner of the dressing room her husband and also various other pictures of events and loved ones to add interest and back story.

Lady Bagot studio portrait 1953

I've been hugely inspired by Lady Bagot of Staffordshire who donated a splendid collection of her clothing and accessories dating from the 1940's-1970's (more of this to come). The character I want to portray will be a socialite like Lady Bagot and high profile. I'm basing the dressing room set in a 40's 50's era as it represents a particular glamour that is hard to beat in later decades. Fortunately many of the artifacts I've already sourced for the set fit into this time slot too.

The photographic collection at the museum is divided into dates and catagories with many photos donated by the local people of Stoke. Myself and Carol, a volunteer at the museum, began by pulling out a huge file each, titled 'Women 1900-1950' and proceeded to whittle down likely candidates for my 'Lady' character.

It was so much fun and a real eye opener to see peoples everyday lives portrayed; everything from working class terraces to formal portraits. We found many interesting individuals like the rather serious looking old lady in a very uncomfortable black dress (a widow?) who was corseted up to the eyeballs. She was doing her best Queen Victoria impression (unwittingly) with the legend 'Auntie Lisem Filch in the garden' inked along the bottom of the photo.

I also found it very affecting to see black and white images of single women sitting staring out to the viewer then turning the paper over to see' Mother' inscribed on the back. This was once someones beloved parent, now an anonymous figure among many others stacked into a museum basement.

In fact all the photos were very special, right down to the out of focus slightly fuzzy ones, because they all captured a moment and person in time from Stoke's past. Yet hardly anything is known about who or what or even exactly where they portray.

The 'men' section was equally fascinating. One photo of a whiskered overall wearing chap even had a descriptive story on the back; ' Taken in the yard, just got in. Just come in from work not washed. Feeding Hope's Cat. Dollie is shadow'.

As we worked our way through the decades the photos began to peter out. Why? The invention and mass distribution of digital cameras. As more people embrace the technological age old school print outs are being fazed out. It makes you wonder how historians in the future will understand our world when archives will no longer be a physical thing you can handle and compare.

Domestic servant circa 1899 taken from the Stoke on Trent Collections Explorer

From amongst the holiday snaps, studio portraits and informal pictures, we managed to create a subtle narrative of a woman, married to a rather staid formal looking gentlman. There is a picture of them dancing at a soiree and a lovely shot of her with her pekinese dog. Somewhere in her life, maybe before her marriage, there is evidence of a performance background and a relationship with a sailor. The autographed photo of him signed 'your's very truely' and the fact she has kept it in her private boudoir could hint at something more? That is up to the viewer to decide when the set is complete and I am looking forward deciding how to display the photos in a natural personal way which will evoke the life of my fictional character.