1960s Christian Dior Vintage Sky Blue Leather Gloves with Black Bow

These gloves were made in France for Christian Dior between the 1950s and the 1960s. They are cut from soft sky-blue leather, with an oval cut-out at the wrist and a black leather bow beside it, and they are size 6.5. Christian Dior opened his house in 1946 and presented his first collection in February 1947, the collection that became known as the New Look. After his death in 1957 the house was led by Yves Saint Laurent and then, from 1961, by Marc Bohan. These gloves belong to those first two decades, when Dior defined the image of Parisian elegance.

Dior was among the first couture houses to extend its name systematically beyond the made-to-measure salon, to stockings, perfume, gloves and other accessories. This allowed far more women to own something from the house than could ever buy a couture dress. Gloves were particularly important: in the 1950s no well-dressed woman went out without them, and their colour, length and detail were coordinated with the outfit. A Dior glove offered the house's sense of line and proportion at the scale of the hand.

Through the 1950s and into the early 1960s, etiquette and fashion still required gloves for shopping, lunch, church and travel as well as for evening. Pale colours such as sky blue were associated with spring and summer and with daytime dressing. The habit faded through the 1960s as fashion became younger and more casual, so gloves of this period record a social convention at the last moment of its full strength.

The design concentrates its interest at the wrist. The oval cut-out lightens the glove and reveals a small area of skin, a discreet detail that also makes the glove easier to put on. The black leather bow, placed beside the opening, provides the only contrast on an otherwise pale, smooth surface, and its colour links the glove to the black accessories that often completed outfits of the period. The soft leather follows the hand closely, as a well-cut glove should.

Most vintage gloves show their use. A pair that remains unworn, with only light natural wear from age, allows the original colour, shape and detail to be seen as intended. Combined with the Dior name and a design typical of the house's first decades, these gloves are of interest both to collectors of Dior accessories and to anyone who wants to wear a precise piece of mid-century elegance.