To Keep Your Hand In

Murderers and motorcyclists are so mad about gloves that they wear them the whole year round. Others, less smitten, don them only in the winter, for warmth, or on the job (doormen, surgeons, morticians, ushers), to impress a boss (secretarial applicants who cannot type), keep up appearances (debutantes and chauffeurs), curry favor (prospective brides brought home to tea with prospective mothers-in-law). Once considered standard everyday attire, and the only way to get a decent duel going, nowadays no one but a grandmother likes to wear gloves.

Well-Bred Intentions. Though they come in the most radiant of colors and the lushest of fabrics, range in length from wrist-short to shoulder-high and in price from $1 (nylon) to $145 (mink-cuffed French glace kid), the richest selection is scarcely splendid enough to make up for the bother. For one thing, women determined to look smart but who feel ill at ease with their hands encased will strip their gloves off at the earliest opportunity and spend the rest of the party looking for a ledge to lodge the gloves on; they generally end up wadding them into an overstuffed purse.

Some women do not bother to wear gloves at all, merely keep them in hand, and make the rounds clasping the evidence of their well-bred intentions like a badge. After several such wearings, most gloves begin to go limp, soon acquire wrinkles and creases no cleaner can cure. One Way Out. But, astonishingly enough, there is hardly a woman who would be caught dead without gloves. Why? Largely because of etiquette. Even as "bold" and "modern" a social arbiter as Amy Vanderbilt, who last year went so far as to sometimes permit picking up chicken bones by hand (a custom she personally practices only at picnics), warns that "it is still not true that if one goes hatless, one also goes gloveless" and insists "they should be worn to complete a street or evening costume." For eating hors d'oeuvres, "the right glove, at least, is removed or rolled back"; for dinner, "both gloves are removed completely." Particularly if there are chicken bones to pick up.

One proper way out: the girl with a shrewd eye toward a heavy social season ahead will buy a single pair of quality gloves, hang the expense, and put them into the pocket of her favorite coat. From there, they can be hauled out when necessary. And to there, they can be swiftly returned, immediately after an entrance or exit. With a little bit of luck, they need never be worn.

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