Mittens, a fashion icon through the ages

Elizabeth I might have been one of the first, the king of fashion, Karl Lagerfeld, adored them and today’s stylists have put their eyes on them.

If we were to do research to know which are the accessories that throughout the history of fashion have remained incorporated to the looks, we could tell you that the `mittens’ are one of them. Roy C. Strong writes in his Portraits of Queen Elizabeth I: „In the 16th century gloves reached their greatest elaboration, when Queen Elizabeth I set the fashion for wearing them richly embroidered and jeweled, and for putting them on and taking them off during audiences, to draw attention to her beautiful hands.^”   Since the time of Elizabeth I, the ladies of high society included mittens in their looks. We see this very well reflected in Kirsten Dunst’s starring role in Sofia Coppola’s ‘Marie Antoinette’.   Even more in our times, mittens have been a key piece for the outfits of artists such as Madonna. Gloves were already prized by the Persians and after the glove boom in fashion of the 50s and 60s, it was the king of fashion, Karl Lagerfeld, who revived them when he made fingerless gloves an essential element of his everyday life. Or more recently the sweet Emily who in this last season of Emily in Paris wore mittens with almost all her looks.   If you like creating a bold and chic look you definitely should include a nice pair of mittens.