Perfumes became the mania in sixteen century Italy, and gloves, hair, hats, shirts, stockings, shoes, all had to be scented. Scented gloves, perfumed gloves, or sweet gloves, as they were called, were in great demand throughout Europe, probably up until the late 1700s. Perfumed gloves were firstly worn by women and men at Court, and by the other classes in the 1600s. Spain introduced gloves scented with violet powder, and Italy and France eventually became recognized for their perfumed gloves. Scented gloves from Spain were originally made of kid, velvet, and satin. In the 1600s, the elegant ornamented gloves produced in France came in different styles, and each style was named after the perfume with which they were scented.
During the research for scented gloves, it was discovered that all manner of fragrant herbs, cedar wood, myrtle, flowers and even drugs were used, singly and in combination, to give gloves a desirable aroma. So, an ordinary method of imparting the scent of particular flowers or spices was to mix animal fat or some kind of oil (almond oil, lavender, coconut) with essences then rub it into the glove.
P.S. I would not recommend my customers to try that method at home! As in reality it may spoil the leather look and leave spots that will be hard to get rid of. In my next Blog posts I’ll share how to add good scent to your gloves nowadays)
