History Connections. Gloves, it's all about fashion.

Following on from the fabulous podcast from Unexpected History about The Glove, (as seen and heard on the History Hit Network via iTunes) my first reaction was we don't have any gloves in the KVHS collection. However, the other day, when I was walking past one our exhibitions, there in the Country Women's Association (CWA) exhibit, was a photo of women from the Kiewa Valley with gloves on.

As part of KVHS's "What Makes A Community? - Clubs" exhibition we featured the CWA from Tawonga. The CWA in Tawonga was set up by local woman Clare Roper in 1946 and ran till 1988. Its main aim was to improve the lives, health, well-being and education of women and children in remote countries towns of the country. In the 1940's many women in Tawonga lived on farms, thus could feel isolated, so the CWA was an excellent organisation where women could meet and feel part of the community.

The above photo is from a scrapbook compiled by Clare Roper, which records the achievements of the Tawonga and Kiewa Valley CWA. It is also a fantastic history of the fashions of the 1940's and 50's. These two ladies in this photo represent the fashion of the day. White gloves along with hats was the accepted etiquette for women of style. Just because women came from a small country town did not mean a drop in fashion standards. During the 1950’s gloves would have been worn for formal functions, going to church, or restaurants and when visiting major cities.

KVHS had recently had an exhibition which displayed another well-known lady wearing gloves. You may recognize who this is, a young Queen Elizabeth. The Public Records Office of Victoria had a travelling exhibition called “We Saw the Queen” which we were fortunate to have at our museum. The Queen visited regional centers and many of our local children traveled to Albury / Wodonga to see the Queen wiz past in her car, thus this exhibition was significant to our local members. We had a luncheon at our museum where our members and friends told of their brush with royalty while munching on cucumber sandwiches. Of course in the 1950’s ladies took their gloves off to eat, which we didn't have to worry about.

I had my own brush with royalty when I worked for a season at Buckingham Palace as a warden/tour guide. Alas, the uniform did not include gloves! This a story for another time and another blog.