Here's more on Jo Lawrence's film "Glover", inspired in part by her visit to Dents' factory in Warminster. The film itself may be seen at

http://www.vimeo.com/9405952

Jo Lawrence was Digital Media Resident at the V&A between July and December 2008. During her residency Jo used the V&A collections as inspiration for her work.

Glover is a glove maker whose story is told in a stop-frame animation. Glover's story was inspired by the fusion of two sources of inspiration from the V&A's vast collection: a reproduction of the Ebstorf Map and a pair of ornate leather and satin gloves (1600).

The Ebstorf map is a representation of the medieval view of the world in 1300. It appears to introduce a fourth continent on the periphery, Terra Incognita, the unknown world, inhabited by imaginary creatures, such as gigantipedes, monopods and nose-less men.

Similarly the 'glovecreatures' in Glover's interior world are a departure from the familiar, known and safe world of his workshop. Glover's journey takes him to the furthest reaches of his imagination, Terra Chirotheca , or Gloveland. It is a place of both horror and delight, where he meets a series of strange hybrids that are part beast or human and part glove.

Glover has been shortlisted for the Short Film category of the British Animation Awards 2010, and selected for the Public Choice Award. It will be screened at 27 venues across the UK during 2010.

After a run of extremely successful trade shows, we thought we'd share some pictures with you..... 

First of all Moda Accessories at the NEC, Birmingham.

Often, there was no room to move...

 Next over to New York: the picture on the left is the MRket menswear show in January, where we shared a stand with Breuer of France, Corgi Hosiery of Wales, and Codis Maya of England...

and the picture on the right is from the Coterie, where Dents and its sister company Corgi Hosiery had a joint stand.

Last week Dents played host to the crew from BBC’s Flog it! antiques programme. The art of glove making was filmed for a segment in the popular day time television show. Flog it! regularly gets an audience of 2 million viewers each weekday – around 25% of the television audience.   

The film crew spent several hours filming both in our museum and in our factory. Deborah Moore, Dents' Creative Director, showed presenter Paul Martin the glove making process for a pair of Peccary leather gloves, from the cutting of the leather, right the way through to the final stage of ironing the gloves.

After the filming Paul took time out to chat to the staff and sign autographs.

The program is due to air on BBC2 early in the summer. We'll let you know the exact date when we have it.

From Deborah, our Creative Director... 

Have you SPOTTED the latest trend to hit the High Street? 

Usually this time of year is dominated with the usual predictable nautical sailor stripes in red, white and blue… but if you have a look around you will SPOT the new trend! Vintage inspired fresh clean spots are perfect for the new spring season. Already available on everything from ladylike swimwear to elegant forties style shift dresses, spots are a major fashion trend on the march.

If head to toe spots feel a little too much for you, take one plain outfit and accessorise well. Select from a wide range of options available from Dents: spotty trimmed visors (for looking cool at the tennis courts) to a delicate spotted leather glove (for your friends' wedding). Or a fabulous spotty oversize clutch bag (to update your classic LBD), or even a soft canvas bag for relaxing days by the sea.

This season, get spotted in the right trend!

Deborah

P.S. click on the images for larger views!

Don’t forget, Moda Accessories and Moda Menswear at the National Exhibition Centre, Birmingham. Moda is the UK’s largest fashion trade show. At Moda Accessories we'll be featuring our stunning autumn glove, handbag, scarf and small leather goods collections, while at the Menswear show we'll be showing our classic gloves, scarves and small leather goods.

Dents is one of the original exhibitors at this show, which has greatly expanded over the years. It’s also a great place to network and catch up with what’s going on in the industry - and there's lots to see and do, seminars, catwalk shows, and even a party, so be sure to visit us there!

We’ve had a tremendous amount of interest in our women’s Heritage Glove Collection, so we’ve decided to show the Collection and other special fall glove styles at the prestigious Coterie show at the Javits Center, New York, February 21st – 23rd. This is a designer led show, and Deborah, our Creative Director, has been busy over the past few months working with her design team to produce a collection of gloves completely in tune with this fall’s trends. Judging from the reaction we’ve had so far, I’d say she’s really hit the mark!

Visit us at booth 5425. Dents will be sharing the booth with its sister company, Corgi Hosiery of Wales. Corgi has been extremely successful at the Coterie in the past with its knitwear and sock collections, so we’re expecting a very busy time!

If you can’t make the show, and you have plans to visit New York in the future, you can arrange to see Jim McKenry    , US agent for both Dents and Corgi, at our New York showroom at 130 West 57^th Street, Suite 5E, to view our collections.

If you have any questions or want to make an appointment, please email me. Advance registration for the Coterie is available here. 

Our thanks to Fashion Facts Folio for this glimpse into accessory trends in New York for this fall - click on the image to make it larger.

The Dents gloves shown were seen at the Accessorie Circuit show in New York in January. 

 If you enjoyed the last two posts about John Cundick and our museum, click on the video below to see John's interview with ITV West Country News - lots to see, the factory, the museum, and John himself taking us back over 60 years...

Recently we had a special presentation of long service awards. The event was held at Dents in Warminster.

There was an excellent attendance of staff and guests at the lunchtime event, including the Master of the Worshipful Company of Glovers, Roy Jennings, the Under Wardens of the Worshipful Company of Glovers and the Mayor of Warminster.

Staff receiving awards at the event included:

John Cundick – 60 years service

John joined Dents in 1949 as a post boy in the dispatch department and worked his way up to become Buying Director in 1972. John now works as a Quality Controller and looks after the Dents Museum.                                                       

Others included were Teresa Tryhorn with 40 years’ service, who joined Dents at the age of 16, Pat Smith, 37 years’ service, Dawn Mines, with 30 years’ service, who continues to this day to machine sew gloves at her home, and Martin Clayton, with 25 years’ service in the gloving industry. 

Dents has so many long service employees (including Hilary Drewitt  (54 years); Tony Foreman  (45 years);  Jim King  (45 years); Dennis Smith  (44 years); Lil Munday (43 years); Heather Ambrose (37 years); Des Smith (36 years); and Hilary Randall (31 years) that there was serious media interest in the event. When the awards were presented ITV's West Country Tonight covered the story, as did BBC Radio 5 Live. The Sun newspaper also included a small mention; and of course there was a lot of coverage in the local press.

I'm just back from New York, where the weather was a glovemaker's dream come true! We had a very successful first showing at the Accessorie Circuit trade show. Our Winter 2010 fashion glove collection created quite a stir - we'll be previewing it on this site soon, and next winter it may be found at Saks Fifth Avenue and fine stores all over the world.

Remember our blog on the Finding Glover exhibit at the Victoria and Albert Museum? Just scroll down if you need to refresh your memory. The Artist in Residence, Jo Lawrence, who created the exhibit, also wrote this wonderful piece on her visit to the Dents Glove Museum. An extract is reproduced below:

"My visit to the Dents Glove Museum in Warminster felt like a step back in time. John Cundick (Quality controller at Dents) showed me the glove collection, and presented me with lots of extraordinary curiosities, much of it stored in dark plans chests, and every glove had a story attached. There were the smallest gloves in the world, a bit larger than a stamp, the blue suede gloves belonging to the joker (Jack Nicholson) in the 1988 Batman film that were so popular that they were mass produced several times in numerous colours, gloves that fitted into a walnut shell, numerous photos of glovers at work, and glove moulds, hand measuring devices and glovers sewing machines. "