I was recently in the Dents Factory shop on a Saturday and met Richard and Shobha Edgell – they had travelled from all the way Hertford. I would like to think it was for the sole purpose of visiting our factory shop, but they were also visiting friends for lunch nearby.
They were very interested in our UK factory produced gloves and therefore, I invited them to see our glove museum. They were very impressed.
Richard is a classic car enthusiast (1951 mark VI Bentley) and bought several pairs of gloves, mainly with his car in mind.
Shobha bought peccary driving gloves and later told me that “wearing the gloves added to the driving experience.” Shobha kindly sent me a lovely photograph of herself riding side saddle at Audley End – of course wearing our gloves!
It was great to meet both Richard and Shobha who as well as being car enthusiasts are also glove enthusiasts!
Deborah Dents Creative Director
Continuing the Selfridges theme from our last post, this is from Sarah, our Museum curator:
As a present for Christmas in 1945, Mrs P.P Gait was given a pair of soft brown leather gloves. In November 1989, she donated them to our Museum, with a covering letter that explained that the gloves…
‘….are now nearly 45 years old. It says much for materials and workmanship of bygone days, when I tell you that I have never had to put a stitch in them, and that despite the fact that I have worn them for part of every winter since receiving them.’
Her gloves are brown leather with pique seams and 3 points (4 needle point). They are lined with chamois and have a turned top, with 2 rows of stitching.
What is most fascinating about these gloves is that on the inside of the left hand glove there is printed information: Dents D.B.M, Worcester Make, 6 ½ and on the inside of the right hand glove there is printed information: Selfridges, London.
Selfridges was founded by Harry Gordon Selfridge and the store in London’s Oxford Street opened on 15 March 1909. It is the second largest shop in the UK, after Harrods. These gloves reveal evidence that some 36 years after Selfridges opening you could buy gloves made by Dents in the department store, just after WWII or perhaps they had been bought a few years earlier and been kept hidden away!
Sarah
Dents Museum Curator
Dents Museum contains gloves worn by many historical figures, including Lord Nelson, Queen Elizabeth I, Empress Josephine of France and Queen Victoria as well as many examples of gloves from the 16th, 17th, 18th and 19th centuries. There is also a collection of antique specialised sewing machines, glove making tools, and a wealth of photographs and documents dating back to the 1890’s. We plan to showcase the Museum in a special section on our website, and also to present regular features on this blog of some interesting gloves in our collection.
Dents has loaned a number of gloves belonging to past kings and queens of England to Selfridges London flagship as part of the store’s Big British Bang exhibition, which is in celebration of the Diamond Jubilee and Olympics this year. The exhibit features a collection of royal gloves that have never been publicly displayed before, and runs from May 4 to June 17 at Selfridges ground floor concept store. This is from yesterday’s Mail Online:
We received this wonderful story from long time Dents customer Barbara Bates – a huge thank you to her mum for taking such good care of the gloves over the years! We love to hear your stories, they’re very special to us – just include a good quality photo if you have one.
On a recent visit to my parents, mum and I were reminiscing when I suddenly remembered some lovely gloves she had when we were children.These gloves were very special to her. Not only do I remember her wearing them at times but her allowing us children to wear them to dress up in. I told her how I’d love those gloves, the wonderful feel of them. It took me back to the times when as a child I’d stroke these fur gloves, they were so soft and warm. When I told her how special they had been to me as well and how it was a shame she no longer had them she smiled and left the room only to return a minute or so later with the said gloves carefully wrapped up to protect them. How she laughed at my joy of seeing them again and of how I sat gently stroking them and laughing together as we recalled times when as children she’d let us wear her ‘special gloves’.
As fur went out of fashion years ago I thought mum had got rid of these gloves but as you now know she hadn’t worn them in years but still treasured them. My dad had brought them for her after the birth of my older brother in 1957. They are in very good condition with the fur (beaver skin)? still being bright and the leather showing no signs of wear. I am now the proud owner of mums ‘special gloves’ as she insisted I have them from now on. She hadn’t realised until that day just how fond of those gloves I was as a child and how much I adored her for letting us children wear them to dress up in. Like mum I won’t wear these gloves but will still treasure them, taking them out of the wrappings from time to time to look at and hold whilst remembering the fun I’d had with them as a child. Thank you to ‘Dents’ for giving us the chance to have these wonderful memories and of course for the gloves without which these memories would not have happened.
Barbara Bates.
Last Friday was a wonderful day for Dents! HRH The Princess Royal honoured the company by visiting our brand new £4 million factory complex in Warminster, Wiltshire, and officially opening the new head offices with the unveiling of a plaque.
After days of rain and biting winds, the skies cleared and at 9.50am sharp the Royal helicopter soared over the building. Minutes later HRH The Princess Royal arrived at Dents and the visit had begun!
Our Creative Director Deborah Moore hosted the visit, and after early introductions, she accompanied the Princess Royal to various departments within the company, including the factory, the design department and our fascinating museum.
The Princess Royal stopped to talk to many members of staff, and was particularly interested in meeting the leather selectors and hand sewers in the factory, and learning about Dents 2012 Collections from the design team. She chatted to many of Dents’ longest serving employees, and met a number of guests, including Dents overseas agents Mr Nagabuchi from Japan, Mr Kenny Kang from Korea and Ms Carole De Schepper from Belgium.
The museum was of particular interest to The Princess Royal, especially the photograph of the visit of His Royal Highness, The Prince of Wales, to Dents in 1923, the Coronation Glove made for Queen Elizabeth II, and also the gloves worn by Queen Elizabeth I and Lord Nelson.
Her Royal Highness was presented with a donation to the Princess Anne’s Charities Trust, and a pair of Dents leather gloves.
All in all it was a wonderfully happy day, and it was all over far too quickly.
Simon Crompton, (from the ever popular Permanent Style), spotted some interesting gloves on his recent visit to our factory. You can find out more, and read about Nelson’s bloodstained gloves, here.
Channel 4's Gok Wan co-presenter Brix Smith Start
I am still trying to get over our visit from Brix Smith Start. It was all very exciting…
Brix at Dents glove museum
I was particularly interested in what she was going to wear, and she didn’t disappoint. Fabulous outfit!
During the show Brix visited our museum and picked up a vintage pair of, quite frankly, very cool 60’s stripy driving gloves – so it was a lovely surprise to be inundated with phone calls requesting them!
Dents multi coloured driving gloves 7-9041
They were so popular, we immediately went into production, and you can imagine my excitement when they arrived on my desk this morning. We are offering these gloves on our website, and you’ll also find them at Selfridges.
Hey, if it’s good enough for Brix then it’s good enough for me, I’ll definitely be wearing a pair. Perhaps it’s time for a new car to match ; ) ……
Kelly -x-
Dents is fielding a mass of media enquiries at the moment, both because of its move to new premises and also because of THE wedding. Only this morning a major national newspaper rang to ensure they had contact phone numbers that will be available for Friday during the wedding in case they spot some lovely Dents gloves, bags or hats and need some information about the design or materials. We have been asked for information on all our past involvement with royalty (and this goes back over centuries), what gloves our handsewers have been working on, plus we have been answering requests on etiquette, and even predictions on whether gloves will be generally worn at the wedding and, if so, what styles will be the most popular.
As if wedding are ever that easy – people have such individual taste and ideas, and this spring there is no one main colour that is dominating the new looks. We are looking forward to seeing a great variety of styles on Friday.
Our move to a new building is also attracting good media attention mainly because it underlines confidence in British manufacturing in what is a difficult time in the UK economy. Here at Dents though, we are much more excited about all the updated facilities in the brand new purpose built offices; things will be more efficient and a lot easier. I know everyone is really looking forward to settling in.
All of us at Dents offer our heartfelt congratulations to Prince William and Kate Middleton and their families.
Bianna Golodryga, co-anchor of ABC News Good Morning America weekend edition
ABC News’ Bianna Golodryga and Nick Watt went to Selfridges, one of London’s top stores, to get some tips on what to wear for the Royal Wedding. When it came to gloves, there could only be one choice… it was great to see Dents on Good Morning America today (if you don’t want to watch the whole segment, the part on Dents starts at minute 3.12 of the clip). An ABC fim crew visited our factory in Warminster, and those of you lucky enough to have seen the program will have caught glimpses of royal gloves from past weddings in our museum, as well as traditional glove handsewing in our factory.
You can read about Bianna and Nick’s day at Selfridges here. Selfridges’ stylist Sophie Hendley told Bianna that gloves for women were essential for a Royal Wedding. ABC went on to report that ” Dents gloves are the brand de jour, favored by the royal family, handstitched in Wiltshire for three centuries, and worn at many a royal wedding in bygone days”.
Dents driving gloves circa 1907
Dents women's driving gloves circa 1910
Driving gloves have been tremendously popular this year, as we’ve mentioned before. Styles have changed somewhat from the first ones we made, as these pictures from our Glove Museum will attest – in those days, you needed a lot of protection from the elements!
This year we have a special promotion on driving gloves for men, and driving gloves for women too. They’re perfect for the chauffeur or chauffeuse in your life - why not take a look in our online shop?
