Indeed, they protect: why did the ladies wear gloves even in the heat

Evening gloves, of course, did not protect from sunburn or dust. But, in addition to the rules of etiquette, which had to be observed in order to present oneself in the right society in the right light, there was also the risk of ... dangerous relationships. And ball gloves protected the hands of ladies from "accidental" touches or "meaningless" looks of strangers. At a time when even the legs of the piano were draped with cloth so as not to arouse obscene thoughts, and the ladies, presumably, "had no legs, but moved on wheels" (as the wits joked at a time when the Victorian era had just ended), any open a part of a woman's body could easily become a fetish. Of course, the more parts are hidden, the worse the situation becomes. But Mother Victoria was far from that. And the English women - and after them all the rest - carefully hid their hands from prying eyes. And thoughts. Evening high gloves trimmed with stripes of lace. From utility to fashion If in the case of Kitty, the presence of gloves is due solely to etiquette, then in the case of Margarita Nikolaevna, we are faced with habits, fashion and internal attitudes. On the day of the meeting with the Master, she wears gloves - black, with a bell. At the time of the development of the novel, the rules of etiquette already allowed to appear on the street without gloves at all. But the heroine follows her own ideas about what is possible and what is not. And although this type of gloves originally appeared just for protective purposes, by the 1920s and 1930s it had become simply fashionable.