Sports and leisure nowadays give people plenty of opportunity to be seen in light clothing or even without any clothes on at all.

In the XVIII or XIX century, it would have been unthinkable for men and women to do sport or even sit in a sauna together. This would only have happened in some dubious establishments, and even married people never saw their partners fully naked. In these days, you also wore gloves as often as possible, especially in public places. It was simply considered impolite to extend a bare hand when greeting a person, and especially a lady. Therefore, you needed to own the appropriate gloves for every occasion during the day, evening, and night, and a gentleman kept a correspondingly large stock of these. In former times, people used to glance critically at your gloves, the way we nowadays make a mental note of the cut of a suit, or the shoe leather.

Gloves had to be made of the finest leather and be a perfect fit, and were never allowed to show even the slightest trace of dirt. The demands required of gloves today appear very minor compared with former times. This can be attributed to the fact that gloves are nowadays only worn in the street. The only exceptions are white gloves with tails that are also kept on in confined spaces. During the course of the last century, gloves became further removed from their original role as protectors and developed to become increasingly a ritualistic and strongly symbolic piece of clothing. Now they have returned to their original state. They are currently leading a modest existence preventing chilblains on fingers. Yet possibly it will soon be fashionable again to wear gloves; perhaps this will also be made absolutely necessary by external influences, as has happened with the sunhat, which has simply become an intrinsic factor in many parts of the world. In terms of the protecting role of gloves, they do not merely have to be confined to assisting in heavy work or keeping you warm in winter. It can be perfectly appropriate so as to not have to seize hold of doorknobs, handles and staircase banisters, on public transport, or in buildings, with your bare hands. For sports car enthusiasts, driving gloves are essential items, and drivers of more simply functional automobiles may find them advantageous. In this case, the gloves are fulfilling a useful role, and are not simply fashion accessories.