History Main / OperaGloves

** Sloth in the 1st anime is a more straight example, as Lust's gloves leave the palms of her hands exposed.

** Sloth is a more straight example, as Lust's gloves leave the palms of her hands exposed.

They can also be FetishFuel, especially when worn as part of a dominatrix outfit, or if featured in a scene with a stripper (or somebody imitating a stripper) where the ecdysiast ''slowly'' removes her gloves, one at a time. OperaGloves are often paired with strapless gowns, as a way of emphasizing [[MostCommonSuperpower the wearer's bustline]]: see "Miss Manners"'s remarks below in the RealLife section.

[[http://www.operagloves.com/glovmain.html This site]] contains a huge archive of photographs and other images of every imaginable type of Opera Gloves wearer.

Compare ZettaiRyouiki, which is this but with long socks (and short skirts). Contrast the similar-looking (well, tight ones are, anyways) DetachedSleeves.

* Because the delicate leathers and fine fabrics needed to make gloves were so hard to come by for so many years, a RealLife trope grew up over the centuries in which gloves (until the 16th century largely an article of male wear) became closely associated with aristocracy and authority. Logically, therefore, the first women recorded as wearing gloves in the 16th Century were noblewomen (chief among them Queen Elizabeth I and Catherine DeMedici). One of the first women pictured wearing what we today would think of as ladies' long gloves was England's Queen Anne, at the beginning of the 18th Century.

* The legendary 1950's pinup model Bettie Page frequently wore Opera Gloves (usually black leather) in her FetishFuel photo shoots.

* Miss Manners explained Opera Gloves this way: "The reason for the gloves is immodesty, a principle that young people, brought up to run about half-naked, do not understand. The idea is, the lower the dress, the higher the gloves. Miss [Loretta] Young very properly did not want to put on an extremely low-cut dress only to have people stare at her bare elbows."

* A male example in ''MahouSenseiNegima!'', where it's [[http://www.onemanga.com/Mahou_Sensei_Negima!/282/08/ Negi]] who wears these gloves, [[spoiler: apparently to hide the BlackMagic runes on his arms.]]

* Self-mutilating EmoTeen girls.

* Gypsy Rose Lee, probably the most famous burlesque performer of all, was famous for her practice, during her routines, of slowly removing her Opera Gloves and tossing them to audience members; if she didn't orignate this particular shtick, she certainly popularized it and identified it indelibly with classic striptease artists.

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* [[SuperMarioBros Princess Peach]].

* [[Princess {{Zelda}}]], except in the first three games, always wears OperaGloves to along with her PimpedOutDress.

** Famous Marilyn Opera Gloves scene number 3: MM wears glittery black Opera Gloves with a strapless tiger-stripe gown as she {{Vamp}}s Tom Ewell in ''TheSevenYearItch''.

* dominatrixes.

* The famous GayNineties American musical-theater star Lillian Russell is said to have caused a sensation by cycling down New York's Fifth Avenue, riding a white-and-gold bicycle given to her by "Diamond Jim" Brady and wearing a [[PimpedOutDress spectacular cycling outfit accessorized with shoulder-length white Opera Gloves]].

* GraceKelly in ''{{To Catch a Thief}}'' and ''TheSwan''. She also wore them in real life, for example to the Oscars.

* GraceKelly in ''{{To Catch a Thief}}'' and ''TheSwan''.

* Ava Gardner in ''TheGreatSinner'', ''{{55 Days at Peking}}'', ''{{One Touch of Venus}}'', ''MyForbiddenPast'', etc. Oddly enough, she does '''not''' wear black Opera Gloves in the actual scene in the movie that made her a star, ''Film/TheKillers'', though many photographs exist of her wearing gloves with that outfit.

** Another famous Marilyn Opera Gloves scene is her "That Old Black Magic" production number from ''BusStop''. As Cherie, Marilyn wears a distinctly down-at-the-heels showgirl outfit, including very cheap-looking black opera gloves.