Gants

Gants – A visual tour of this universal accessory: once an attribute of religious or royal power, a token of love, the glove remains a symbol of luxury and refinement, as well as a formidable tool for protecting and even replacing the hand.

Nicolas Descottes has photographed gloves from all eras, using the same graphic composition scheme.

This universal accessory reveals a world teeming with creativity: once an attribute of religious or royal power, a mark of refinement, it is now becoming a formidable tool for protection, and even a substitute for the hand.

Nicolas Descottes has drawn on the archives of glove makers and the greatest haute couture houses: Hermès, Balenciaga, Chanel, Jean-Paul Gaultier, Christian Lacroix, Christian Dior, John Galliano, Thierry Mugler, Martin Margiela, Givenchy, Lanvin, Paco Rabanne, Jean-Charles de Castelbajac, Courrèges, Azzedine Alaïa. who are brimming with refinement and creativity for this luxury accessory.

Museums opened their collections: the Galliera Museum, the Lausanne Olympic Museum, the Army Museum, the Millau Glove Museum, the Fontainebleau Castle Museum, the Renaissance Museum, the Air and Space Museum. All are home to spectacular historical pieces.

The photographer has also selected all the other glove types. The gloves of sportsmen and women (fencing, boxing, pelote basque, baseball, motorcycling, cycling, soccer, bobsleigh, cricket, etc.) are featured in original, emotionally-charged gloves. Industrial gloves are as fascinating as they are intriguing in their shapes and technological prowess: a cosmonaut’s glove, an exoskeleton glove to remotely copy an operator’s gestures, an ultrasonic glove providing a tactile map of the environment.

Far from a chronological or thematic approach, the book’s presentation favors visual comparisons, reinforcing the symbolic charge of each glove presented.