gloves

Gloves are sized by measuring around the hand at the point where thumb and palm meet. Leather gloves are sized to the nearest quarter-inch; fabric gloves to the nearest half-inch. Typically, women take sizes 5½ to 8 and men 7 to 10.

Children’s glove sizes range from 0 to 7 and usually represent half the child’s age.

If named sizes are used, the following table provides an approximate conversion.

Men (inches)		Women (inches)
XS	7–7½
S	8–8½	S	6–6½
M	9–9½	M	7–7½
L	10–10½	L	8–8½
XL	11–11½

Women’s knit gloves usually come in only one size. Those that do not are often sized “A” (6 to 7) or “B” (7 to 8).

The length of a glove is sized in “buttons,” a measure that dates back to the time of Catherine di Medici. Buttons that closed the cuff of a glove were usually sewn on at one pouce intervals, from the base of the thumb to the edge of the cuff. A glove with five buttons would therefore be one pouce longer than a four-button glove. A pouce is almost the same length as an inch; in the United States at least, a “button” is now considered an inch.

a 1-button glove reaches to the wrist
an 8-button glove ends at the middle of the forearm
a 12-button glove reaches the elbow
a 16-button glove reaches the shoulder

C. Cody Collins
Love of a Glove.
New York: Fairchild.

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