The Glove Museum

Preeminent glove designer Daniel Storto opened the Glove Museum in Dorloo, New York on July 1, 2018. Operating within a converted mid-19th-century church, the museum spotlights historic gloves as well as glove-crafting tools and processes from the 19th century to the present day and celebrates this time-tested accessory.

Billed as “America’s only free-standing glove museum,” Storto’s unusual destination provides a glimpse into the history and practice of this rapidly-declining art form. The museum is both a studio and an exhibition space; historic glove-making instruments such as sizing tools, cutting blocks, and irons from his recreated 19th-century workshop are displayed alongside artful creations by Storto himself.

The Toronto-born designer is recognized as one of the last glove makers—or gantiers—in the country, having worked extensively in film and partnered with the ranks of luxury designers like Dries van Noten, Alexander McQueen, Givenchy, and Oscar de la Renta before moving to the tiny town of Gloversville, New York to open his own studio.

Gloversville was named after the concentration of glove factories in the area between 1890 and 1950; according to The National, Gloversville produced almost 90 percent of all American-made gloves. The factories were systematically shuttered by the 1960s when leather gloves went out of style, rendering Gloversville a small, quiet community.

Storto, subsequently nicknamed “the last glover in Gloversville,” transformed a derelict glove factory into his home and opened a shop with an arsenal of old tools gifted to him by local gantiers and fabricators that had since gone out of business.

In the summer of 2018, Storto opened the Glove Museum in Dorloo to give visitors a more comprehensive insight into the glove-making process. He built a vast collection of vintage gloves and glove-related ephemera, from embroidering and elastic machines to old art books and fashion monographs, and displays his acquisitions in the old church.

A converted Sunday school classroom serves as Storto’s workshop now, packed with glove boxes rescued from abandoned Gloversville factories among other glove-related objects and oddities. The studio is crowned by Storto’s personal bench, where he continues to hand-produce exquisite gloves, some of which are available for purchase in the museum gift shop.