The Golden Globes made it official: Opera gloves are a 2025 awards season must. At the annual ceremony honoring the best in film and television on Jan. 5, several celebrities opted for the elegant accessories for an added touch of sophistication.
At the Globes, stars donned long gloves, often extending past the elbows, in one of two shades: traditional white or off-white, or, more popularly, a daring deep black.
“Opera gloves were worn in the 19th century with evening clothes that revealed a lot of arm and decolletage,” Nancy Deihl, the chair of the department of art and art professions at New York University, told Yahoo Entertainment. “Women often wore bracelets over the gloves to showcase their jewels. The style became less common, really only worn for the most formal occasions up until the 1950s.”
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Golden Globe presenter Kerry Washington and Ali Wong, who won an award for Best Performance in a Stand-Up Comedy on Television for her Netflix special “Single Lady,” both stepped out in Balenciaga. Washington wore a ruched Barbie-pink gown and Wong a ruffled, red-hot frock. In theme with their bold dresses, both actresses finished off their looks with long black opera gloves.
Kerry Washington. (Kevin Mazur/Getty Images)
Ali Wong. (Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)
Taking a similar approach, Abbott Elementary’s Janelle James paired the gloves with a strapless black velvet Christian Siriano gown, while The Penguin’s Cristin Milioti wore them with an embellished black velvet Rodarte dress. The Last Showgirl’s Pamela Anderson also enjoyed a monochromatic moment, opting for a black Oscar de la Renta ballgown with satin gloves to match.
Janelle James. (Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic)
Cristin Milioti. (Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic)
Pamela Anderson. (Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic)
Ariana Grande opted to wear the gloves in their traditional ivory color, pairing them with a yellow, Swarovski crystal-embellished gown from Givenchy’s 1966 couture spring-summer collection.
Ariana Grande. (Kevin Mazur/Getty Images)
With the popularity of black gloves, Deihl believes the accessory has taken on a modern, edgier, interpretation. “Modesty and respectability” are no longer the main motivation for choosing them.
“Because of their echoes to the past, opera gloves may seem ‘ladylike,’ and the term ‘opera gloves’ conjures an appreciation of high art,” said Deihl. “But it’s also a provocative style, because long gloves were sometimes a part of traditional striptease routines — imagine the dancer pulling them off, one finger at a time, very drawn-out.”
Black opera gloves, she said, are bending the rules.
“[It] is about looking classy but also a bit naughty,” Deihl explained. “While a 19th-century socialite would have worn white or ivory evening gloves, today’s celebrities often choose black gloves. They are playing with the contrast between revealing evening wear and covered-up arms and hands.”
Payton Dale, a celebrity stylist, told Yahoo that there are likely three reasons why stars and their stylists are incorporating the gloves into their looks. The first may be that they do not have a choice.
“The main thing that I think is at play here is what is known in fashion as the ‘full look policy,’” Dale said. “In order for a stylist to borrow a dress from a designer, some houses want them to only put the look on their client as it’s shown on the runway. That’s how Ali [Wong] wore hers. The Balenciaga look was shown identically.”
Practicality and the embrace of a maximalist style may also be factors.
“You don’t want a large coat covering up the actual gown itself, and it is a small way to keep their clients warm while also looking glamorous,” said Dale. “I think we are also moving away from minimalism and really craving glamour in a post-COVID world, so we are starting to see glamour done in an old-school way on a much larger scale.”
Having been worn by the likes of Carey Mulligan and Greta Lee on red carpets last awards season, opera gloves are hardly a new trend. The opulent accessory was even considered a chic staple on the autumn/winter 2024-25 runway, with luxury houses like Balenciaga, JW Anderson and Miu Miu offering up their interpretations of the classic accessory. As this year’s Golden Globes have demonstrated, the gloves have yet to go out of style.
