Fashion’s Favorite Glovemaker Thomasine Talks Craft, Couture and Collaboration

Stepping under the Belle Époque arches of Paris’ Galerie Véro-Dotat is like stepping into another century.

With classic carved wooden doors, copper fixtures and marble tiles, the passage’s shops feature heavy on antiques and accessories. Nestled just steps away from Christian Louboutin’s first flagship, Thomasine is a jewel box of a store.

Her windows are part art exhibit and part shop display, and brightly colored gloves are her gems.

They are the creations of Thomasine Barnekow, perched at the front of her namesake store. She has become fashion’s go-to glovemaker; see: gracing Beyoncé at the Grammys in black Schiaparelli with embedded gold nails; on Billie Eilish when she first unveiled her blonde locks; covering Kim Kardashian in her black-out Balenciaga look at the Met Gala.

Not to forget a certain Emily that lives in Paris, courtesy of Netflix. Barnekow has worked with series costume designer Marylin Fitoussi on several styles for the show’s glossy fashion universe.

Barnekow is on the runway too: Balmain, Mugler, Walter Van Beirendonck and more. She relishes in these creative collaborations and makes all of her couture and designer pieces by hand in her Paris atelier. Her craftsmanship earned her a spot as a finalist in this year’s Prix des Artisanes.

“I love when it’s a special project,” she says of the working with fashion designers. “How can we work together to really make a new kind of glove?”

Her latest collaboration is with G-Star, a two-year labor of love to create gloves out of the house’s denim.

At the center of the collection are couture works called “To Be Embraced” and “Hold Me Tight,” intricate woven denim and leather gloves that are wearable sculpture.

“It’s poetry, in a way, and for me they have an emotion — it’s all about love,” Barnekow says. It’s perhaps no coincidence that she conceived of the names while she was pregnant, she added.

The former features 4 meters of uncut raw denim and with leather edges, made of braided construction held together with knots that envelop the forearm then float around the body. The latter is crafted from Cécile Feilchenfeldt knits into a soft form, which wraps up and around the body like a blanket sprouting wings.

These museum-quality pieces aside, Barnekow’s glove collections elevate the humble accessory to wearable art.

For the collaboration, a signature zipper glove style she has explored through the years is translated this time around in a deep blue raw denim version tipped with touch leather. Called “The Amsterdam,” the style will be available through G-Star online and in her boutique for 450 euros.

Whether it is couture or ready-to-wear, quality is at the core of her house.

“I’m controlling my own label to make sure there is not a mistake,” she says. “It’s important, when you get those kinds of clients, to be very aware that if I want to stay in that league, it should be perfect.

“For me, it’s not about running after money,” she says of the measured choice to focus on craftsmanship. “For me, if I want to be in luxury, the biggest luxury is time. So, if you spend your time and have the patience, you’re able to create a luxury company.”

Fifteen years ago, Barnekow was hit by a spark of inspiration while riding a train, and since then it has been a slow burn.

Trains feature heavily in her personal lore: a vision of a photo she’d seen of Michèle Lamy wearing chunky wooden accessories came to her on a trip to Amsterdam, which led to her first concept of gloves as a version of jewelry. It was a unique approach for her graduation project from Design Academy Eindhoven in the Netherlands, where she studied conceptual product design in the “Man and Identity” program.

After she was selected as a finalist for Italy’s ITS emerging designers contest in 2007, Tokyo department store Isetan scouted her for an in-house collection. But once they saw the product, they decided it shouldn’t remain anonymous, and Thomasine was born.

“I wasn’t planning to make my own brand, but one thing led to the next,” she says.

The second time trains played a role in her fate was a chance meeting with Belgian fashion designer Van Beirendonck on Parisian transport. “It was packed like sardines. As he couldn’t move, and I recognized him, I thought this is my chance,” she says. She spent the 20-minute ride asking questions and gave him her card. A month later, when he was looking for a glove-maker for his show, he rang.

She produced a brightly colored mosaic design for Van Beirendonck’s spring 2012 collection titled “Cloud #9” that encompassed her vision of creating gloves as jewelry. “The idea is when you put it on, it really comes alive,” she says.

Van Beirendonck supported more than her creative vision — he also recognized her designs as works of art and mentored her in how to request proper credit as a creator. She took that idea to heart, and held her ground through successive designers at Schiaparelli. Each time they called she asked to receive credit; it was only after a year-and-a-half they agreed.

That request turned out to be Beyoncé’s surrealist Grammy look.

“I think it’s important [to ask for credit]. I think at one point you have to dare to risk it all to get everything, otherwise you don’t come much further,” she says of holding her ground. “So it was a great return.”

Other standout runway pieces have included a pair of architectural motorbike zipper gloves that curved out like zippered wings for Mugler’s fall 2023 collection.

She has also worked with the Opéra National de Paris, on films such as “Valerian” and “The Killer,” and on series including “The Great.” Aside from the stage and screen, Barnekow sees gloves-making a return to everyday fashion as consumers seek out quiet luxury and classic styles.

“It’s such a little niche, and it’s been so forgotten as an art, but there has been a big change over the last 15 years since I started,” says Barnekow, who highlighted increasing interest in the accessory since the pandemic. “There’s really been much more creativity. I see other, smaller brands [and] designers making gloves, and eyes are opening up. The more people that do make gloves, the more people will start wearing it.”

Without formal fashion training, Barnekow applies both her early engineering education and sewing techniques learned from her grandmother. She sources from the same suppliers in France and Italy that work with the major luxury houses, and uses special needles and seams for her delicate touch.

For passersby peeking in the windows of her boutique, “it’s a bit of a treasure hunt,” she said. The curious must ring the bell, and are welcomed to sit on chairs in a color burst pattern that she also made by hand.

Many of her works reference nature, such as pairs decorated with butterfly wings and petals; a pair of white gloves featuring birds is “a personal poem” to the winged creatures.

She believes that nature is about balance, not perfect symmetry. “Nothing is perfect, and finding that organic touch in your design makes it feel more in harmony,” she says.

The ready-to-wear gloves feature key details, such as inverted, colorful twirling pinwheel twists at the wrist, or others with pleating. Reimaginings of tulle and velvet couture creations also feature prominently in her works. Ready-to-wear pieces range in price from 180 euros to about 600 euros, while couture works such as her mesh Swarovski pieces are made-to-order for 1,600 euros, on which every crystal is placed by hand.

“It’s a lot about research, and finding the right kind of materials that can uplift and make you feel special,” she says.

“I thought, I’m not going to go for the trends. I’m going to make models that last across time,” she adds. Decade-old designs still resonate with customers. “It’s about the luxury that if someone falls in love with it, it will be there forever.”