Winter Essentials: Barbour Gloves

The first snow fell in Minnesota last Friday afternoon.  While some rebuked the windswept wintry mix, I - even as an adult - experienced delighted upon its arrival, even though I grumble about it up to the moment.  Since I was a child, I’ve treated the week between my birthday and Thanksgiving as the appropriate time for the first few flakes.  Whether they stuck around or not, the wondrous white coat that covered the Earth for even a moment signaled that the holiday season had begun.

My hands, however, don’t get excited as the rest of me for winter.  For as long as I can remember, my hands become brutally chapped and cracked all winter long.  They sting and burn as I apply layer upon layer of hand cream, which in large quantities does no more than a small squirt to improve the skin’s condition.  After finding a good hand cream this fall (Jack Black’s Industrial Strength Hand Healer works wonders), I decided I needed a better pair of gloves as a preventative measure.  

Last winter I wore a pair of J. Crew wool gloves in an inoffensive shade of gray.  They paired well with my navy peacoat, but failed to keep my hands warm on the coldest days.  Before purchasing them, I hemmed and hawed about buying a pair of leather gloves instead, but decided they were too old-mannish for my style at the time.  While I don’t regret that decision, I corrected it last weekend when I picked up a pair of Barbour gloves from Nordstrom (full disclosure: I work at Nordstrom and in no way, shape or form are they endorsing or sponsoring this post).

The Barbour gloves’ brown leather base is complemented by a green tartan pattern on the top.  Tartan - a Scottish pattern found in functional, refined clothing over the last five centuries - is an easy way to add contrast and pattern to neutral ensembles.  I’ve worn my Barbour gloves with my sage Barbour Bedale and while their shades are similar, they look splendidly dapper when placed in the coat’s pocket.  The small snaps on the gloves’ bottom make their size adjustable and lend them the look of a driving glove, something appropriate to wear when tooling an old Land Rover around town (in reality or in one's dreams).

I wouldn’t wear tartan Barbour gloves in the dead of winter, since they lack significant insulation.  As the seasons change, however, and until the frostiest and most biting winds arrive, they’ll keep my hands warm and ward off cracked skin better than a pair of thin wool gloves will.  Their handsome profile stands out among a sea of hefty mittens and black leather gloves, and anyone who wears them (or decides to get other tartan gloves) will have the most stylish hands in town.

Gloves: Barbour, Coat: Barbour