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Question by scooterams: When is the proper time to remove opera gloves in a restaurant?
According to etiquette, women should wear the opera gloves, remove them when eating. If a woman wears opera gloves and dining in a restaurant is doing when they remove them? Did they check at the door with her coat? It’s part of her outfit (think of Breakfast at Tiffany’s), right? Does she wear them while they are with a cocktail at the bar? Does she wear them on the table? She takes off her food, or sitting at the reception?
Best answer:
Answer by Aletheia
I recall in films seeing them take the gloves off right when they sit down. Although you may not be eating till a little later, you will more than likely be drinking something.
If there are other women you are with, and y’all aren’t sure when exactly to take them off, coordinate a time, so that y’all take them off together at least.
Though I feel like right when you sit down is when the gloves are supposed to come off.
Know better? Leave your own answer in the comments!
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I have not seen anyone wear opera gloves since Audrey Hepburn, except in the major beauty pageants. I don’t think the lady has to wear the gloves at all after she has attended the event that she donned them for. But you should ask the ettiquette experts instead of yahoo folks.
they are to be removed when checking in the coats, fold them and put them in the pockets, this will give you more freedom if there are any hand shakes to be given or to avoid an inconvenience while dining .
If this is a question you need to ask, why do you want to know?
I don’t understand a word of that…Sorry.
I usually take them off when I sit down at the table. You don’t have to give your gloves to the doorman when he asks you for your coat. I’ve never had one ask me for my gloves. In this day and age, etiquette is a lost art form. I know these things because my parents sent me to a finishing school for a year as a teenager to learn the ways of a refined woman.
upon taking off her coat/cloak/shawl
One assumes that when you enter an eating or drinking establishment that you will be eating or drinking. Therefore, a woman would remove her gloves when she checks her coat.
If she is a woman with enough finesse to know when and where to be wearing opera gloves, she would probably not be caught dead sitting and drinking at a “bar” anyway. She would be at the very least, sitting at a cocktail table and she would have checked her coat so she would have also checked her gloves already.
However, unless she is actually attending the opera, there would be no reason for her to be wearing opera gloves in the first place.
RB is correct. Opera gloves are not meant to be checked at the door. They come off after the lady sits down at the table. They are folded in half and put on the lady’s lap. To prevent spilling/soiling, the serviette is used to cover the gloves.
BTW, a stole or wrap is also not checked at the door, but remains with the lady! Only overcoats or cloaks, in the case of evening wear, are checked. I attended a white tie ball in February, and my husband and I went to dinner before we attended the ball. Naturally, I wore gloves as white tie events — especially ones that call for decorations — require all ladies to wear gloves. I did exactly as described above.
RB, I also had the privilege of finishing school. We are a rare breed among young women. I only know a few other ladies below age 35 who were taught proper etiquette.