Thomasine Barnekow, Glove Designer

Thomasine Barnekow is a Paris-based Swedish glove and accessories designer. Hers is a heritage craft, slowly disappearing, but she is bringing it centre stage. With her bold, ornamental designs, Thomasine is creating a new identity for the glove. Inspired by nature and works of art, she is breathing life and potential into what a glove can be.

Thomasine Barnekow is a Netherlands-educated, Paris-based Swedish glove and accessories designer. With a broad experience of her craft and with boundless sources of inspiration, Thomasine is giving gloves new visibility and new potential.

The craft of glove making is slowly fading away and Thomasine is proud to have invested in the heritage of her craft. She has spent years studying techniques with artisans throughout Europe and she works to keep gloves front and centre in the world of design. For Thomasine, a glove can be much more than something to protect your hand. A glove is an accessory, an art object and a statement.

Her first collection, “Peau Précieuse,” was a daring experiment in glove design. She was first inspired by a photograph of the heavily accessorised Algerian-French fashion icon Michèle Lamy, muse and wife of legendary designer, Rick Owens. Thomasine thought to hide jewellery under the surface of her gloves. And with that bold decision, she became a full-fledged glove and accessories designer. 

Thomasine is constantly seeking new inspiration for her creations. Nature provides her with infinite sources of creativity. In particular, Thomasine looks to plants — to their shapes, colours and shades — when she designs new structures for her gloves and accessories. Her gloves are wearable works of art, with arresting, attention-grabbing details.

Inspired by Martell Blue Swift, Thomasine designed a pair of white shoulder-length gloves. In a tribute to Jean Martell himself, she focused on the swift, the bird that guided Jean to the Cognac region, as the Martell story goes. 

Not many people are brave enough to take on the challenge of reimagining gloves. But Thomasine works tirelessly to innovate this utilitarian object into one of beauty and aspiration. She dares a new generation to dress their hands, to wear gloves as jewellery. Gloves can protect, but they can do so much more. 

Thomasine has brought us the new art of glove making.