About the Brand

When Cornelia James arrived in England in 1939 as a refugee from Nazi occupied Vienna, she brought with her nothing but a suitcase and a steely determination to succeed. In 1947 the couturier Norman Hartnell asked her to make gloves to accessorise the Princess’s going away outfit and in 1979 she became glove maker ‘by appointment’ to Her Majesty the Queen. Three generations later, the family business is still making gloves by hand in Sussex, England. Experience is measured in years, but success is marked in moments made special by great bridal gloves.

Vogue magazine profiled her as “the colour Queen of England” and Cornelia quickly established a thriving business supplying gloves to couturiers and leading stores.

In November 1947 the marriage of Princess Elizabeth to Lt. Philip Mountbatten provided a vivid splash of colour against a background of unremitting post war austerity. Norman Hartnell made the Princess’ wedding gown and ‘going-away’ outfit and he turned to Cornelia James to provide the wedding gloves. It marked the beginning of a long association with the Royal Household marked, in 1979, by the granting of a Royal Warrant. Today it is Genevieve James, Cornelia’s daughter, who holds the Warrant as glove manufacturer ‘by appointment to Her Majesty the Queen’.