Dents Review: 248 Years of Gloves for Kings and Queens

In 1777, John Dent began making leather gloves in Worcester. Two hundred and forty-eight years later, his company is still cutting and stitching by hand.

That makes Dents possibly Britain's oldest fashion manufacturer — and one of the finest examples of what happens when a craft survives long enough to become irreplaceable.

The Heritage

The Dent family's relationship with leather gloves spans the entire history of modern Britain. Founded the same year as Kent Brushes (1777), Dents has supplied gloves to generations of royalty, including the most famous pair in modern British history.

In 1953, Queen Elizabeth II wore Dents gloves at her coronation. The pattern for those gloves — white kid leather, embroidered with gold thread — was created specifically for the occasion. Dents held the Royal Warrant for decades.

Some of the cutting patterns still in daily use at the Warminster factory date back to 1839. They've been refined, but the fundamental geometry of a well-fitting glove hasn't changed. Why would it?

The Craft

Heritage Crafts has reclassified leather glove making as Critically Endangered — at greater danger in 2025 than in previous assessments. The number of skilled glove cutters and stitchers in Britain is vanishingly small.

Making a pair of Dents gloves requires 32 separate stages and up to 8 hours of hand work:

Selection — Leather is inspected by hand. Only flawless skins are used for premium lines
Dampening — Skins are moistened to make them supple for cutting
Cutting — A master cutter uses metal dies and hand pressure to cut each piece. The cutter must read the leather's grain and stretch, placing each piece for maximum comfort and longevity
Sorting — Cut pieces are matched for colour and weight
Stitching — Pieces are sewn together on specialist machines, with critical seams done by hand
Laying off — Finished gloves are shaped on heated hand forms
Pressing and finishing — Final inspection, pressing, and packaging

The leather itself comes from some of the world's finest tanneries. Ethiopian hairsheep for their silk-like dress gloves. Peccary from South America for their signature textured driving gloves.

The Factory

Unlike many heritage brands that have moved production offshore, Dents maintains its factory in Warminster, Wiltshire. The building houses cutting tables, stitching stations, and finishing areas that have been in continuous use for generations.

The workforce is small and highly skilled. Training a glove cutter takes years. There is no shortcut, no machine that can read leather the way a human hand can. This is why the craft is endangered — when these craftspeople retire, the knowledge goes with them unless someone is there to learn.

The Product Range

Dents makes gloves for every purpose and season:

Heritage Collection — Classic designs using traditional techniques and leathers
Driving Gloves — Their most iconic category, featuring knuckle holes and snap-tab closures
Touchscreen Gloves — Modern functionality with heritage construction
Cashmere-Lined — Winter warmth with the signature Dents fit

Prices range from £50 for basic leather gloves to £200+ for premium lined pairs. The fit is legendary — Dents gloves are sized to the quarter-inch and shaped to follow the natural contours of the hand.

The Verdict

Dents is a masterclass in longevity. 248 years of continuous production. Coronation gloves. Royal Warrants. Patterns from 1839 still on the cutting table.

But it's the Critically Endangered status that makes this listing urgent. Leather glove making is dying in Britain. Dents is one of the last places where the full craft — from leather selection to hand-finishing — still happens under one roof.

Pros:

248 years of heritage — possibly Britain's oldest fashion manufacturer
Hand-cut and hand-stitched in Warminster, Wiltshire
The fit is famously precise (quarter-inch sizing)
Made the Queen's coronation gloves

Cons:

Premium pricing (£50-200+)
Limited retail presence outside their own stores and website