冬季時(shí)尚話題：女王的手套

女王的手套

It is an iconic image: Queen Elizabeth in her royal carriage, gently waving a graceful gloved hand.

這是個(gè)標(biāo)志性形象：女王伊麗莎白戴著優(yōu)雅得體的手套，坐在皇家馬車上輕輕地?fù)]著手。

Few of us can live like a queen, but we can wear that glove.

我們沒幾個(gè)人能像女王那樣生活，但那樣的手套還是戴得起的。

Or the pure merino wool pair worn by the duchess of Cambridge, or the singer Rihanna’s long French lace ones, or even the opera-length satin sheaths that set off Lady Mary’s gowns in “Downton Abbey.”

或者是劍橋公爵夫人戴的那種美利奴羊毛手套，或者是歌手蕾哈娜(Rihanna)的法式蕾絲長(zhǎng)手套，或者是《唐頓莊園》(Downton Abbey)里給瑪麗小姐(Lady Mary)的禮服添彩的長(zhǎng)袖綢緞手套。

Each of these gloves was sewn in a converted cowshed on a farm in East Sussex, under the direction of the willowy Genevieve James.

這些手套都是縫制于東薩西克斯一個(gè)農(nóng)場(chǎng)里經(jīng)改造過的牛棚，領(lǐng)頭的是身形窈窕的吉納維芙·詹姆斯(Genevieve James)。

Her gloves are not heavy workaday leathers for bracing against the harsher elements but elegant accessories for women willing to pay, say, 360 pounds, or $570, for the added panache of a pair of full-length pure-wool gloves cuffed with silver fox fur.

她的手套不是抵御寒冷的厚重工作皮革手套，而是為愿意花大價(jià)錢讓自己大放異彩的女人設(shè)計(jì)的優(yōu)雅配飾，比如，袖口鑲飾銀狐毛的純羊毛全袖手套的售價(jià)為360英鎊(約合3460元人民幣)，約合570美元。

As design director of Cornelia James, the company founded by her mother in London in 1946, Ms. James is working to keep the British glove-making heritage alive and to expand to a broader international market.

詹姆斯是科妮莉亞·詹姆斯(Cornelia James)公司的設(shè)計(jì)總監(jiān)。該公司是她母親于1946年在倫敦創(chuàng)立。她的目標(biāo)是延續(xù)英國(guó)的手套制作傳統(tǒng)，把它推向更廣闊的國(guó)際市場(chǎng)。

“Mum was great,” Ms. James said over a steaming cup of milky tea in the atelier, as sheep grazed outside. “She was an Austrian Jewish refugee who had to get out very quickly from Vienna in 1939.

“我媽媽很了不起，”詹姆斯在工作室里端著一杯熱騰騰的奶茶說(shuō)道，窗外有綿羊在吃草。“她是來(lái)自?shī)W地利的猶太難民，1939年匆忙逃出了維也納。”

“But mother had just finished studying fashion design at the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts, coincidentally the same college that turned down Hitler. So she came eventually to England with a suitcase full of the colored leather that she had been using to make things.”

“媽媽當(dāng)時(shí)剛在維也納藝術(shù)學(xué)院完成服裝設(shè)計(jì)的學(xué)業(yè)，巧的是，當(dāng)年也正是這所學(xué)院拒絕了希特勒。她輾轉(zhuǎn)來(lái)到英國(guó)，箱子里裝滿她做設(shè)計(jì)用的各色皮革。”

War was starting and while people had no money to buy couture clothing, Ms. James said, they could afford a handbag or gloves. Her mother survived the war years making and selling those.

詹姆斯說(shuō)，戰(zhàn)爭(zhēng)開始了，人們沒錢購(gòu)買高級(jí)定制服裝，但他們還買得起手袋或手套。她媽媽靠制作和銷售這些東西挺過了戰(zhàn)爭(zhēng)歲月。

Her breakthrough came after the war. She caught the attention of the royal couturier Norman Hartnell, who was designing Princess Elizabeth’s dress for her marriage in 1947 to Lt. Philip Mountbatten.

戰(zhàn)后，她的事業(yè)迎來(lái)轉(zhuǎn)機(jī)。她引起了皇室裁縫諾曼·哈特內(nèi)爾(Norman Hartnell)的注意。后者當(dāng)時(shí)正在為1947年伊麗莎白公主與菲利普·蒙巴頓中尉(Lt. Philip Mountbatten)的婚禮設(shè)計(jì)禮服。

“My mother was invited to design all of the gloves for her trousseau,” Ms. James said. “Unlike these days, when you went on your honeymoon on the royal yacht you needed several pairs of gloves. This was really the start of her association with the royal family.”

“我媽媽被請(qǐng)去給女王設(shè)計(jì)嫁妝里的所有手套，”詹姆斯說(shuō)，“那時(shí)候跟現(xiàn)在不同，乘坐皇家游艇度蜜月時(shí)你需要好幾雙手套。這真的是她與皇室交往的開端。”

Decades later, in 1979, the business was awarded a royal warrant, the mark of recognition for suppliers to the monarchy.

幾十年后，這家公司在1979年獲得英國(guó)皇室供貨認(rèn)證。

Cornelia James died in 1999 at age 82. In the 1950s, at the peak of her long career, she had 250 workers under her wing in a former dairy in Brighton.

1999年，82歲的科妮莉亞·詹姆斯去世。20世紀(jì)50年代，在她漫長(zhǎng)事業(yè)的巔峰期，她麾下有250名工人在布賴頓的一個(gè)奶制品廠改造的車間里工作。

But the popularity of gloves as a fashion accessory waned and the business now has just three sewers, known as machinists, working in tandem with Ms. James and her husband, Andrew Lawson. Mr. Lawson measures and cuts the fabric in the atelier, where bolts of fine wool lean against the walls and bobbins of colorful thread occupy rows of shelves under bright overhead lights.

但是，手套作為服裝配飾的潮流衰退了，這家公司現(xiàn)在只有三名裁縫，稱為機(jī)械工，他們和詹姆斯及其丈夫安德魯·勞森(Andrew Lawson)協(xié)同工作。勞森在工作室里測(cè)量、剪裁面料，一匹匹細(xì)羊毛靠在墻邊，一卷卷彩色絲線擺放在一排排架子上，天花板上是明亮的頂燈。

Here they make bridal gloves of lace, cotton, duchess satin or silk that sell for £130; stylish cotton race-day gloves for the Ascot set (up to £130); and fine wool pairs of the type a royal might wear to a ribbon-cutting event (up to £155). There’s also a cotton “Camilla” glove in a black and white yin-yang pattern (£110) and a taupe merino wool “Beatrice” with a demure bow atop the wrist (£70).

他們?cè)谶@里生產(chǎn)用蕾絲、棉、素庫(kù)緞或絲綢做成的新娘手套，售價(jià)130英鎊;時(shí)髦的阿斯科特賽馬會(huì)(Ascot)比賽日棉質(zhì)手套(最高130英鎊);皇室成員參加剪彩儀式可能會(huì)戴的細(xì)羊毛手套(最高155英鎊)。還有黑白八卦圖案的棉質(zhì)“卡米拉”(Camilla)手套(110英鎊);手腕上鑲著端莊蝴蝶結(jié)的灰褐色“比阿特麗斯”(Beatrice)美利奴羊毛手套(70英鎊)。

Evening gloves can be opera length and lacy (£66), in fine netting (£100), or duchess satin trimmed with Swarovski crystals for the red carpet (£130).

晚裝手套包括蕾絲長(zhǎng)袖手套(66英鎊)、細(xì)網(wǎng)眼手套(100英鎊)以及走紅毯用的鑲有施華洛世奇水晶的素庫(kù)緞手套(130英鎊)。

For more practical wear, a line of colorful cashmere gloves, made from best-quality yarn and knitted in Scotland, sells for £65. There is also a newer line of Italian-made nappa leatherski gloves and deerskin mittens (£260 a pair), lined in possum fur.

更實(shí)用的手套包括在蘇格蘭用最高檔的彩色羊絨制作的系列，售價(jià)65英鎊。還有一個(gè)新系列——邊緣鑲有鼠貂毛的意大利軟羊皮手套和鹿皮連指手套(一雙260英鎊)。

While members of the royal family are appreciative and loyal customers, Mr. Lawson says, the company cannot depend solely on the queen.

勞森說(shuō)，雖說(shuō)皇室成員是他們十分感激的忠實(shí)顧客，但公司不能只靠女王。

“The queen is very, very, very cost conscious,” he said, clearly trying not to cross a line by saying so. “And our gloves are obviously quite expensive. So she will send them back to be repaired if they lose a stitch. One year she might have 20 pairs and the next year none, and the next year 15. And she never loses them, which is why most people order new gloves. She’s still wearing certain gloves of ours that we made 15 years ago.”

“女王非常、非常、非常具有成本意識(shí)，”他這么說(shuō)顯然是不想得罪皇室。“我們的手套顯然十分昂貴。所以如果手套脫線，她會(huì)送回來(lái)修補(bǔ)。某一年她可能會(huì)買20雙手套，下一年可能一雙也不買，再下一年可能又買15雙。她的手套從來(lái)不丟，很多人買新手套都是因?yàn)榕f的丟了。我們15年前做的一些手套，她現(xiàn)在還戴著。”

With two stylish ridges, known as points, and measuring five inches from the base of the thumb up the arm, the queen’s made-to-measure design sells for £110. The white gloves are washable, a relief for someone who shakes so many hands.

這雙女王定制手套有兩條時(shí)髦的凸條紋棱線，從拇趾跟到胳膊長(zhǎng)五英寸，售價(jià)為110英鎊。這雙白手套可以水洗，對(duì)于需要經(jīng)常握手的人來(lái)說(shuō)，這真是讓人欣慰。

“Yes, she insists on that,” Mr. Lawson said. “It’s one of the reasons she wears fabric gloves rather than leather. When she goes on a trip she’ll have two or three or four pairs because she’s shaking all these hands.”

“是的，她堅(jiān)持要能水洗的，”勞森說(shuō)。“這是她戴織物手套而非皮手套的一個(gè)原因。她在旅行中要準(zhǔn)備兩雙、三雙或四雙手套，因?yàn)樗秃芏嗳宋帐帧?rdquo;

The product that emerges from this bucolic country workshop can’t compete in sheer numbers with the mass production coming out of Asia, but Mr. Lawson says the brand has a distinctive appeal, even in a country like China.

單從價(jià)格角度講，這些來(lái)自鄉(xiāng)村田園作坊的產(chǎn)品肯定拼不過亞洲大批量生產(chǎn)的產(chǎn)品，但是勞森說(shuō)，這個(gè)品牌具有獨(dú)特的魅力，甚至對(duì)中國(guó)這樣的國(guó)家也有吸引力。

“We’re never going to compete on price, so we try to do better on quality and integrity of the design,” he said. “In particular, the Chinese are coming to realize more and more that fashion is not just about the big brands that everybody’s got.”

“在價(jià)格方面，我們永遠(yuǎn)沒有優(yōu)勢(shì)，所以我們努力在品質(zhì)和設(shè)計(jì)方面做得更好，”他說(shuō)。“尤其是，中國(guó)人越來(lái)越意識(shí)到，高級(jí)時(shí)裝不只是指人人都能買到的大品牌。”

“To them we are their best-kept secret — ‘only I know about Cornelia James and I want to keep it to myself’ — which is nice in some ways, but obviously we’d like for hundreds of millions of Chinese people to be buying our gloves,” he said with a chuckle.

“我們是他們保守得最嚴(yán)密的秘密—— ‘只有我知道科妮莉亞·詹姆斯，我想守住這個(gè)秘密’——從某種角度講，這挺好的，但我們當(dāng)然希望數(shù)以億計(jì)的中國(guó)人都來(lái)買我們的手套，”他輕聲笑道。

The brand sells “very well in Japan,” Ms. James said, “because we tick all the boxes there: They love the heritage, they love the story, they like a really beautifully made, small product with detail. Japan is our most important customer.”

詹姆斯說(shuō)，這個(gè)品牌“在日本”賣得“很好”，“因?yàn)槲覀兎纤麄兊乃衅茫核麄兿矚g傳統(tǒng)，喜歡我們的品牌故事，喜歡做得非常漂亮、具有精致細(xì)節(jié)的小巧物品。日本是我們最重要的市場(chǎng)。”

“Where we’d really like to sell in is the States,” she added. But the changing structure of the retail sector, which is turning many of the once-grand department stores into boutique concession stands, has made it more difficult to interest American store buyers in smaller-margin luxury gloves, she said.

她補(bǔ)充說(shuō)，“我們真的特別希望銷往美國(guó)”，但是零售業(yè)的結(jié)構(gòu)在發(fā)生變化，很多宏偉的商場(chǎng)變成了精品專賣店，所以更難讓美國(guó)的店鋪買家們對(duì)利潤(rùn)更小的奢侈手套產(chǎn)生興趣。

Meanwhile, the value of the royal warrant has been incalculable.

與此同時(shí)，英國(guó)皇室供貨認(rèn)證的價(jià)值是不可估量的。

“It’s a real door opener,” Mr. Lawson said. “Everyone knows it stands for excellence and quality in what you are doing. And you can’t buy it at any price. It has to be given to you.”

“它真的是打開了一扇大門，”勞森說(shuō)，“所有人都知道它代表著優(yōu)秀和品質(zhì)。它是金錢買不到的，只能通過授予的形式獲得。”

And while the company does make flashy lime-green-and-fuschia items for stage shows like “Mamma Mia,” many of its products are simply, subtly beautiful.

雖然這家公司也為《媽媽咪呀》(Mamma Mia)等舞臺(tái)劇制作黃綠色和梅紅色的花哨手套，但它的很多產(chǎn)品是簡(jiǎn)潔、精妙的美麗物件。