to wonder if MOB would have worn gloves in the 1980s

[OhGingleBells]

Sorry - posted in AIBU for traffic!

Would the mother-of-the-bride have been likely to wear gloves to a wedding in the 1980s? I googled it but it mostly came up with information about bridal gloves. It's for a book - the character is in her early 50s and I want her in gloves as a plot point but only if wearing gloves would have been a fairly standard/normal thing to do!

My mum wore them to mine - 1987.

She was born in 1931 - so possibly 'old fashioned'.

They were cream crocheted gloves.

I have checked back in some old photos.

At the 1980s weddings I went to, the only people I can see wearing gloves were grandparent type age.

There are various pictures of mothers of brides/grooms holding gloves, but not actually wearing them! There is even a picture of me holding gloves but not wearing them (I'd have been in my 20s and it was the first wedding I'd been to as an adult).

I suspect that people wore them in the church but took them off afterwards.

My grandmothers (who were both born in the 1890s) would never have left the house without wearing gloves and a hat.

Found her outfit and gloves when she passed away last August. I've kept them. The gloves are tiny.

Just thought on - this photo is 37 years old tomorrow.

No. I married in 1980 and my mother didn't.

No one at my daughter’s wedding wore gloves in 1987.

Both my dm and mil wore gloves at my wedding in 1987.

Nope I married in 1990 but gloves at formal functions weren't a thing for many years beforehand.

My gran, DM and aunts all wore gloves to weddings in the 1980's. Lacy, mesh or spotty mesh things. They were very formal women though.

1981 (small, registry office) and yes my mother wore gloves

It was all fingerless gloves in the 80s.

No

I got married late 70's and my DM wore gloves.

My parents got married in 83 and both their mothers are in gloves but holding them in all the photos. Navy with a navy skirt suit and cream with a faun skirt. I've looked at the photos a lot and I think they navy ones might be a very soft leather.

I married in 87 and my mum and MIL both wore gloves and dresses with a peplum.

Most of the women wore gloves at my relatives’ weddings in the 1980s. Several weddings.

The other question is what sort of gloves? Short, as in the wedding pic someone posted, or skin-tight up to the elbow things (which what would have been paired with a short sleeved dress). I remember in the 50s wearing short white crochet gloves “for best” in summer but that had all gone by the 60s

Married in 87 DM didn’t wear gloves, I think my Grandma (born 1902) did.

My grandma, who would have been in her 50s at the time, wore gloves to her daughter's wedding in the 80s.

They were white/cream and short (wrist length) to go with a pretty pink dress.

Could it not just be a cold day?

Or the gloves could be gardening gloves?

I love the specificity of this question. I spend a lot of time researching this kind of detail when I'm writing fiction. For legitimate plot-related reasons I once looked up lots of information about telecoms structure and availability in Russia in the 1960s.

I think that this thread reveals the plausibility of the answer will depend on the class and social milieu, and the personality, of the character.

As pp have said, the only gloves people really wore in the 80s were lace type Madonna style gloves, mine were fingerless.

My mother and friends' mothers wore - or carried- gloves in the early 80s to weddings or formal events.

They weren't posh, but old school; it was the rule, if you wore a hat, you had gloves!

My parents parents wore gloves in the 80s - mob and mog. This was in Scotland though so maybe more traditional up there?

I had a traditional church wedding in 1993 with the men in morning suits. Neither my mother, my MIL nor my stepmother wore gloves. My mother was married in the early 1950s and she wore gloves even if she did elope and got married in an ordinary day dress in another country with two witnesses and the priest in an otherwise deserted church.