By Carolina Sanchez for Women’s Mafia
Patricia Parenti, Fashion Stylist and owner of Tender Gloving Care, started her fashion career in New York City as an accessories buyer and department manager for “The New Store” on 7th Avenue. She was also a freelance merchandiser for Omanti, a manufacturer for women’s blouses and leather apparel. Later, she went on to be a shoe buyer and department manager for Castaneda and eventually designed an exclusive line of women’s dress shoes.
Patricia has also been an assistant designer and sales representative for Head Dress hair accessories. Patricia’s versatile talents led her to fashion styling for video and stage in the 90’s, including working as an assistant designer for Rosemary Ponzo on the play “Ellison and Eden”.
Patricia’s energy and enthusiasm helped her represent the glove line “Designs by Gail”. When Gail relocated she ended up having a lot of clients and no merchandise, which led Patricia to start designing her own gloves and develop her creative side. Later on she was influenced by a man named Leo Shore, whom has been in the glove business since WWII. Patricia would visit him and his vintage glove collection. He told her all about the manufacturing business and has supported her projects ever since.
Tender Gloving Care vintage gloves have been featured in Lucky magazine and various blogs. Let’s talk to Patricia herself and find out more about her amazing line!
WM: You have had numerous roles in the fashion industry and for some time one of them included designing different types of accessories. What inspired you to focus on gloves?
PP: This is because I inherited seven 50 pound boxes of dead stock vintage gloves from a 95 year old man who had stores called “THE GLOVE SHOPS” all around the country until the mid 1980’s. I used to be into Rockabilly music and dancing and I got into wearing vintage gloves with my party dresses and never stopped wearing them because I loved the way they looked on my hands so much.
WM: What would you say is the glove “trend” right now?
PP: Wrist length styles as shown on the Fall 2011 Louis Vuitton runway shows. This is because the “Mod 60’s” styles in fashion are coming back in style. Elbow length gloves are still in style also. I have both styles in stock at Tender Gloving Care’s Vintage Collection.
WM: What is the philosophy of Tender Gloving Care?
PP: To have decorated leather gloves to wear with your winter coat instead of plain one’s like everyone wears. I cater to women who enjoy being a little glitzy. My feelings are that the beautiful gloves made in the 50’s and 60’s should be kept alive by women of all ages wearing them and not thrown in landfills (I’m a huge believer in recycling).
WM: What are the materials featured in your gloves?
PP: My main collection is brown cashmere lined leather embellished with studs, stones and chains. The vintage collection is either hand stitched cotton from the 1950’s, or nylon from the 1960’s.
WM: You’re also a stylist. Tell us about your personal style. What makes your style unique and where do you get inspired?
PP: Vintage inspired, tailored, funky or trendy is the way I dress all the time and always accessorized. I’m unique because I’m always dressed coordinated from head to toe, whereas most people dress like a mess nowadays because they put together many layers of nothing that goes together. Most of my inspiration comes from old fashioned magazines and movies, but also runway shows from America and Europe. Sometimes I get inspired by trendy store mannequins from H & M and Forever 21.
WM: What can the Women’s Mafia make happen for you?
PP: I feel they can help me get noticed in other markets rather than just New York Metro area, therefore leading me to sell both my leather and vintage line in more towns and cities across the world.
For more on Patricia Parenti’s Tender Gloving Care visit www.tenderglovingcare.com and to see examples of her incomporable styling please see www.cognacscorner.tv, where she is the official stylist of Cognac Wellerlane.