Paula Rowan’s leather glove designs have been worn to the Golden Globes, the Oscars, and the Met Gala. They’ve been seen on the hands of celebrities including Lady Gaga, Ariana Grande, Miley Cyrus, Munroe Bergdorf, and Ruth Negga.

They have appeared on the covers of publications at the cutting edge of fashion – from Vogue to W Magazine, Dazed to AnOther, and with gloves the height of fashion right now, I went to meet the designer at her Westbury Mall store.

Having worked part-time with her brother for several years throughout school and university, Paula Rowan took over the leather goods business in 2006.

“At the time the shop had a franchise agreement to sell the Claudio Ferrici brand. I felt if anything went wrong with their designs, or they went out of business, I would be snookered within a season so I started looking at other products. The only other product I was allowed to sell under the licence agreement was gloves,” says Rowan.

Stocking a range of leather gloves for three seasons, Rowan couldn’t get what she wanted in terms of quality or consistency of design. Determined to get the product right, she went to Italy where she began to build direct relationships with manufacturers. She launched her first glove collection in 2008.

“If you start a design business just to make money then it’s going to go wallop.”

“The relationship I have with my producers is so important,” she says. “Working with these smaller factories I know where they are producing, where their leathers are coming from, I know the employees, and that the gloves are ethically made in Italy. It’s about building up a relationship with these people, some of whom are third-generation family businesses.”

Rowan says that the “how” and “where” of her gloves are as important as her designs.  “There is no point having an amazing design but having the glove made from cheap leather or by machine because the energy and passion is gone out of it straight away,” she says.

“One of the people that makes gloves for me is 78 years old and has been making gloves since he was 15. All he knows is leather and gloves and all his passion and energy goes into that glove. For me that comes out in the finished product. I love the energy in Italy, design is inherent in the Italians – for my gloves to be made in Italy is really important to me.

“I am of the opinion that if you start a design business just to make money then it’s going to go wallop. You are going to have bad days and amazing days and you have to take both. That comes from the drive and passion that you have.” 

Impulse purchases

While Rowan’s website makes gloves easy to buy via the use of a handy measuring guide, for now, sales largely take place in her Westbury Mall store with customers who’ve been there then reordering from her website. The first thing that hits you when you enter the store is the unmistakable smell of leather and the myriad of colours you’re unlikely to see in any other accessories department.

“I am lucky that I am located beneath a five-star hotel,” says Rowan. “A lot of business people and tourists come from the hotel. Many of them live in the likes of Chicago or New York where it is cold in the winter and when they go home they tell their friends and family and reorder online.”

While the global exposure of her gloves in magazines and on the hands of celebrities has definitely helped the exposure of the Paula Rowan brand internationally, Rowan says that, as a niche business, it is still easier to sell to a client who is standing in her shop.

The first thing people say when they come into my shop is ‘Oh my God the smell!’ So how to do that online?” 

While she is currently developing the online side of her business she says that it is nonetheless important for her to maintain a brick-and-mortar presence – both because of the nature of the product but also because it is a luxury product. 

“With gloves, and indeed, with any niche business, it is easier to sell to a client standing in front of you as your passion and the story behind the brand shines through,” she says. “It’s also easier from an impulse purchase point of view if someone is in the shop and you can explain about the leathers, the designs, the production, and so on. So for now, the business is stronger in the shop but it’s only a matter of time before that changes.

“Perhaps the way I shop is a bit different to the younger generation but for me I have more confidence in a brand if they have a bricks-and-mortar presence. I feel that there is more validity. Most luxury brands tend to have a bricks-and-mortar presence either with standalone stores or presence in department stores.”

A challenge with a product like hers is how to replicate the experience of shopping for leather gloves in a store, online. “Online is the future, especially for Irish brands, due to the limited size of the Irish population. It’s great that I can combine both – through people buying in the store and then reordering online,” she says.

“I am selling leather – it is all about the scent and how it feels – with gloves it is often easier for people to try them on and reorder online later. Every brand is trying to duplicate what they are trying to do in-store online. The question is how to do that with leather? The first thing people say when they come into my shop is ‘Oh my God the smell!’ So how to do that online?” 

While she cannot send the scent over the internet to customers, she does offer a video call service. “I can offer that service as a smaller brand – customers will have a meeting with me and we’ll discuss the latest styles.” 

Luxury’s knock-on effect

Located in the Westbury Mall, Rowan is surrounded by other small, specialist businesses including perfume emporium Parfumarija, lingerie specialist Susan Hunter, Madigan cashmere, Stonechat jewellers, and contemporary Irish brand Stable of Ireland. 

The area around her shop has also seen a host of new luxury openings take place over the past six months or so including heritage watch brands Panerai, Cartier, Jaeger-LeCoultre, TAG Heuer, Breitling, and accessories brands Russell & Bromley, and Mulberry. While other small retailers may see the entry of such brands as likely to drive up the price of commercial units, Rowan says it can only be a good thing for her business.

“I think people’s spending habits were starting to change pre-Covid. People were beginning to move away from fast fashion and were talking about sustainability. They wanted to know about the heritage of a brand and that’s luxury. The area we are in is slightly niche, it’s slightly quirky. I had an American architect in the shop before Christmas, he said: ‘I love what you do and I love the fact that you’re not on the main street. I love that you’re not a mainstream brand’. He was saying that, certainly in America, that’s what people are interested in now,” she says.

“Cartier, Jaeger-LeCoultre are luxurious, interesting brands – there is a story there. These shops have to have a positive knock-on effect on my store. The clients going into these shops essentially have money. That’s not me being a snob – that’s business. I think these brands are really good for an area.”

Fashion currently has a love affair with gloves as seen on catwalks and magazine covers as well as in films such as House of Gucci (in which Lady Gaga wore Paula Rowan) and shows like Bridgerton and Emily in Paris. However, Rowan’s gloves have appeared in the very best fashion editorials for several years now and in shoots led by fashion creatives at the top of their game including Katy England, Ib Kamara, Paolo Roversi and Rafael Pavarotti. 

Outlandish dressing

Why are we seeing gloves, and specifically Paula Rowan gloves, everywhere right now?

“Even before the pandemic the requests for my gloves were coming thick and fast – publications like German Vogue, Dazed, W Magazine, Town & Country Magazine in the US were featuring my gloves every month and suddenly the pandemic happened. If you look at the likes of Bridgerton, Emily in Paris and so on it influences people to wear gloves, they’re on every red carpet at the moment. Isn’t that what happened after the last pandemic? That people became more outlandish in how they dressed? You can see that with all the colourful gloves being worn,” she says. 

Rowan says that stylists choose her gloves because of the range of styles, colours, and quality of her designs. “I like to think we are seeing them because they are the best gloves,” she says. “We have about 180 different designs and there are very few glove designers globally. The photographers and the stylists I’ve worked with love and understand my product so I’ve been lucky there. If you put all your energy into one product it can only go in one direction. I haven’t jumped from one thing to the next. I wanted my name to be synonymous with gloves so that it would get to the point where when people think of gloves that they think ‘Paula Rowan’.”

She also credits fashion-forward stylists for seeing her product as unrestricted by gender. 

“Gloves are not just for women. They are for everyone and I have been very lucky with stylists such as Katy England and Ib Kamara who have put women’s gloves on men for a long time – there is a glove for anyone and everyone.  I love that you can see that in the diversity of the shoots that my gloves appear in.” 

There’s no doubt however that to get to this point in business Rowan has had to be a grafter who uses a lot of time and energy to develop her business. Up at 6 am each morning she tackles emails and meetings on Zoom with her Italian suppliers before most of us have even had our first coffee. She then takes a walk by the sea and makes her way into her shop, often spending a couple of days a week in Italy where she works with her manufacturers.

“My philosophy is that a business is like a relationship. Relationships go up and down and sometimes you have to decide whether it is worth hanging onto.”

One of six children, she says that she was taught to be hard-working and self-sufficient from an early age. “My parents were of the attitude that they would help us out but that we also had to contribute. If we wanted something we had to work for it. So I suppose there is a resilience there,” she says. 

However, it is her love of the job that has kept her going and made her ambitious. “I have a gorgeous, interesting business and I am intrigued to see where I can take it,” she says. “I consider myself very lucky to have this business, to work with such amazing Italian producers, to do what I want every day, and have control over where I am taking my business. This gives me resilience. Don’t get me wrong – I work really bloody hard, but I also consider myself very lucky.” 

Rowan says that while the pandemic has its challenges, she used her time to work on her designs and to put even more energy into developing the business. The fact that her product is both fashionable and functional helped too. “Although my sales did fall dramatically, people were sitting outside restaurants and were out walking – my business is one that can be pushed in both directions.” 

The financial crash was a much more challenging time for Rowan who, just two years in business and younger, had little experience under her belt. “At that stage I had only two years of business on my own, people didn’t know the shop, I didn’t have a huge amount of stock and people were terrified of spending. During the recession, every time people turned on the radio the news was getting worse.”

Never afraid of a challenge and relying on her own wits, Rowan persisted: “My philosophy is that a business is like a relationship. Relationships go up and down and sometimes you have to decide whether it is worth hanging onto. It’s the same with business – you go through times where everything is amazing and you go through times when you want to scream. I kind of like a challenge because it makes you look at things in a different way. If everything is hunky dory you can become a little complacent. I think pressure isn’t always a bad thing.”

Global gloves

Having achieved a level of success on a tight budget and with a small team, Rowan now feels it is time to internationalise her brand. She has already had some interest from investors but says it is important to her to have an investor with a strong understanding of her product and the philosophy of her business.

“I would love someone with a strong understanding of how to grow a brand but equally it could be someone who sees the potential of my brand and just wants to invest money in it. It is an ambitious plan but I think it is attainable when you look at what I have done already on a small budget. I have built the business, I understand the material, I know the production side of things, I have the advantage of being a retailer. I know what works.” 

Paula Rowan wants to become the Jimmy Choo of gloves and believes she has what it takes to do so. “I am now working towards the next step which is to become the leader in luxury gloves globally – to become the Jimmy Choo of gloves. It may sound ambitious but this is what I want to do and what I plan on doing.”