by Marie-Luise Stromer

Created on: January 18, 2011

Gloves and umbrellas have one character trait in common: they’re not faithful to their owners and more often than not drop out of service without giving notice - they simply disappear. The consequence is that I only buy cheap umbrellas now, I’ve vowed never to spend more than 2,75 Euro from now on. With leather gloves, however, things aren’t so easy, as there are no cheap varieties, at least not in Germany.

I have warm gloves for winter, the palm made of leather, the top made of wool, the inside lined with wool-like synthetic material. But I also like wearing gloves before winter starts and when the cold season has ended but it’s still chilly, gloves made of fine leather without lining. I’ve bought some in Florence over the years where they cost less than in Germany but I haven’t been there for a while. When my last pair left me, I was wondering where to buy a new one until we decided to go to Lisbon and I found the address of a glove shop in our guide book.

No, not the address of *a* glove shop, but *the* glove shop! It’s in the Chiado area, the noble shopping precinct, in Rua do Carmo, 87-A, not far from where it starts from the Rossio Square, on the right side of the street. The building is Art Deco, the glove shop Ulisses was founded in 1925 and has been in the same location ever since. Nowadays the Luvaria Ulisses is the last shop in Portugal selling exclusively gloves. Everybody who’s anybody buys there. (Open Monday to Saturday from 10 am to 7 pm)

The production facilities are in Lisbon, the gloves are made by qualified professionals, the manufacturing processes have remained unaltered over the decades, no cheap stuff from Asia here. New styles and colours have been introduced to attract also the younger generation. If the clients’ wishes aren’t too exotic, any combination can be made in the course of two days, if they are exotic, it may take a bit longer.

One has to be attentive not to overlook the shop. Once one has found it, one doubts that the term ‘shop’ is appropriate at all. Two shop windows displaying gloves in artful arrangements flank a door. This is usually open and the expectant customer steps in - and bumps straight into another customer if there is one! The ‘shop’ consists of a counter behind which a slim shop-assistant can stand and a tiny space in front of it for the customer(s), all in all the ‘shop’ covers 4 m². When I entered, I

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