The fashions for summer 1939 ran the gamut—from sexy to ladylike to girlish innocence. Schiaparelli added a surreal note with such evening accessories as these elbow-length bright green suede gloves with gold kid ruffles running up the fingers, each recalling the Italian corno, or horn-shaped amulet of the Virgin Mary. Its use on the gloves can also be read as a cheeky reference to the mano cornuta, or “horned hand,” the Italian hand gesture meant to wave off the evil eye or to indicate that a man has been cuckolded. Dilys E. Blum, from Shocking! The Art and Fashion of Elsa Schiaparelli (2003), p. 207.