Why Jeanne Hermans Is the Secret Weapon Behind Hollywood’s Most Iconic Glove Looks
When Jeanne Hermans began decorating leather gloves with butterflies, pearls, sequins, and embroidered flowers in a small studio in the Netherlands, her work quickly caught the attention of Hollywood stylists. She did not have a luxury fashion house behind her, a massive Paris atelier, or a celebrity-led marketing campaign. At first, she was simply sharing handmade glove designs on Instagram as part of a creative challenge. Before long, stars like Cher, Miley Cyrus, Dua Lipa, Ariana Grande, and Anne Hathaway were wearing her gloves in magazines, fashion shoots, and live performances. The designs stood out immediately, but the path from a small Dutch studio to Hollywood fashion circles was just as surprising.
A Fashion Niche Almost Nobody Else Wanted
Hermans studied tailoring at the Master Tailor Institute in Amsterdam and started sewing as a child. By the time she entered fashion school, she already had years of experience and wanted something more challenging than standard garment construction. This challenge arrived through a book on leather glove-making.
Gloves required less material than full garments, which mattered to a student working with a tight budget. More importantly, almost nobody was treating gloves like couture art pieces anymore.
She launched her first collection in 2017 and leaned into designs other makers avoided. Traditional opera gloves already existed, so Hermans went in another direction, with oversized floral embroidery, rhinestones, butterflies, and hand-sewn embellishments that looked more like costume design.
Instagram Changed Everything
Image via Pexels/ready made
The real switch came in 2022 when Hermans started posting a “Glove of the Week” series on Instagram. The idea was to make one new pair every week and post the results online. At first, it was all about creative pressure. Hermans admitted she had too many ideas and needed a system that forced her to keep producing. The consistency worked better than she expected.
About 10 months later, her account exploded. Several videos garnered millions of views, and stylists began sharing her work among themselves. Today, her social media audience has nearly a quarter of a million followers, but the bigger win came behind the scenes. Hollywood costume teams and celebrity stylists finally had a direct line to a designer making gloves unlike anything else on the market.
Celebrity Attention Didn’t Bring Instant Money
Celebrity attention did not immediately turn Jeanne Hermans into a major fashion business. She has been unusually open about that reality. Even when celebrities wear her gloves, the arrangements are often unpaid. Stylists typically borrow pieces for magazine shoots, performances, or public appearances, then return them afterward. Viral social media attention also does not always translate into instant sales.
Hermans once expected a major sales surge after Miley Cyrus wore her gloves. Instead, she realized celebrity exposure works more as long-term brand recognition than immediate financial success. This makes the growth of her label, C’est Jeanne, feel very different from the usual fashion industry story.
Many brands rush to expand once celebrities start wearing their products. Hermans took a slower approach. She continued running the company with a very small team, including her sister, and until recently still worked a part-time job alongside the brand.
She also stays heavily involved in making the gloves herself. Simpler pairs may take around two hours to complete, while more detailed designs can require several days of work. One heavily decorated pair reportedly took more than 200 hours to complete, as every rhinestone and sequin was sewn on by hand.