Daniel Storto

Mamma Mia, what a life! With its numerous ups and downs, it is reminiscent of a wild rollercoaster ride. This man‘s story features all the necessary ingredients of a fantastic movie script: exclusion, family affairs/drama, courage, love, despair, male and female partners, death/tragedy, hope, divorce, being a single father, success, top fashion designers/magazines, unexpected turns over various decades on two continents. Plus: the main character „had never been animated by commercial success or money“, states Nuovo Magazine. „He disliked the corporate world, preferring to work with his hands.“ And that’s not all: this man has always stayed true to his beliefs, passion, and skill as well as inner values come what may!

The trouble began in childhood already. Daniel Storto grew up as one of three sons by a conservative family of immigrant Italian tailors. Despite being male he was presented dolls by his mother and aunts from early on. 

While Ontario’s capital was freewheeling in the 1960s, the atmosphere at home was stern and serious like in the 1950s. Only when the family traveled to Francavilla al Mare, a small seaside town on the Adriatic coast in Abruzzo, Italy, in the summertime the child experienced warmth. His grandfather Antonio, a poor artisan shoemaker, took time for little Danny and conveyed to him the knowledge of his craftsmanship. So the boy started sewing by hand in the old world tradition at the age of seven under the guidance of the old school-trained instructor in his shoe shop. 

Back in Canada, the situation worsened for this teenager that was different to the others: one day the twelve-year-old noticed that the trunk with his beloved dolls was empty. His father had thrown them out. Shocked by this revelation he planned his escape. About a year later he left home and school too (in the ninth grade). His parents didn’t show any interest in finding out where the runaway was staying. The young teenager had met and fallen in love with Ken, a dancer at the National Ballet of Canada, and soon moved in with him. Almost overnight Daniel Storto was surrounded by all types of people from the wild world of the swinging art scene. Because of his partner’s involvement in dance and theatre, the creative started designing and making fabulous costumes with no budget for experimental theatre companies. Three years into their relationship fate struck: Ken, aged 30, died of a sudden heart attack. That shocking tragedy left the young man shattered, but his friends in the community cushioned him and after some time of grief the widower threw himself into his work. 

It was around 1973 that the multi-talented artist made his first encounter with gloves after having been presented vintage editions by his then-boyfriend. „I was fascinated by the construction“, he told Huffpost.com. „How they were sewn. The Victorian period as well as gloves from the 1950‘s. All hand sewn. I wanted to make some. It was a technical challenge. I was up for it.“

During this time Daniel met Walter, who was a business-orientated American writer who convinced him to switch from costume design to avant-garde fashion. When Mr. Storto was in his early twenties he opened his first shop in Toronto, called Daniel S. [only because his full last name didn't fit on the storefront window] where he made everything himself, experimental clothing and accessories for men and women. The first summer season he began designing and making swimwear. Of course, it was something special like a tic-tac-toe strapless one-piece swimsuit, on which one could actually play a game. Extravagant designs like that did not only catch attention in New York and were for sale at prestigious department stores, Bergdorf Goodman on Fifth Avenue, Henri Bendel, and Barney’s but made it into fashion magazines such as Harper’s Bazaar. 

His swimwear, Daniel Storto frequently says, wasn’t to swim in. "It’s swimwear to be seen in." Considering that aspect it was just a natural step to lighten the glamour which he called his “Evening Swimwear.” so they were always accessorized with matching fingerless satin gloves [they were 75 inches long and gathered up the arm which he still produces today] as an additional eye-catcher. Then one thing led to another when some stores that didn’t carry swimwear asked for just his gloves. Requests from fashion magazines for the gloves for their editorial pages kept coming. His gloves were featured in fashion magazines resulting in an increasing popularity and demand. 

The much sought-after designer had made connections to the sunnier part of the US in the meantime and moved there in 1980. Well-paid stints as creative director with the two mammoths of the swimwear world Cole of California and Jantzen Swimwear followed. However these didn’t work for him for very long. The reasons therefore he told TIME magazine: “You have to understand where I come from... Corporations would say to me, ‘Daniel, you need to design something that’s going to make a million dollars.’ But I don’t work that way. It made me sick.”

Los Angeles was the place to be for him in 1982 as there were hardly any glove producers available in the center of the movie-making industry. The new designer in town didn’t arrive either unprepared or with empty hands. In advance, he already had made a brief personal contact with Bob Mackie. He showed up for his first interview carrying a violin case full of gloves. The effect: The famed, multi-awarded costume designer placed orders with him immediately and garnered the title of “The Glove Maker To The Hollywood Stars.” From his small workshop in Pasadena [formerly Albert Einstein’s office when he taught at Cal Tech] the Canadian designed gloves for movies starring Nicole Kidman, Meryl Streep (Death Becomes Her), Whoopi Goldberg, Goldie Hawn, Diane Keaton, Cher, and many more - not forgetting Sylvester Stallone’s iconic fingerless gloves for ‚Rocky'! The presence of his artworks on the screen was accompanied by constant coverage in American Vogue.

When the big budgets were shrinking and Daniel Storto wanted to reconnect with his family after decades of separation, it was time to move on again! In 1997 the lost son was back in Toronto. He opened a studio in downtown Toronto doing commissioned work for luxury designers such as Paul Smith of London. Shortly thereafter Daniel Storto was appointed lead designer of accessories for fashion designer Dries Van Noten in 1998 and worked in the headquarters based in Antwerp, Belgium. 

In 2001, back in America, the creative remembered a small city in Upstate New York he had read much about and drove to Gloversville from New York City. “It was once the hub of the United States glove-making industry, with over seven hundred and fifty manufacturers. Upon his arrival, Daniel Storto got in touch with the last three glove factory owners. From them, the “supposedly expert“ (self-assessment) learned the handed-down secrets of the industrial trade of glove-making and was presented the vintage glove tools and equipment dating as far back as the 1800s.

“There really are more important things in life than making money“, he told The New York Times and added: "You know, I’ve always thrived on being underground. When you go to Paris, you expect to see fashion. When you come to Gloversville, I’m giving you glove!“ What these unique, handmade ready-to-wear artworks might look like the designer explained in the Huffington Post: "I enjoy working against the grain because it is so not fashion industry shit! I am inspired always by shape and form and by some great artists such as Richard Serra (sculptural artist), Ellsworth Kelly (painter/sculptor/printmaker), and architect Zaha Hadid, just to name a few.“

Daniel Storto’s gloves are available at his storefront glove shop [the only glove maker storefront shop in North America] which is based in downtown Gloversville, New York, US, and periodically through his virtual store on Etsy,