LaCrasia Custom Glovemakers

Ill-fitting gloves are an underrated nightmare: too big, and you'll have to risk frostbite just to dial your cellphone; too small, and your fingers will clench into palsied claws. The solution: custom gloves from LaCrasia.

LaCrasia's specialized in prehensile fashion since 1973. Whereas most gloves are mass-produced by tiny-fisted Third World children, LaCrasia's are lovingly stitched by an expert staff led by Jay Ruckel -- one of America's last "master glove makers" (or at least one of the last Americans willing to identify himself as such). And while off-the-rack gloves come in only ~ 5 sizes, LC's exacting measurements will match you with one of 320 known hand templates -- so you'll get a snug-but-not-constrictive fit, whether your thumb's stubby, your pointer's spindly, or your palm's as fat as a baby's head

Basic cost is around $100 for leather, $30 for cloth (you can also opt for specialized styles, like driving gloves, fingerless mugger gloves, etc). If you're not convinced LaCrasia's the custom glove shop, just ask Kenny Rogers, or Chaka Khan -- the most charmingly obsolete celebrities in a long list of satisfied clients. If you are convinced, but can't make it in for a fitting, simply mail in a traced outline of your hand, resisting the urge to turn it into a holiday turkey -- because hideously deformed avian hands are the stuff of Jay Ruckel's nightmares.