A Perfect Fit for Foxgloves
Story by Holly J. Coley
Photo: Carol Barnstead Photography
Harriet Zbikowski has always loved growing things. A former landscape architect and professional horticulturist, the creator of the intuitive glove company, Foxgloves, has early memories of picking irises the size of her head in her grandmother’s garden. “Of course, when you’re three or four, everything is the size of your head,” she says with a laugh. “But gardening is a part of who I am.”
What she has never cared for is the way traditional gloves hamper one’s sense of touch. It was a common complaint shared between her and her friends, and by her early twenties she was looking for solutions to this unaddressed problem.
Through thrifting and shopping tag sales, she discovered that vintage evening gloves gave a truer fit and feel but lacked the durability required for working with weeds. A new species of glove would have to be made, and she would find a way to make it.