Angie_H - I found the following info on a website - http://www.operagloves.com/history.html - which seems to explain the question you asked:
"In the Victorian and Edwardian periods, it was considered absolutely essential for a lady or gentleman to keep their gloves on at all times, even when bathing, and kid gloves were supposed to be skintight to a degree that would impress a modern-day fetishist. In fact, gloves in the Victorian period were so skintight that ladies were unable to button their mousquetaires without assistance, hence the invention of the buttonhook! It was, in fact, considered improperly alluring for women to put on or entirely remove opera-length gloves in public, and several etiquette writers of the time advised women to put on their long gloves at home before venturing outdoors. The button- or snap-fastened wrist opening which is the characteristic feature of the mousquetaire was put to very good use in this respect by many ladies of the period, who would slip their hands out through the opening to eat or drink while keeping the glove itself on."
Hope this helps