Click for Google +1 At some stage in the mid-80s it became fashionable to wear fingerless gloves. It is hard to pinpoint the exact moment when they started to appear, but a best estimate puts the rapid rise in popularity around the 1983 timeframe, which probably peaked in late 1984.
The fingerless glove as a fashion statement was a culmination of various 80s influences. For starters there were the lace glove-wearing new romantics and the leather/vinyl punk fashions. In addition, punks tended to wear large studded wristbands that were frequently up near the base of the thumb. The other factor is the 80s obsession with cutting off the ends of garments. Leg warmers are a similar example of the cut-off look and were often accessorised with fingerless gloves.