For your weekend amusement, every other Saturday we will share a collection of images centered around the members' styling (such as hair, fashion, accessories, etc.) or stylistic choices (like selfie angles or weird filters). Perhaps we will have deep, meaningful thoughts about them. Perhaps we won't.
Sometime around Guerrilla era, I began to notice that Yunho's styling often featured gloves. But not just any old gloves--weird gloves, often worn only one at a time. And the more I looked for his gloves, the more I noticed them and became fascinated by this styling choice.
Did he request the gloves? Do the stylists think gloves look particularly nice on him? Was there a half off sale on single gloves? Is KQ trying to protect him from hand fetishists?
So I've set off on anthropological journey to discover the history of Yunho--and through Yunho, the rest of members--wearing gloves.
Methodology
To unlock the secrets of Yunho's gloves, I have reviewed pictures of every single stage they have ever done that subsequently had pictures of their outfits posted on Twitter.
Limitations
If there wasn't a picture of ATEEZ wearing the stage outfits on Twitter, I did not see it. Additionally, sometimes Yunho will place a single hand behind a member's head or otherwise hide it from view in the picture. Since he often wears single gloves, it's possible that some gloves were missed because I was unable to see them through Wooyoung's head.
If the outfit appeared to maybe have a glove but the picture was unclear, I watched the stage on YouTube to verify.
I have not looked at any pictures Yunho posted himself in an attempt to find gloves in his every day attire, so I leave that for future researchers. This study will only look at stage styling.
What's a glove?
This may seem intuitive to the uninitiated, but to anyone who has spent any time looking at various glove stylings for ATEEZ, you know that the question is a lot more complicated.
For the purposes of this study, I have counted any hand covering that was (1) designed to cover the palm or top of the member's hand OR (2) covers at least one finger. The item can be made of mesh, leather, chain, or any other material; it was counted as a glove if it met one of my two requirements.
Pirate King
Our first glove in ATEEZ appears less than a month after their debut in a Pirate King stage, and it is Yunho who dons it. So as you can see, Yunho is the original ATEEZ glove boy. He will be the only member who wears gloves during a Pirate King stage.
Say My Name
However, as we move into Say My Name era, Yunho does not emerge victorious in the battle of gloves. Say My Name is a heavy glove era, and we have many instances of an almost OT8 glove styling.
Seonghwa is the first member to wear gloves during Say My Name, and we see the first glimpse of a fingerless glove styling that they would all eventually come to favor.
Mingi is our next glove boy, and he--along with Seonghwa--will continue to emerge as the leaders of the glove boys during Say My Name era.
During this era, in addition to a rise of OT8 gloves, we also have a rise of what I will term the sleeve glove. Arguably not a glove at all, we see many long sleeve shirts with a thumb hole. But under my requirement that a glove is something designed to cover the palm or top of the hand, these have been counted.
Notably, Yunho is the first we see wearing the sleeve glove on January 25, 2019. And while at first it may appear to be just very long sleeves, I did watch the stage on .25 speed to confirm that there is in fact a thumb hole in that sleeve.
At first glance, the above picture may appear to just be a normal almost OT8 glove situation, but there are several new and exciting developments in this picture. Here we see the start of the members sharing sets of gloves. You will notice that the members who are wearing gloves are all wearing only one from the same set. Additionally, Yunho also has on a sleeve glove, meaning he is wearing two different types of gloves at one time under my methodology.
We continue to see a variety of OT8 glove stylings during this era before they go on their first tour. During the tour, no gloves make an appearance.
We have a return to an OT8 glove look for KCON Japan, but then the gloves mysteriously disappear.
Wave/Illusion
There is not a single glove during Wave and Illusion era.
The bunny hand covers from this picture taken after a fansign are the closest we have to a glove boy moment from any member, and since it is Yunho, I am including it.
Wonderland
If I'm honest, I expected Wave and Illusion to be light on gloves, but Wonderland surprised me. I thought the gloves would be more heavily utilized in the military fits, but we only get a single glove stage in all of Wonderland.
During their Halloween performance, OT8 gloves make a reappearance.
Answer
Answer is a return to glove era, but Yunho is given no gloves to wear except in OT8 glove stages.
It is in this era that we see San emerge as one of our frequent glove boys, wearing gloves at least 3 times in their stages, which is not an insignificant amount since the Answer promotions were relatively short.
We also have an emergence of bulky sweaters in Answer era that often cover the palm, making glove classifications and identification harder. However, going by my methodology, only sleeves with the thumb holes that are designed to cover the palm or top of the hand, like Yeosang's in the above image, are being counted as gloves for the purposes of the study.
We also see the start of the chain glove as pictured on Seonghwa above. Is a chain glove a glove? Or is it an elaborate bracelet accessory? It is hard to say, but since the chain gloves continue to make an appearance and often cover a large portion of the the top of the hand, I am counting it as a glove.
Researchers may disagree on this point.
Inception/THANXX
Inception and THANXX, like Say My Name, turn out to be a heavy glove era. Both Hongjoong and Seonghwa's main concept styling involves gloves, which means they both become frequent member of the glove boys on stage, Seonghwa during Inception, and Hongjoong during the THANXX promotions. But we also see glove stages and styling for almost every member except Jongho (unless it's an OT8 glove styling).
We see our first gloves of the era a month before the release of Inception, and Yunho is one of our glove boys in this styling. While Yunho's hand coverings are most obviously gloves, Yeosang, Seonghwa, and Mingi join him as members with glove fits here.
In the month before Inception's release, ATEEZ performed at KCON:TACT, which was an online version of KCON held between June 20-26, 2000, and they performed Answer & ON on Music Bank, and we see glove stylings for both of those stages, which I consider a harbinger of the gloves to come.
Inception in particular is full of half gloves and almost gloves. Hwa's sleeve glove makes an appearance in many stages in some form or another, and several other members wear leather wraps around their hands that mimic gloves. You can see an example of this in the August 9th with Mingi and Wooyoung's stylings.
Our first Inception stage with a Yunho glove is almost two weeks after the song's release. He is the sole glove boy in this styling.
We continue to see a variety of leather and wrap gloves during Inception era, and notably most gloves are fingerless.
During their first Immortal Songs performance, fingerless glove options continue to reign supreme. Further research was required on whether Yunho's hand accessory counted as a glove, but after watching the Black Cat Nero stage, I have determined that it does meet the criteria. Chains connect the bottom cuff to the finger holes at the top, so it is all part of the same accessory meant to be worn over the hand.
THANXX styling also incorporates a lot of gloves, especially from our rapline. We see Seonghwa continue to sport accessories that are somewhere between gloves and bracelets.
On September 9th during M Countdown, Seonghwa wore a plaid wrap around his hand, but after watching the stage, it does appear to have a thumbhole, which means it has been counted as a glove.
During this part of promotions, Yunho only appears in gloves twice, and both times he is alongside other members with glove styling.
Black Cat Nero & Awards Season
We will end the year 2020 with very little Yunho glove moments. The last time we will see him in gloves is during the Black Cat Nero music video released on Halloween.
While KQ doesn't have a still picture where all of their hands are visible, from the music video we can tell that Yunho, Seonghwa, and San all wear some type of fingerless glove situation.
While we do see more gloves before the year's end, we do not see them from Yunho.
Fireworks & Kingdom
Our first gloves of Fireworks era actually appear pre-Fireworks era when they performed on Immortal Songs.
In this stage, we are treated to some truly excellent leather gloves from Yeosang, a rare glove boy, while Hongjoong and San also get in on the glove fun.
We also have some pre-era glove content from San during a performance for Universe.
Once Fireworks era really starts, we see San, Hongjoong, and Seonghwa emerging as the members who most frequently wear gloves. This is, at least in part, due to the fact that their music video outfits and styling also have gloves.
But this is the era where we start to see the one finger gloves that make San look as if he's flipping off the camera, which he doesn't stop wearing even after the first mishap.
Our first Yunho glove of the era appears on a Music Bank stage almost two weeks after the release of Fireworks. Here, Yunho, San, and Seonghwa all wear only a single glove, though none of the gloves appear to be from a matching set.
This will remain true for the rest of the era as we see a heavy glove presence from San and Hongjoong with other members, including Yunho, joining the glove agenda occasionally.
Dreamers
As Fireworks promotions wind down and we go into the much lighter Dreamers, gloves become a thing of the past. We will not see gloves again until Deja Vu/Eternal Sunshine when they make a triumphant return in a big, big way.
And with that, we will pause as we get ready to dive into what I consider Yunho's prime glove eras--the latter half of Fever and into World--when I return. Please look forward to my continued obsession with Yunho's gloves on September 16th, and let me know which gloves you believe are the best gloves!
“Magnum Opus” indeed.