[1][2] Cornelia Katz was born in Vienna in 1917, and left in 1939 via Paris to London to try to get a United States visa, but met Jack James and married him six weeks later in 1940.

In 1947, Norman Hartnell asked her to make the "going-away" gloves for The Princess Elizabeth after her marriage to Prince Philip.

[7] The company is now run by her daughter, Genevieve James Lawson, who's also the brand's creative director.

[5] They also have provided gloves for numerous entertainment productions, including The Crown, Downton Abbey and Mamma Mia.

[2] In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, the company partnered with HeiQ Materials AG to create "silver based anti viral technology", which is applied to the fabric of their gloves as an antimicrobial protection against the coronavirus.