When I first started out riding a mtb I wore a pair of Lizard Skins full finger gloves. They did the job well, not too flashy, but they did not hold up well after a period of time and soon the material wore out.
Later on when I switched over to road cycling, I started out on my roadie without any gloves. My hands felt comfy on the Campy hoods and I did not see any need to use any gloves. However I got a pair of Pearl Izumi half finger Gel-Lite race gloves. The glove size felt a bit too tight for my hands and I wasn't very happy with the padding on the gloves; they felt like a half-hearted effort. I sold them after a couple of rides.
I resumed riding glove-less for a couple of months, then I chanced upon Rivendell's crochet gloves on their website. During this time I was moving from the "wanna-be racer" mentality to the "retrogrouch" one. I bought the gloves as I wanted to try out how crochet gloves felt like in humid weather (I live in Singapore). Once again I was left disappointed at the padding, this time it was too thick until the extent that I had a hard time reaching for my brake levers with the gloves on.
Then I bought a pair of Rapha's crochet gloves and I have never looked back since. They fit my hands perfectly, stitching was top-notch, the leather was luxurious for a pair of cycling gloves, and they ooze style from every seam. So far my favourite pair of gloves, and one of the few cycling accessories that I definitely cannot do without. I had spent quite a bit of green on the gloves, but to me it was worth it.