Where Do I Put My Stuff?

You’re running late for class. You have no time to check your bag to see if it’ll have everything you need, so you do a last-minute pack of the necessities: phone, wallet, lip balm, headphones. You try to stuff them in your pockets and reach down to your right-hand pocket until you realize the pocket is sewn shut. A fake pocket. You carry your essentials in your hand while running to class, struggling to open doors and apologizing when you walk in late. You scream at the patriarchy because this problem is almost certainly a man’s fault.

Sound familiar? You can thank the fashion industry for being late to class. Let’s time travel through history to see how pockets have evolved to a prioritization of aesthetics over function in clothing. In the Middle Ages in Europe, people carried pouches that attached their most needed items to their clothes (Rossen). Eventually, the sewing of small pockets into clothes became more popular, with women’s pockets sitting inaccessibly underneath their petticoats and men’s being sewn into their coat lining (Mwanza). However, in the late 1700s, women’s dresses gradually became more tight-fitting and the pockets would alter the silhouettes (Cloos), so women had to start using small pouches called reticules or handbags. This symbolized the idea that women possessed no money or property and wouldn’t need pockets for function, as they were meant to be good little housewives anyway (Mwanza).

1891 brought a campaign by The Rationalist Dress Society that advocated for the elimination of restrictive items like corsets and the addition of more functional clothes for women. Only World War II, which required women to fill in for men’s jobs while they fought as soldiers, brought back women’s pockets (Moffat). This only lasted until the 1950s, when the nuclear family structure was heavily idealized and a woman’s role reverted back into a housewife and mother. As the handbag industry grew and women’s opinions were discounted, the pockets in women’s clothing either shrunk or entirely dissipated. A study by The Pudding found that women’s pockets are on average, 48% shorter and 6.5% narrower than pockets in men’s jeans and that only 40% of women’s pockets can fit a standard smartphone (Diehm).

So, what are we supposed to do to get around this problem until the fashion industry can fundamentally change its biases and give women functional pockets? Of course, you could contribute to the $50 billion purse industry (Grand View), but that’s what they want. A popular solution is the tote bag that everyone seems to be carrying around anyway or your school backpack. With the rise of the straight-legged jean and a street style silhouette, wearing men’s pants could also provide a solution. Women shouldn’t have to buy men’s pants in order to be able to carry their phones, but I guess that’s where we are as a society.

I’ve personally cut my own pockets out of spare fabric and sewed them into a pair of pocketless shorts. To do this, I cut out four pocket pieces (two to be made backward for the other pocket) from a pattern online and sewed them into two open pouches that could fit my phone. I next used a seam ripper to open a hand-sized line down the side seam of the shorts and pinned the open edges of the pouches to each side of the opening. Finally, I sewed them down and tucked them inside to have fully functioning (albeit slightly ugly) pockets! It was a process but ended up being worth it.

It sucks that women have to go out of their way to reach the levels of functionality that men already have, especially when we tend to carry more things. We’ve seen how this issue stems from clearly misogynistic roots and are equipped with a few solutions. But where do we go from here to eradicate the problem at its core? It’s always important to support women designers and lift up female voices in the fashion industry. Here are some ethically made clothing brands whose pieces have ample pocket space: Pivotte, ADAY, Thought, Boden, and Gamine Workwear.

Citations

Cloos, Kassondra. “The History of Women's Terrible Pockets.” Outside Online, Outside Interactive, 27 June 2021, https://www.outsideonline.com/outdoor-gear/clothing-apparel/how-womens-clothes-pockets-changed-over-time/.

Diehm, Jan, and Amber Thomas. “Women's Pockets Are Inferior.” The Pudding, Aug. 2018, https://pudding.cool/2018/08/pockets/#step-2.

“Handbag Market Size & Share: Global Industry Report, 2019-2025.” Handbag Market Size & Share | Global Industry Report, 2019-2025, Grand View Research, June 2019, https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/handbag-market#:~:text=The%20global%20handbag%20market%20size%20was%20estimated%20at%20USD%2049.35,reach%2067.85%20billion%20by%202025.

Moffat, Laura. “Why Do Women's Pants Not Have Pockets?” Kirrin Finch, Shopify, 18 Oct. 2018, https://kirrinfinch.com/blogs/news/why-do-women-s-pants-not-have-pockets.

Mwanza, Chanju. “The Bewildering and Sexist History of Women's Pockets.” VERVE: She Said, Medium, 10 Sept. 2018, https://medium.com/verve-up/the-bewildering-and-sexist-history-of-womens-pockets-1edf3a98117.

Rossen, Jake. “The Reason Dresses and Jeans Have Fake Pockets.” Mental Floss, Mental Floss, 20 Apr. 2021, https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/643969/why-dresses-jeans-have-fake-pockets.