What we talk about when we talk about pockets

[sabotabby]

My favourite type of fashion rant—POCKETS!—and a nice way to test LJ's repost function and get back to posting things that aren't about tumors—Sabs

Originally posted by cucumberseed at What we talk about when we talk about pockets

Originally posted by kylecassidy at What we talk about when we talk about pockets

This post is about pockets, feminism, design, autonomy and common sense. Please feel free to repost or link to it if you know people who'd benefit from the discussion.

A few weeks ago trillian_stars and I were out somewhere and she asked "Oooh, can I get a cup of coffee?" and I thought "why are you asking me? You don't need permission." But what I discovered was that her clothes had no pockets, so she had no money with her.

Mens clothes have pockets. My swimsuits have pockets. All of them do, and it's not unusual, because, what if you're swimming in the ocean and you find a fist full of pirate booty in the surf? You need somewhere to put it. Men are used to carrying stuff in their pockets, you put money there, you put car keys there. With money and car keys come power and independence. You can buy stuff, you can leave. The idea of some women's clothes not having pockets is baffling, but it's worse than that -- it's patriarchal because it makes the assumption that women will either carry a handbag, or they'll rely on men around them for money and keys and such things. (I noticed this also when Neil & Amanda were figuring out where her stuff had to go because she had no pockets.) Where do women carry tampons? Amanda wondered, In their boyfriend's pockets, Neil concluded.

I then noticed that none of trillian_stars' running clothes had pockets. Any pockets. Which is (as they always say on "Parking Wars") ridikulus. Who leaves the house with nothing? (It's not a rhetorical question, I actually can't think of anybody).

We fixed some of this by getting this runners wrist wallet from Poutfits on Etsy -- it holds money, ID, keys ... the sort of stuff you'd need. Plus you can wipe your nose on it. It solves the running-wear problem, but not the bigger problem.




Clickenzee to Embiggen!


The bigger problem is that people who design women's fashions are still designing pants and jackets that have no pockets. In fact, this jacket we got last December has ... no pockets. It's not a question of lines or shape, it's a question of autonomy.



Clickenzee to Embiggen


So I'm asking my friends who design women's clothes to consider putting pockets in them, they can be small, they can be out of the way, they can be inside the garment, but space enough to put ID, and cash and bus tokens. And maybe a phone. (And if you can design a surreptitious tampon stash, I'm sure Neil & Amanda & a lot of other people would appreciate it as well.)





Add me: [LiveJournal] [Facebook] [Twitter] [Google+] [Tumblr]
[Roller Derby Portraits]

Comments

[funnel101.livejournal.com]

I was just ranting to Rob about this a few days ago. Or, if women's clothes do have pockets, they're so small as to render them effectively useless.

[sabotabby]

Yes. Or worse yet, tricksy fake pockets.

Trufax: Some guys' shirts have collar stays and you can stick screwdrivers and bottle-openers in them. Why is this not an option for women?!

[franklanguage.livejournal.com]

All my fucking life I've been on a quest for pockets; I still find it hard to believe that none of my clothes when I was a little kid and my mom was shopping for in the 6X sizes had pockets.

Guys take it for granted! So I've taken the liberty of reposting this, of course, and I hope I get some action on my journal. Wish someone would modify this rant for Dreamwidth, but right now I'm too fried to do it.

[agatharuncible.livejournal.com]

Tricksy fake pockets, and really tiny pockets that don't work anyway, really suck. Thankfully I rarely face the latter because they're more of a thing in cute, brightly coloured "vintage" dresses and that's not my thing.

I also HATE pockets that are normal-sized and would actually work, but they're at weird angles so your dress looks really lumpy if you're taking, idk, your phone or keys, or things just plain fall out if you're doing daring things like walking.

[the_axel]

I love my titanium gadget collar stays :-)

[rohmie.livejournal.com]

Do clothing designers know nothing of uniform porn?

[sabotabby]

Alas, very little. The worst is women's military chic with no pockets.

[rohmie.livejournal.com]

Something like this but with no pockets (assuming those vertical pocket flaps are not fake).

[ironed_orchid]

How is that even a thing!

[radiumhead.livejournal.com]

Pockets killed all the indians

[sabotabby]

I thought that was blankets.

[symbioid.livejournal.com]

Nah - it was the small pockets on the blankets.

[ironed_orchid]

This is a great post.

A couple of years ago I made a new year's resolution not to buy any more trousers without pockets. It has reduced my choices significantly when shopping, but it means that most days I have somewhere to put my keys and my phone.

I hoped that with the increasing assumption that we call carry our phones with us at all times, designers would make more clothes with phone suitable pockets. But instead there are more phone sized purses and clutches. Which makes sense from a capitalist point of view: why sell one item when you could sell two.

ETA: eh, I meant to post this on the original. I think you know my feelings on pockets.

[sabotabby]

Oh, and don't even get me started about the assumption that we carry our phones with us at all times. My phone doesn't ring long enough for me to retrieve it if it's in my purse or in another part of the house. And most pockets in women's clothing, if they exist at all, aren't large or sturdy enough to accommodate phones.

Perhaps we all need Batman-style utility belts.

[karinmollberg.livejournal.com]

Duly posted chez moi, merci.
My boyfriend often asks me to carry his heavy stuff in my bag which generally is a thing that hangs across my body like a hunter´s or postman´s bag so I don´t lose it and also I have both my hands free. Sic! Feel free to congratulate me on this way of Salomonic horsewomanship living that I´ve kept up for the last thirty years or so not to be annoyed by lack of pockets in female clothes as easily as the next girl. Mostly I wear jeans and the left pocket is for keys, nobody can steal them there without my noticing and punching them up, I think. Which is no reason why women´s clothes should not have pockets. Random information on blondes: I read somewhere that Sharon Stone always has pockets sewn into her evening dresses.

[sabotabby]

Yeah, I quite often bear the Bag of Holding when I'm out with dudes. There must be a better way.

That's awesome about Sharon Stone.

[the_axel]

Another benefit to guys in suits.
I have
2 front trouser pockets,
2 back trouser pockets,
2 jacket breast inside pockets,
1 pen pocket,
1 outside breast pocket (perfect for sunglasses),
2 jacket hip outside pockets,
1 jacket hip inside pocket,
1 shirt breast pocket.

12 pockets! I can carry ALL THE THINGS

[frelling-tralk.livejournal.com]

Yes! There are some times when it's just not appropriate to carry a handbag with you, but then I have nowhere to put my keys and purse (or wallet I guess you would call it *g*) because either my trousers have no pockets, or if they do there's never enough room to fit my purse in there

[sabotabby]

I've also noticed that most "fashionable" purses are way too small to accommodate my stuff. Not enough room for books, for one, whereas I know guys who can stash a book in their vests.

[lemur-catta.livejournal.com]

I have some pants that epitomise the stupid. They have back pockets but, they've been sealed so they can't actually function. I don't like using back pockets anyway but, this means I can't even stick my hands in them to straighten out the annoying material of the bunched-up non-pocket . Why didn't they just make a pocket welt with no interior pouch if they were just going to seal it anyway?

[sabotabby]

Oh wow. Yeah, back pockets are problematic because you can only stick things in them that you don't mind getting squished every time you sit down. Their only real use is decorative or so that someone you like can stick their hands there. But then sealing them adds another layer of ridiculousness.

[agatharuncible.livejournal.com]

Is there a way to disable the repost function?

And I know what this problem is like because, ok, I can't picture pockets on some of my dresses but on others I can and it's criminal they don't have them.

[sabotabby]

In this post or in all your posts?

For this post, I think you could just get rid of the button in code. For your posts, it should be default disabled and you have to click to enable it.

Yeah, some dresses I own wouldn't work with pockets. But with casual dresses, I have few if any that wouldn't be improved with pockets, and on trousers it's inexcusable not to have them.

[auralarua.livejournal.com]

I do rant about this constantly to my S.O. It's mega fucking bullshit.

[sabotabby]

I rant about it a lot, especially at this time of year.