{"id":7078,"date":"2019-12-09T11:42:01","date_gmt":"2019-12-09T11:42:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/?p=7078"},"modified":"2019-12-09T11:42:02","modified_gmt":"2019-12-09T11:42:02","slug":"what-has-she-got-in-her-pocketses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/?p=7078","title":{"rendered":"What has she got in her pocketses?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
Spring and Summer 1955 Lane Bryant\/Jessica H. Jaeger\/flickr<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

How many times have you sallied forth for the evening\nwanting to take just a key, phone, bank card and possibly your lippy?  This usually begs the question: what shall I\ncarry it in? Your partner, if male, faces no such dilemma. Even if he doesn\u2019t\nwant to take any lippy with him all he has to do is pop the bits and pieces\ninto one of his many pockets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

See where I\u2019m going? How often are women\u2019s clothes designed\nwith pockets included? Wouldn\u2019t it be nice to not have to remember where you\nput that little bag you put all the above-mentioned essentials in? And if said\nlittle bag doesn\u2019t have a strap you\u2019re going to have to carry it around all\nevening.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just what is this with women\u2019s clothes usually being\npocketless?  The standard reason is that\n\u2018they will spoil the line of the garment\u2019. Well as far as I\u2019m concerned that is\njust showing a lack of imagination. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have investigated the background to this sociological\nphenomenon.  It appears that pockets in\nmen’s clothes started appearing in the late 1600s.  While these were often sewn directly into men\u2019s\ngarments – as they still are today – women had to make do with wrapping a pouch\nwith a string around their waists and tucking it away under their\npetticoats. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, these pouch-like items were much harder to access than\npockets or handbags. Back in the 17th<\/sup> century, women wore a gown\nwith a petticoat.  Underneath that was an\nunder-petticoat, and underneath that was a shift. A woman’s makeshift pocket\nwas hung under her dress but over the under-petticoat, making\nit logistically difficult to access unless she was nearly nude – which\nwasn\u2019t really acceptable in those days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Peasant dress\/Nic\/flickr<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Things improved slightly in the 1700s.  The pouches women used became more of a\nfashion item and started to be embroidered and embellished, and women\u2019s dresses\nbegan to be made with slits, which allowed access to the pouches hanging under\nthe dress.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sadly, things went into reverse in the 1800s; women\u2019s\nfashion changed from voluminous outfits that could conceal virtually anything\nto slimmed down lines that showed off the figure. The new silhouette was more\nGrecian inspired, prohibiting a bulky pouch that would stick out from beneath\nand spoil the look.  Enter the purse, or\nreticule; this was a small, decorated bag that a woman would carry with\nher.  The richer you were, the smaller\nthe reticule \u2013 the implication being that you had no need to carry much stuff.\nYour husband had the money and your servants took charge of bulky items. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The good news is that later in the century things finally\nstarted to change; dress patterns started to include instructions for sewing\npockets into skirts to increase women\u2019s independence. Then as we move into the\n20th<\/sup> century women started wearing trousers, so pockets in these\nsimply brought them in line with the now long-established tradition for men.\nIronically, both world wars had a useful unintended consequence (remember\nthem?). The work wear produced for women had sizeable, practical, useful\npockets sewn in. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Pockets\/wck\/flickr<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Unfortunately, wartime fashion did not guarantee pockets in women\u2019s\nclothes for ever. In the 1980s, for example, there was a trend for side zips\nand extremely tight, figure hugging trousers, and many of the styles then had\nno pockets, once again to maintain an uninterrupted line.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

None of this has been helped with the ever-changing styles and\nmodes around women\u2019s handbags. They veer from being mini suitcases to something\nwhich can\u2019t even hold a mobile phone, and once again the humble pocket gets side-lined.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was delighted to find that there is a growing appetite for\npockets in wedding dresses; the main thing is to stay focused, claim our pocket\nrights and give the lie to Christian Dior\u2019s view that: \u2018Men have pockets to\nkeep things in, women for decoration.\u2019 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

..logistically difficult to access unless she was nearly nude..<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":7076,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,63,205,58,55,59],"tags":[76,91,206,104,82],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7078"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7078"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7078\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7090,"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7078\/revisions\/7090"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7076"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7078"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7078"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7078"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}