#pocket parity

[professorpski]

The Pocket: A Hidden History of Women’s Live, 1660-1900

I am a big believer in pocket parity as you know if you saw my recent creation of a pair of wool trousers with extra deep pockets for cold-weather wear while traveling. Women’s clothing rarely has the same kind of pockets that men have access too, but then our clothing is rarely cut along the same lines as men’s clothing. See men’s trousers v. women’s leggings today.

This volume by Barbara Burman and Ariane Fennetaux looks at a different kind of pocket, the tie-on pocket, which British women wore centuries ago because they too lacked all the pockets that men got in their pants and jackets. Think of the tie-on pocket as the cross-body bags of the 17th, 18th and 19th Centuries, but worn under a skirt or petticoat. Sometimes they were beautifully embroidered as you can see and sometimes very plain. Always they were full of necessary and often valuable items. The authors were able to figure out what women kept in their pockets because of their searches through contemporary accounts from letters to novels to paintings. And by making use of the Old Bailey Online, the records of the central London criminal court which can be searched for items like pockets, in order to see what a woman complained she had lost when a thief made off with her pocket. (More than once I have mused that I should teach a class called “crimes of fashion” and now I can add pockets to the topics).

So, if you are interested in a deep dive into a now forgotten accessory, you can find this book at the Yale University Press where they even have a video: https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300253740/pocket

[professorpski]

On Pocket Parity and the Ballot

Below you will find a satire on giving the women the ballot written by Alice Duer Miller, the author of books and plays and poems, some of which were made into films. This bit is from Are Women People? A Book of Rhymes for Suffrage Times published in 1915, taken from columns she wrote for the New York Tribune. Some of the poems are very funny, and some aren’t poems. This non poem mocked those who opposed ballots for women. Now, we have the ballot, but not always pockets. You may remember I posted about Kamryn Gardner who complained recently to OId Navy that their jeans for girls lacked pockets. Even more offensive, they have fake pockets. Ugh.

“Why We Oppose Pockets for Women

1. BECAUSE pockets are not a natural right.

2. Because the great majority of women do not want pockets. If they did they would have them.

3. Because whenever women have had pockets they have not used them.

4. Because women are required to carry enough things as it is, without the additional burden of pockets.

5. Because it would make dissension be tween husband and wife as to whose pockets were to be filled.

6. Because it would destroy man s chivalry toward woman, if he did not have to carry all her things in his pockets.

7. Because men are men, and women are women. We must not fly in the face of nature.

8. Because pockets have been used by men to carry tobacco, pipes, whiskey flasks, chewing gum and compromising letters. We see no reason to suppose that women would use them more wisely”

[professorpski]

First-grader wrote Old Navy asking for girls’ jeans to have real pockets. The letter went viral.

“I want my pants to have real pockets like my brother’s pants,” said Kamryn Gardner, 7.

Pocket parity, as you know, I am so for it!

[professorpski]

Can a Pocket Be Luxurious? or Pocket Parity; Vogue 1939 in Red and Black

My aim in winter trousers was to make something warm, easy to wear, and practical, while being attractive, of course. I took a wool blend novelty weave, a dark red and black which creates tiny vertical stripes on one side of the weave. In a previous post, you saw my muslin test, made in a fabric nice enough to make a wearable garment if it turned out well, which it did. This is a Calvin Klein pattern from 1997 with two kinds of pants. One fitted at the hips and one cut as pleated trousers. I wanted the comfort of the trousers. But both would have been worn by working women as by the 1990s the pants suit was fully accepted on women.

I tweaked the fit along the way, waist and hips, including shortening the crotch length a full inch in total, and shortened the inseam an inch too. Apparently, I am stubbier than Vogue Patterns imagines a woman will be. I shifted the side zipper opening to the back and added a rayon lining as well. Which has made for a nice pair of trousers which fit perfectly. But the final touch was lengthening the pocket lining, which were a decent size to begin with, by a full inch.  Now, they feel positively luxurious.

Too often women’s pants in ready-to-wear have no pockets because they are skin-tight and nothing would fit in a pocket, or they have pockets and are still skin-tight and nothing will fit in them which makes you wonder why they put them on in the first place, or they are sad, puny things that won’t fit much of anything as the pocket linings are so short. Men have it better when it comes to pockets. Yes, pocket parity, that is what I sought.

In fact, I stared hard at my husband’s summer shorts one day and realized their side-front pockets were exactly what I wanted. This pattern has side-front pockets and full legs, which I why I chose it, but I wanted pockets big enough for a pair of gloves or a hat. These trousers are part of a country suit to wear while vacationing up north when we will pop in and out of doors as we go.

Yes, there was a time when what one wore in the country was more casual, often made of wool tweeds that showed dirt less, than what one wore in the city. But then suburbia came along and blurred the lines in the 1950s, and then the 1960s came along and the Baby Boomers objected to all dress rules including the practical ones. I like stick to the older rules of place and occasion partly because of the practicality and partly because the clothes reflect my tasks and my mind. When I am relaxing on vacation, one of the pleasures is wearing my vacation clothes. They help free my mind of all thoughts of work.

The fabric was from Fabric Mart which has a wide range of ever-changing offerings. The tiny vertical stripes on one side turn into tiny horizontal stripes on the other. As I will be making a jacket to match, I am already pondering if I will play with the two sides of the fabric. Stay tuned.

You can find Fabric Mart here: https://www.fabricmartfabrics.com/