What do we want? POCKETS. When do we want them? NOW.

Pockets. A dream that seems so far away for women, and something men don't even think about it. Yes. Such a simple thing as a functional pocket could change our (women's) lives. Womenswear rarely has pockets and when they do they're merely accessories, constantly being fake or too small, limited to an accessory.

The fashion industry (especially fast fashion) doesn't seem to care about women's right to wear an outfit with functional pockets where we can carry regular-sized things just like men. But when did this accessory-pocket-bullshit start and why? There aren't right or wrong answers but there are many studies and even books analysing the history of women's clothes and I gathered some information about it for us to talk about:

Restriction of women's freedom

Apparently the main reason for the lack of pockets is very simple: restricting our freedom.

Somewhere in history around 400 years ago, pockets were sewn into men's clothing because they worked in the factories and did the hard work women weren't allowed to do, so they needed pockets to keep tools and other work gear. What really helped men's clothes to get pockets were the fact they wore pants and trousers while women weren't allowed to wear such pieces. While pockets in menswear were often sewn directly into garments (as they still are today), women had to get crafty and wrap a sack with a string around their waists and tuck it way under their skirts. YEP.

Pockets used by women in the 1700's over undergarments

Throughout the 1700s, the pouches women used as pockets became increasingly elaborate, with women hand-sewing ornaments and embroidery. Also, another major improvement: Slits in women's dresses offer them access to their hanging pockets under their dresses and whatever those pockets may contain.

In the early 1800s, slimmer silhouettes inspired by the Greeks came into style, so women no longer could wear pockets under clothes but had to wear them over clothes, making their pockets much smaller because now they were visible. But why did the silhouette in womenswear change? Well, based on the bad old sexist world we live in I would say that men were getting concerned with women walking around with all the sort of things hidden in their undercover pockets. Oh yeah. The less women could carry, the less freedom they had. Simple like that. If they had no way to secretly carry items around, it would be harder for them to travel independently or doing anything else basically.

The silhouettes were getting slimmer and slimmer and those visible tiny pockets weren't very useful (WE NEED SPACE!!). So the reticules (bags) were born. Small bags that women carried in their hands rather than on their hips. As the century ticked on, they became more elaborately decorated, just like the pockets had the era before. They also didn't make us happy but at least we didn't have to wear pockets over clothes. Look what men made us do, ugh.

Woman carrying a reticule.

We "need" to look flattering while men, don't.

In 1881 The Rational Dress Society was founded in London and they rallied women to dress for comfort and health by ditching constrictive corsets and wearing useful and comfortable clothing such as trousers (with pockets). Women started to take their pocket rights back in the early 1900s when they started wearing pants especially because of both World Wars that made women work in factories and labour jobs so they need utilitarian clothing. Then, in the 1920s, Coco Chanel began sewing them into her women's jackets (QUEEN). But still, pockets weren't seen as a tool for women and most of the womenswear was pocketless or had small pockets, completely non-functional.

Unfortunately, in the post-war we lost our pockets and the progress stopped. Bringing us back to accessory pockets that can't hold more than a key. So when men needed us to do the hard work they allowed us to have pockets, but now that they're done with us and we went back to being a piece of meat made to be pleasing for male eyes so of course, no pockets???

Men want us to look skinny as this is what they consider 'flattering' so again we lost our pockets because they wouldn't look good in our skin-tight jeans, of course.( We want to see butts, not pockets - any man would say).

Fashion designers give us efficient pockets please!

The '70s and '80s brought a period of relief when women dressing in menswear or menswear-inspired pieces became trendy. But after this very short period, the '90s brought the rise of the luxury designer handbag, which made fashion more concerned with creating bags than ensuring clothing had pockets.

And here we are. Struggling. I remember once a male friend of mine asked me why I always wearing a bag and when I replied to him saying that simply because my clothes had no pockets he was terrified with the idea that some clothes didn't have any pockets.

What can we do about it?

Complain. Tweet to your favourite brand, send them an e-mail, send a message on Facebook, I don't know, just let them know that you are not happy with this. If all of us do it, maybe they will start to think about it. We just want to be able to carry our belongings with us just like any man.

#equality #pockets #pocketsforwomen