“We tend to forget that having pockets on your skirt, dress, trousers or jacket signifies a certain freedom.” This is supported by Annabelle Hirsch, journalist and author of a volume on the hundred objects that have made the history of women. In fact, although we sometimes take them for granted given their undoubted usefulness, pockets represent much more than a sartorial detail: in the women’s wardrobe, they have been an achievement. Today’s fashion seems like it can’t do without it, especially if it’s maxi: let’s think about the return of cargo pantsthe trendiest spring trousers.
Intimate pockets
The creative director of the Courrèges maison, Nicolas Di Felice, has gone further: for next autumn winter, he has imagined clothes with a special one please yourself pocket, sewn to the center of hooded coats and dresses, for men and women. “I wanted to work around intimacy,” said the designer, “something sensual and sensitive, trying to reconnect with emotions, in a certain sense.” The one in the collection of Of Felice for Courrèges it’s just an example of “creative” use of pockets, which appear in abundance on bags, miniskirts, even red carpet dresses.
Pocket activism
There is a pocket gap between men’s and women’s clothes, a difference calculated precisely by some activist groups and movements born on social media, under hashtags #PocketInequality, #wewantpockets o #givemepocketsorgivemedeath (which means give me your pockets or else death), to name a few. Their research confirms not only that men’s suits are generally more equipped with pockets but that on women’s garments, when present, the pockets are often fake or not even big enough to hold the phone.
The social and political meaning of pockets is discussed in an interesting book by the American academic Hannah Carlson, Pockets: An Intimate History of How We Keep Things Close, or an intimate story of how we keep objects close. It was published in autumn and was a great success in the fashion world. The author herself said she was surprised by the following her publication had met with. She reflects on the fact that the “pocket age” we are living in could be favored by luck enjoyed by small objects (think of the miniatures of beauty products) or even the progressive need to carry fewer things with you, such as your wallet, being able to do everything via an app on your mobile phone. Historically, it is relevant to note how pockets and bags have walked together.
Pockets vs. bags
Forerunners of pouches, since the Middle Ages, were pockets “tied” to belts, for both men and women. When instead they contained something secret or preciousthe reticle they remained hidden under overcoats, close to the body, closer to the heart when they held symbols, safe from possible theft. Precisely the possibility of bags and purses being stolen has encouraged, over time, the sewing of pockets directly onto clothes. Unfortunately, almost exclusively male. Hannah Carlson says in her book that at the end of the nineteenth century newspapers such as the New York Times and Harper’s Bazaar were already testifying to women’s mobilizations for the right to pockets. A claim brought forward by suffraggette: as a sign of emancipation, their uniforms numbered from six to eight. Once again, she was the pioneer of 20th century women’s fashion, Coco Chanelto give women trousers with pockets and even suits.
Since the Second World War, the transition of clothes from men’s wardrobes to women’s wardrobes has accelerated. The famous cargo pants come from the military trousers used to carry ammunition. Different stylists, from Cristóbal Balenciaga to Christian Dior and his disciple Yves Saint Laurent, naturally insert pockets into women’s collections. There democratization of jeans baptizes the process.
What happened to the stock exchanges in the meantime? They certainly coexisted with dresses with pockets, as happens today, but not without incompatibilities. The more independent and emancipated women preferred to keep their hands free to take care of everything else, an opportunity that was offered to them by functional clothing. The episode with the protagonist is curious and significant in this regard Diana Vreelandalso described in Pockets: An Intimate History of How We Keep Things Close. Since the early Thirties of the last century, the legendary editor-in-chief of Harper’s Bazaar and Vogue, at the beginning of her career, praised the praise of pockets at the expense of bags, which he defined as “a nuisance”. He would have liked to dedicate an entire issue to the topic but investors prevented him: the risk of losing the support of a good portion of the market was too high.
Nowadays, in the United Kingdom, Mandy Fletcher came up with a platform for women who, like her, are tired of struggling to find clothes with “decent” pockets, that is, not only present but adequate for real needs. Thus, the project was born a couple of years ago Pockets for Womenwhich brings together multi-brand proposals of only clothing items with pockets and suggests the most virtuous brands in this sense. For her and the others pockets’ activists fake pockets designed on clothes and accessories are the enemy of functionality.
Pockets for the coming seasons – How to wear them
Saint Laurent and Laquan Smith agree on the pairing of cargo pants with transparent mesh look color block, the same color therefore from head to toe. The trousers with a loose fit and large pockets on the sides, seen in an extra version on some catwalks, they have very different styles in common for future seasons, from Giorgio Armani to Jonathan Anderson. Also bags are often multi-pocket, such as from Chloé, Miu Miu and Fendi, which offer many practical external compartments, within easy reach. Jackets for spring are croppedoften slim but never without pockets.
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– 2024-04-06 01:37:02
