A Brief and Curious History of Pockets
You can never have too many pockets, but we used to not have them at all. As clothing evolved from simple to complex, pockets, some of them specialized, evolved right along with it, changing shape, size, and function through the years.
When did pockets go from external pouches to sewn-in features? How big were the pockets that 18th-century women hid under their skirts — and why are women’s pockets so small now? What role did jeans play in the progress of the pocket? This brief history of pockets shows just how deep they go.
Pocket Predecessors
Wearable pouches — such as fanny packs or, if you’re fancy, belt bags — date back thousands of years. Even Europe’s oldest known natural mummy, Otzi the Iceman, who lived in the Copper Age more than 5,000 years ago, was found wearing a belt with a small attached pouch, which contained some small tools.
Belt bags were a must-have accessory in medieval Europe, too; some were crude, some more ornate, and they were worn by all genders. One found in a particularly lavish grave in England had a decorative metal purse lid that would have been attached to a leather pouch.
The word “pocket” came into use in English around 1450 to describe a small sack worn on someone’s person, whether sewn into clothing or not. It evolved from the Anglo-French word poket or pouchet, a diminutive variation on poke or pochete, meaning “bag.”
The Rise of Men’s Pockets
The Renaissance was a time of great art, innovation, and exploration throughout Europe, and it’s during this era that the sewn-in pocket started to appear. The earliest true pockets were parts of men’s trunk hose — the poofy short breeches that you see in old portraits of royals and nobles — which became popular during the 16th century. The pockets hid themselves well among the folds, although sometimes they’re visible in paintings.
The extra space left plenty of room for storing necessary objects, particularly pocket watches. These pockets could be quite luxurious; one example of voluminous trunk hose from the early 17th century had leather pockets lined with yellow and blue silk. Eventually, sewn-in pockets were also added to men’s coats, jackets, waistcoats, and breeches, for both nobles and commoners. From that point forward, menswear typically included pockets. For women’s clothing, however, the path was not quite as straight.
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The Extreme Practicality of Tie-On Pockets
In the mid-17th century, women had their own pocket revolution. Rather than wearing sewn-in pockets that would have to be emptied when changing into new clothes, many women started using tie-on pockets, which were detachable pouches that tied around the waist underneath skirts. Dresses would come with slits in them designed for reaching these modular pockets.
Tie-on pockets were typically very large — often more than 15 inches long and 10 inches wide — but they disappeared easily under the full skirts and petticoats of the era. They could be highly personalized, handmade, adorned with embroidery, made with extra interior pockets, and were often given as gifts.
These pockets offered a space that women had complete control over. They could carry cash and valuables nested inside, and sleep with them under their pillows. While women from all walks of life wore tie-on pockets, they were especially useful for working women who needed to carry keys and supplies, as well as people living in cramped conditions. Upper-class women carried large quantities of precious items such as snuff boxes, telescopes, almanacs, and purses. Sentimental items such as small portraits frequently found their way into tie-on pockets, too. With the extra storage space also came a large capacity for crime; in one case, a woman made off with two live ducks stashed inside her pockets.
Tie-on pockets stayed in use until the late 19th century — with a little break in the early 1800s when dresses briefly got less voluminous — even after handbags came into fashion. By the mid-19th century, some dresses even had small sewn-in pockets, although they were often impractical.
The Pocket Regression of the Victorian Era
Menswear, both formal and informal, continued to have plentiful pockets into the 19th century (after all, the pocket watches!), but England’s Victorian era ushered in slimmer silhouettes for women, ushering out the massive tie-on pocket. The loss was felt acutely; as one woman wrote in the magazine The Decorator and Furnisher in 1890, “There is a touch of pathos as well as absurdity in the answer of a patient, enduring, long-suffering woman, who, in reply to her dressmaker’s question as to how she would have her gown made, said tragically, ‘all pockets.’”
In the early 19th century, tie-on pockets were temporarily eschewed in favor of reticules, also known as “indispensables,” a type of small handbag meant as a pocket replacement. These came back with a vengeance in the Victorian era, and were meant to be dainty.
Women Take Back the Pocket
The early 20th century brought many social upheavals for women, including the right to vote in the United States, increased representation in the workforce, and, yes, the return of the pocket. As women started doing jobs that had been traditionally held by men, women’s fashion started to draw inspiration from menswear, including ample pockets. By the late 1920s, tomboyish looks gained popularity, and soon trousers, pockets and all, started hitting the racks in earnest. Women’s jeans rose to prominence, albeit not quite in the mainstream, in the 1930s. By the 1940s, trousers and suits were staple wardrobe items for all genders. The pockets in these pants weren’t always particularly deep and functional, especially compared with the cavernous tie-on pockets of yesteryear, but they were there.
The Pocket Gender Gap
Pockets are no longer unusual in women’s fashion, but there are still significant differences in size between men’s and women’s pockets; women’s jeans, for example, are still 48% shorter on average than men’s. When women’s jeans became mainstream in the 1950s and ’60s, fashion started ruling over form, and designers favored slimmer silhouettes over practical pockets. This even led to the fake pocket, which gives the illusion of a pocket where none exists.
One relatively recent social change has started encouraging more practical pockets: the ubiquity of smartphones. It’s hard to cart around a tiny computer all day without ample pocket space, especially as phones get larger in size. It’s made some fashion designers rethink the necessity of pockets in women’s clothing, and while nothing has changed overnight, a new chapter in the history of pockets may be on the horizon.
