Function does not always equal form.
Perhaps the more surprising realization of this statement can be found in an often-overlooked aspect of fashion: women’s pockets.
A study published in August of 2018 by The Pudding, a digital publisher focused on journalism backed by data and visual storytelling, selected 80 pairs of jeans from 20 leading brands to study their fashion relationships. They found a significant gap between the size of women’s pockets and men’s, with women’s being 48% shorter and 6.5% narrower.
While choosing clothing with pockets can seem like a brainless decision, people are forever dropping items out of their front or side pockets because they are far too shallow, Julie Borkin, assistant professor of communication, said.
Borkin has dealt with this problem by frequently carrying a crossbody bag but said she will appreciate it when there are inside pockets on a coat to deal with the problem.
“It feels like more things should zip so I don't worry about them falling out, and I wouldn't have to be schlepping a purse,” she said.
Borkin has found she has needed that extra space to carry her personal ID card, keys or phone as she goes through her day. Often, devices do not fit well in her pockets—if she has any.
Borkin said one remedy she found for pockets sewn shut was using a seam ripper to reopen the inaccessible space. Sometimes this results in more of a cargo-style look than she is going for, though.
“Back in the day, we would jam things up our sleeve because women would have sweaters on and stuff,” Borkin said. “They would tuck something up there or put it in their sock.”
A vital aspect of pocket fashion should be focused on what is most convenient, even though the industry often pits detail-oriented work against a more useful approach, senior Briona Graham, a communication major, said.
Pockets located on the upper half of pants are often responsible for carrying items like car keys, sometimes causing unnecessary discomfort when a person sits down. This prompted Graham to consider when a pocket should be moved to a completely different region of an outfit—like below the hip.
Following these same lines, a chest pocket, unless used for a handkerchief, is not useful for a woman, Graham said. However, a zippered arm pocket can fulfill a number of important roles.
Graham described how one of her jackets contained vertical pockets located on the inside of the coat, but with flaps on the side where she could pick and choose hand placement.
The placement of a pocket can sometimes create a different problem.
Sophomore Bronwyn Craddock, an environmental science major, said she has found skirts far more interesting to wear than pants. She noticed that while skirts can have pockets, most of them do not.
One solution to this problem for Craddock has been finding skirts that contain pockets on the inside. Hidden pockets could be useful for small tasks like carrying a Taylor ID or other personal belongings around, she said. But they should be sewn into a skirt or dress at an angle that makes it difficult for the item to fall out so easily.
In the end, the quantity of pockets seemed to be a part of the quality of clothing chosen for Craddock, Graham and Borkin.
“I just think there should be more pockets because it's not that difficult,” Craddock said.
