Pockets! The Holy Grail of women’s clothing

Real, functional pockets that are big enough actually to hold things are one of the most coveted amenities in women’s wear, but finding them can feel like hunting for the Holy Grail. The battle for decent pockets is so ubiquitous that it spawned a popular joke — when a woman receives compliments for a lovely new dress, she smiles and says, “Thanks! It has pockets!”

But it’s not just a joke — women’s clothing really does have smaller (and therefore less functional) pockets than men’s clothing. According to Jan Diehm and Amber Thomas, writing for The Pudding, pockets in women’s jeans are about 48 percent shorter and 6.5 percent narrower than the pockets in men’s jeans. Even for women who only carry the bare necessities, pockets don’t cut it — only 40 percent of women’s pockets can fit an iPhone, and just 5 percent can carry a Google Pixel. Men’s jeans, in contrast, can comfortably hold almost any common smartphone. And if you’re a woman who wants to slide her hands into her pockets? You can forget it because you’ll only be able to squeeze them into 5 percent of your pockets.

It wasn’t always this way. Medieval men and women wore pouches tied around the waist to carry their stuff around. It remained common practice until the 17th century, when it became fashionable to sew pouches directly into clothing. Pockets were an instant hit and soon appeared in men’s coats, waistcoats, and breeches. But pockets didn’t appear in women’s clothing — average women were still stuck with the pouch, buried between layers of petticoat and inaccessible for day-to-day use. The pouch eventually disappeared, with no replacement except perhaps a tiny, impractical coin purse.

By the 19th century, women were fed up with impractical clothes and started publicly agitating for more functional garments. Fashion evolved through the first half of the 20th century and the World Wars, and women adopted practical trousers and menswear-inspired fashions that naturally included ample pockets.

But in the post-war era, women’s clothing took another turn. As silhouettes slimmed and sharpened, pockets disappeared, and the handbag industry exploded, setting a standard for women’s fashion that continues to dominate.