Sara Kozlowski, who works in professional development at the Council of Fashion Designers of America and is a visiting critic with Parsons The New School of Design, is more blunt. She squarely places the blame on fast fashion labels busily churning out copies of high-end designs that aren’t adapted to the lives of a normal person who isn’t strutting down a runway.
“I think when you’re going to the upper price points of designer clothes, people tend to be less conscious of trends and more into quality and longevity,” Kozlowski said. So for them, it makes sense not to design around the latest smartphone model. “But in mid-market, contemporary brands, trends are what drive the industry. In that regard, it’s an epic fail.”
I actively seek out nice dresses and pants with pockets that flatter my body. They are NOT easy to find. If I mustered every woman I know and we mass-manufactured placards to protest, see number 1. Plus, on the list of shit that I want to protest about what is ailing female-kind, pockets are pretty low on the list. I yearn for the day when pockets trump Trump.
Women’s clothing doesn’t have a preponderance of pockets because it interrupts the “line” of the female body. Bulk anywhere – be it in the back pocket for a wallet or the front for keys, phone, or even my newfound use for the chatelaine, my weed (just kidding!) – is simply not part of the mainstream female fashion narrative.
I was actually on Amazon earlier today searching for a knee-length full skirt with pockets. I specified “pockets” in my search. >80% of my results did not have actually have pockets.
You say this like its a new thought. As if we have never considered buying clothes with pockets. As if its just that easy. And yet here we are. With ALL the women on BBS complaining about lack of pockets. What does that tell about the market for pockets? Either all of us stupid and just choose to buy items without pockets or perhaps pockets just dont exist for us?
Trust me when I say this; when we can we buy pockets. And because we dont have the option of not wearing clothes or wearing mens clothes (tits and hips dont fit) we have to buy pocketless clothes.
Which is why this is a tradional female greeting:
“Nice dress”
“Thanks. It has pockets!”
No, I don’t think it’s a new thought. I posted it because it was left out of a list of methods to address the lack of pockets. It keeps on being repeated because the only way to get companies to change is to hit them in the pocketbook. It really is easier and cheaper to make fashionable clothes without pockets.
Yeah, all the women commenting on this topic complain about the lack of pockets. That’s a rather selective sampling though. There are plenty of women that put other considerations (flattering lines, etc.) above pockets.
And do you buy multiple copies of clothes with usable pockets? If yes, you’ll always have pockets; if not, you’re valuing diversity of outfits more than having pockets. There’s certainly nothing wrong with that, but for those that do value that diversity, it does mean that pockets aren’t as important. If you have a bunch of criteria, (cost, pockets, fashionable, flattering), you can’t say they’re all the most important. There are always trade-offs.
If I’m wearing socks, they’ll only be white athletic socks if I’m also wearing jungle boots, which I wear when mowing my lawn or doing painting (less foot fatigue for standing on a ladder for hours at a stretch).
I have not one pair of plain, white, socks, athletic or otherwise, for wearing under any other circumstance.
But every single thing is a trade-off for women. You seem to think all it takes is spending hours finding specific items of clothing with pockets that magically fit our job’s dress code and we’re done, or else learning how to make all our own clothing (so, spending even more hours on this one problem). Now multiply that by thousands of small details. How many battles do you think we can fight in a day? I’ve had jobs where the dress code required women to wear skirts or dresses (no pants or pantsuits allowed), nylons (which are more expensive than men’s socks, and last between 0-2 wearings before you have to buy new ones), and/or pumps with heels (don’t get me started), etc. All of these things are more expensive to buy, clean, repair, replace, etc. then the equivalent for men…to say nothing of general comfort.
Meanwhile, purses exist and are considered entirely normal for women to carry around with them.
And you think we’re crybabies because we don’t waste our time fighting for POCKETS? Seriously? That’s pretty insulting. What do you think we do all day?
I actually want an answer to that last question: what do you think women do all day?
No, only those women who both complain and don’t fight. But complaining without fighting? Damn right that’s being a crybaby. I was initially responding to someone asking for men to help, without actually providing anything actionable that an average man could do.
The same thing men do, by and large, of course. Yeah, you’re busy. Yeah, you have constraints on your time. Everyone does. What’s important to you?
Nice strawman. Obviously you need different outfits for different event types. But you really can wear five copies of the same skirt or pants to work during a week. Clothes for going to class really are generally compatible with dog-walking. If you wear an evening dress to a wedding, it’s not going to be the men going tut-tut at your audacity.
Nope, no advice for any of those. I have lesser insight due to limited or no experience. But I assure you that I buy and wear clothes, that I don’t always find what I want at reasonable prices, and that when I do, I stock up.
