It’s a familiar scene: one hand clutching a phone, the other juggling keys, a charger, maybe a tube of lip balm—and somewhere in the crook of your arm, that beloved emotional support water bottle. For most women, this isn’t a moment of multitasking mastery; it’s daily survival in a world that forgot to give them decent pockets.
Pockets aren’t new. Ancient humans tied pouches to belts. In medieval Europe, people wore small sacks hidden beneath layers to guard against thieves. But by the 17th century, men’s clothing evolved to include sewn-in pockets. Women, on the other hand, remained stuck using pouches tucked under skirts—hidden and hard to reach.
Some even argue that during the French Revolution, women were purposely denied pockets so they couldn’t carry political pamphlets. Control over what women could carry, and therefore saywas stitched into fashion itself.
The 1800s saw handbags make their appearance—delicate and dainty but mostly useless. It wasn’t until women began entering the workforce in the early 1900s that real functionality became a demand. Suffragettes literally stitched resistance into their clothes by adding multiple pockets as protest. Coco Chanel briefly changed the game in the 1920s by adding pockets to elegant designs, combining utility with style.
But as slim, body-hugging silhouettes became the fashion norm, pockets slowly disappeared again. Today, if pockets do exist in women’s clothing, they’re often decorative or so shallow they can barely hold a coin.
And let’s not pretend this is a coincidence.
The truth is, women haven’t been choosing handbags—they’ve been cornered into buying them. Chanel’s 1955 launch of the 2.55 bag with a shoulder strap was hailed as a liberating moment, finally giving women free hands. But why did it take that long?
Fashion, influenced by patriarchy, has long prioritised form over function when it comes to women. Pretty, not practical—that’s the industry’s unwritten rule. And handbags? They’ve become a multi-billion dollar business for luxury brands. When women don’t have pockets, they buy bags. The dots connect.
So the next time someone shrugs off the pocket debate as superficial, remember: it’s not just about fabric. It’s about freedom, choice, and access—something a real pocket should have offered long ago.
