The fashionable lady wore a long necklace over her fitted top, with a pendant or watch tucked into a pocket such as this. The dart over the hip helps to fit the garment to the body. This tiny pocket is sewn into the horizontal dart of a bodice from the mid 1870s.

This type of pocket can be found in dresses from the 1840s through the end of the century, a time when most dresses were made at home or by a dressmaker. These inseam pockets were easily constructed, providing a place for at least a handkerchief. But by the 1840s, skirts once again became fuller, and dresses sometimes had a single pocket sewn into a skirt’s side front seam. The dresses couldn’t accommodate a pocket. This use of cotton materials corresponded to the technological innovations occurring in the textile industry as the Industrial Revolution gained momentum in England.Įarly nineteenth century fashion plates show women carrying small bags, known as reticules, as an accessory. This fashion revolution included dress fabrics as well, with lighter cotton materials replacing the heavy brocades and silks of the previous century. Fashionable dresses echoed the clothing thought to be worn by women in ancient Greece, with a slim silhouette and high waist. The change in women’s clothing was dramatic no one wanted to look like those facing the guillotine in France. The political revolutions of the late eighteenth century produced a revolution in fashion for both genders. The full skirts of the 1700s allowed these pockets to be easily hidden.

The words pouch and pocket are related, through the Middle English/Northern French word pouche, originally describing a small bag.įor women, pockets remained an accessory that tied around the waist and was accessed through an opening in a skirt’s seam. These separate pouches could be concealed inside of a coat or tunic.

Before this construction development, illustrations show that men used small pouches, which hung from a belt around the waist. The first examples of pockets began to be inserted into men’s clothing at the end of the 1600s.

Women's pocketbooks