Ok so let me try and explain the STEM joke (cause I know it's causing some confusion😅 ) - The STEM clip is shown after every time I mention engineering and physics. For those who don't know, STEM stands for Science Technology Engineering Math, and in the States there's been this huge push to focus on only "STEM" subjects in schools and jobs (leaving the arts behind - though whoever comes up with this stuff has since added the A into the fold for Arts and now we're seeing a more equitable STEAM being used - at least in schools). The clip is of the woman saying "Stem is everywhere" and it's true - even in places that don't traditionally fall into "STEM" categories - like sewing, knitting, crocheting, weaving, ceramics, painting, drawing, etc. Most conversations and media around STEM center on computers, cars, space, medicine, etc. So this is just a very weird way for me to point out that sewing, garment construction, and basically every fiber/textile related craft is also STEM, even though most folks wouldn't consider it such. (basically this is a very weird joke that I found hilarious that is unfortunately confusing to others, but it does have a deeper level of meaning to it.) I hope this helps explain it better! 😅
It may different in other places, but I'm from Canada. Our "stem" programs are actually "steam". I honestly don't get why forget the arts...tbh it's the least expensive one. Like yeah sure kids code learn to say code by reading and writing it but you can't fully without a computer . Art can be as simple as paper and a pencil. Art history alone is just mostly listening. I find it weird we have to even incorporate steam at all ,as I remember these subjects being the regular part of school.
engineering and science outreach teacher for many years here. Loved the joke and it is so true the most common hobbies of afab high schoolers that show STEM minds and even female engineers is sewing, creative construction of pieces and those problem-solving skills. Sewing and other textile based skills are a way of using their minds and talents in a more traditional female way and I love seeing and explaining to them that you are actually doing all the STEM skills basics in your design and creation. We ran a program where we added tech to clothes and designed lights, movement etc. (disclaimer to be clear sewing can be a hobby and career for all genders as STEM is. I just saw this pattern in my rural Australia outreach work that has some heavy gendering of hobbies still.)
As an older millennial with a background of s*xual trauma, I remember the struggle of finding jeans I was comfortable wearing in the early aughts. The low rise trend made it impossible to find pants(not just jeans, but ANY pants, even sweatpants) that came up high enough to make me feel truly covered. I didn't want anyone to see my body ever, and the only clothing available to me at the time accentuated hips and butts and boobs. I hated it. I felt like the fashion industry was saying, "You will only ever be an object of physical desire, and there's not a thing you can do about it." This was why I started sewing my own clothes at 13. I wanted to take back control of my body. My clothing was my armor, and I wanted beautiful things to wear that made me feel powerful and confident. Now, I don't own a pair of jeans that I haven't made myself. So, the lack pockets are only because I'm too lazy to put them in!
I had the exact same experience, though as an older Zoomer in a place where fashion trends were behind America. I desperately hated how naked low rise jeans would make me feel, but wasn't allowed to buy boys jeans either, so I just wore oversized long "unisex" shirts to try and compensate. I felt ugly in them but it was better than feeling like a sex object (in my eyes). Learning to sew would've been very smart... even though fashion trends are less extreme than that now, even the curse of all shirts being cropped and jeans being tight remains strong 😅
I was lucky that I was a very thin teen with no curves in early 2000s. I remember the shirts with necklines down to my navel (I wore a vest top under them) and the super low waist "hipster" jeans. They all looked great if you had that "heroin chic" Kate Moss shape, but they'd be pornographic if you had an hourglass figure. I'm so glad high waisted jeans came back around in time for me going up 2 clothing sizes. Ironically, size 8s (UK) were not a thing back when super skinny was the fashionable look. I remember being hauled around town by my mother, trying to find a dress that fit and only finding 1 in 3 malls. I was actually more like a size 6 back then. Primark was a trailblazer with their XS-XXL sizing range.
You are a logical genius. Even at the age of 13 you realized that customization required you to learn a skill, so you pursued it and gained your freedom.
(Also, I've complimented another woman in the supermarket on her amazing skirt, and her exact response was "Thanks. It has pockets" which was awesome because we *both* knew the value of those!)
Oof, I almost lost an ID card that would be very difficult to replace thanks to those weird very large slash shallow pockets that seem to be the other option instead of inch deep pockets. Thankfully it was still under my car door, where apparently it fell out of my pocket to as I was getting out of my car 🤦
Ugh the amount of opal cards I lost when I was regularly going to Tafe! The pockets were so small and slippery when you sat down your cards/money would always fall out without you noticing (Opal cards are an Australian train ticket that functions like a pre-loaded credit card and you cannot get a refund for the money if you lose it)
I still remember 17ish years ago, taking my phone that *just* fit in my jeans pocket, and dropped it into my toddler's pants pocket, and it fit better in his pocket than mine. Because clearly my 2 year old needed bigger pockets than I did.
I lost three phones to toilets in college. I'm 37 and still check my back pockets for things before I go to the bathroom and probably will for the rest of my life.
Before it was worse. You only had high-waist jeans and pants in thick fabrics with weird large cut below the waist and narrow ankles. Or the equally high-waisted mix between trousers and skirts. All of those clothes looked very bad on me, gave me low self-esteem and also the physical pain of having my tummy constantly pressed almost to underbreast, while sitting for long hours at school or work. Low-waist was a liberation. I just don't go for extreme low waist.
when i graduated from high school in 2004 i was at my peak gothic phase and all that wonderful gothic clothing had large pockets (and these clothes also came in all sizes), so i was good back then. nowadays i made it my mission to enlarge all the too small pockets in my trousers or even sew pockets into skirts and dresses which don't have any.
i think cause kids were taking the wrong drugs. they were trying to be alcoholic cokewhores they saw on tabloids. of course it made them insecure. but now everyone's a stoner and people are cool with however they look.
When my twins were toddlers, I bought them both overalls from the same popular kids brand. I turned them inside out to wash them & I was shocked at how small the girl pockets were compared to the boy pockets. For toddlers!
@@justkiddin84 They did cost the same. Also, the girls version was shorter & more fitted because 2 year olds really care about fashion. Most girls clothes are cut slimmer - my daughter is constantly outgrowing clothes faster than her twin brother despite being basically the same height & weight (honestly, slightly smaller than him).
You didn't find much difference in your men's vs women's test but I'm a non-binary trans guy, so I have a lot of experience buying from both sides of the stores (and my weight has fluctuated A LOT over the past few years so I've had to keep going out and getting new stuff that actually fits) and I have 100% noticed a difference in jean pockets, though mainly with fast fashion brands (which I am now erring away from anyway) - I shocked my best friend once by showing her how I could fit an entire kindle tablet into the front pocket of a pair of men's jeans, whilst half the women's jeans I've owned just don't even HAVE pockets on the front and fairly useless pockets (or even one pocket, singular) on the back.
The amount of privilege in flippantly telling everyone to “just buy Madewell” $130 jeans killed me. In the middle of a cost of living crisis. Don’t feel bad if you can’t afford high end jeans, just take care of what you can afford and learn to do some repairs. I just sew extensions onto my pockets.
💯 I got a couple jumpsuits recently from Target and they have massive pockets which I love! I am glad affordable brands are offering this. I too am slowly trying to move away from these brands but as a plus size woman that makes only an OK income it is hard to find a lot that is “cute.”
I too was a late teenager/early 20's when the low waist thing hit which as someone with big hips and a naturally high waist just did not work at all. But because it was ubiquitous and as you say the body is now the fashion not the clothes the message I got was not 'these clothes don't work on me' but 'my body is wrong'. One of the things that first interested me in Victorian/Edwardian fashion was the 'actually my body shape would have worked then, maybe it's not actually so bad!' and it really made me feel a lot better about how I looked. And yes - damn those girly magazines like 17 for their s****y body shaming!
I was plus size when all that went down (still am right now) like 1x/2x. It was BRUTAL for us. Constantly bombarded with messages that I was disgusting and should lose weight. People legit threw food at me suggesting I should eat it and laughed. Hell someone even messaged me online to let me know he felt I was less then human because of my weight. Fashion choices then were non-existent. There bad now but BOY were they bad then. Yay trauma! That said we're still not allowed decent pockets today in most plus size clothes though.....
DUDE, yes, this. I had the great misfortune to have a Marilyn body in the Kate Moss heroin-chic era. I was always treated like the fat fatty, but if I were in HS today, I would be admired from all sides (not to mention the great strides in body positivity). I internalized the message that I was not good enough, that if I could just change I would be accepted and good enough, and here I am 20 yrs later, still working through that toxicity. I can remember a supposed best friend describing me as "a big girl, with big tits". I was maybe a junior's 11, and a C cup, with a great hipspring. Nobody was brave enough to publicly date the fat girl. Back to the subject though, since this was heroin chic, all those goddamn babydoll slip dresses did NOT have pockets, so we were forced to wear those obnoxious baby back packs. ugh.
I remember a deep shame that I couldn't wear a lot of pants because of plumbers crack which seemed such a large man type problem. I just had feminine bottom, hips, and thighs. Imagine being scared to sit down all the time.
Those years created serious trauma in my opinion. It's really absurd because fashion demanded low waist jeans, but if you bow to maybe take something you dropped and (naturally) your bum went out with those fucking jeans, you were called a slut or ridiculed. It was hell for me being a teen in those years.
I never had issues with my pockets cause I've been plus size, and companies would always be like "oh you're big, you get all this extra fabric and space cause no one wants to see your shape." Then after I lost some weight and got my 1st straight size jeans, I was furious when I realized i couldn't fit more than my chapstick in them! How am i supposed to hold all the rock i find?!
I was a size 12 in high school and college. My mother had me in every diet and exercise plan under the sun. I was told everywhere that I was fat. I am size 16? now at 58 and am really fat. I look at old pictures and think "sweet child, you were not fat, you just didn't have pretty clothes that fit" (clothes for non-thin girls and women were horrible) and my mother was the size of a pencil. I am "fat" now and I don't care. I. Trying to lose weight for health, but I am not postponing life until I am "thin"
I so agree. I weighed 118 in high school (size 8) at 5’5” I thought I was enormous and ugly. At 29 I got married and weighed 123 and at the alter wondered if people were laughing at how fat I looked in that white dress. Now at 60, and a size 16/18 I love myself as I am right now and realize how ridiculous my line of thinking was. All from media of the 60s-early 80s. So sad. I love how young women are empowering themselves and realizing weight/size doesn’t equal worth. I am loving Abby’s videos. Applause for the young women of today.
@@luvnalaska44 Wait…. You are 5’8”??? And a size 16??? That’s just about right for your height. My daughter is 5’8” and she looks FAB in size 16?almost everything. If you are not happy with your “look” try a different style. I’ll bet you’re gorgeous.
Hi, sorry to hear that you think a size 16 is fat, because you seem to still have negative connotations about your body. I fully agree that if you need to loose weight for health reason (according to doctor) or because you want to be stronger or something - but dont do it because you think you are fat 😊 And good for you to not wait for loosing weight before enjoying yourself 😃🎉
@@jeanmartin6410 I am age 58 and did lose weight from size 20 to 16. I hope to lose more for health and to hopefully get rid of diabetes, but the young me didn't live life because I was fat and klutzy. I live life now.
Also honestly the fabric quality these days means that even things with "good size pockets" become things with sagging seams or holey pockets because they just don't use the right fabric and support structures to actually have the pockets supported and bear weight (I don't think I've seen a pocket supported by a waistband seam outside of jeans in commercial fashion in recent memory).
Yes, I'd honestly rather have no pockets over the kind of pockets I'm getting. They just add bulk to my hips and look sloppy without adding much functionality
I will also say that more affordable clothing stores are still selling jeans with very short pockets. And unfortunately the amount of people living in poverty means they are never going to afford brands like Madewell that are now doing nice sized pockets
Thank you! I was going through the comments looking for someone to mention that as nice as Madewell and Everlane may be, most of us cannot drop $100 on a single pair of jeans.
My husband and I theorize that my formative years in the 2000s without pockets, plus ADHD, significantly impacted my ability to keep track of my stuff. He has designated "pocket stuff" that moves from outfit to outfit...I am constantly setting down and misplacing wallet, keys, phone because I hold it in my hand or move it from bag to bag.
Years ago I got a friend with (at the time undiagnosed) ADHD the gift of a pouch/purse she could move between all her bags. It contains all the essentials - purse, keys, meds, etc. So she's only got to remember the pouch, not find all it's components (with a weekly phone alert to check the contents and replace any used meds). Was a bit of a lifesaver and I've since got one for myself too! (I also cheat by having a couple of them and still spare keys with multiple friends. Belt and braces job, because I really need them!)
eh. I blame that on not having systems. One ADHD person to another, get a valet tray/box/drawer. The Victorian version for women would have been a chatelain & her dressing table. I recommend a valet tray for EVERYONE but especially for those with ADHD who typically change into jammies or house clothes after being out. Because lets be honest, even if we carry a purse or a backpack, we often stick stuff in our pockets too. A valet tray will be where you dump your pockets as soon as you get home. Money, wallet, receipts, change, phone, chapstick, pretty rock you found... whatever. Then, when you have the headspace, you house the items dumped. For me, that's usually before bed. Receipts go into their folder. Change into jar. Lipstick/chapstick back into drawer. Phone onto charger (which is at the valet tray)... etc. You're doing a favor for your future self by having things then laid out for the next day you go out. I actually learned this from my dad who had a drawer in our dining room buffet that he used for this. His pocket protector, his keys, his watch, his belt buckle, wallet, coin purse... it all got organized in there. Every night. He was a plumber for a school district so he had lots of keys and had work/weekend watches, belt buckles, etc. Turns out, whole neurodivergent family.
@@helenl3193 I do this! I have a meds pouch, a wallet, a misc pouch (lipstick/gum/feminine products/tiny perfume/etc). They just move from bag to bag or backpack. I also do this for my knitting. I have a notions pouch that moves from project to project but when I'm not on the go with a project, it sits on my desk. (was undiagnosed ADHD until 2021).
I have ADHD as well. I finally sewed a purse to fit everything I need except a water bottle. I gave up on having more than one purse. I couldn't remember which purse I left things in, or be bothered with deciding which outfit went with which bag.
For the first time in a VERY long while, I have to leave the house to attend classes. I choose to wear my late 1890s clothing because I'm more comfortable wearing a corset than I am "showing" my actual body in contemporary clothing. You pointed out in your video about what you learned from years of wearing 18th-century clothing that people aren't seeing your actual body when you wear stays or a corset and how that can be mentally comforting. Thank you a thousand times for putting that into words! My baseline anxiety level is stupid high, and feeling like people will judge my body is just one more reason for me not leaving the freaking house! If I have a corset on with appropriate hip padding, that anxiety doesn't exist. There was a lot wrong with the world in the 19th century, but at least society didn't require most young girls and young women to starve themselves so they'd be worthy of being seen.
I think wearing 1890's clothing is a great idea! Now I just need to level up my sewing skills. 😂 But after seeing UA-camrs like Rachel Maksey go from complete newbie with sewing to creating her own costumes, I can up my game too.
I bet you look fabulous and I know the feeling - when I have to go out and be around people I wear corsets and flared longer skirts/dresses with sweaters and/or jackets so the corset isn't so obvious. I read a study that showed that wearing a properly fitted corset actually helps ptsd anxiety, and I think that study was onto something. Anyway, just wanted to let you know you're not alone, corsets etc may be actually measurably helpful for anxiety, and you don't have to go full 1890s fashion-wise (unless you want to, then of course rock the awesome historical looks :) to enjoy the protective engineered effect that corsets can provide.
@@katem2411 Hmm, hearing you talk about your corset reminds me of those things called Thumned Shirts that are made to help dogs with anxiety by evenly providing pressure around their body. I wonder if your reduced anxiety is because of the same mechanism?
As a teen in the 60s I can assure you that the same fashion thing happened then too. Low rise pants, jeans that were skin tight without spandex! Pockets? Only the skirts I made had pockets . The fashion rational was that pockets spoiled the line of the garment. Actually not the pockets but the fact that putting something in the pockets would be a disaster, declassee, immediately turned you into an ugly ducking. Today, yes you can get pockets IF you can afford to pay for those clothes. My daughter's wedding dress had pockets.... the pockets in my leggings can hold one key or maybe a quarter.
@@barbaragomez5687 yes Danceskins, you had to get down to your bra and panties to use the toilet. I had then in many colours and the wrap around skirts that matched. The only pocket was my bra.
Pockets in jackets/blazers were sewn shut to "protect the line of the garment." Some girls put on their new jeans and sat in a tub of hot water then wore them til they dried. Shrink to fit. One girl in my dorm had to lie on the floor to pull her jeans on, then she'd pull the fabric together while her roommate zipped them up. Worked better than a girdle.
My biggest pet peeve is fake back pockets in women's dress pants. They go to all the trouble of sewing in fake pocket slots, but do not actually have any, you know, pockets.
I would add that buying items to put into pockets was a pain. The style and sizes of items for women differ from items for men. Until the intro of smartphones, it was impossible to find a wallet that can be slipped into a pocket. Wallets sold as woman's wallets were way too large. Producers seem to believe that women demanded wallets capable of carrying dozens of cards and a checkbook. I would wear long vest or sweater with pockets to deal with the lack of good pockets.
Yes!! I have often joked I can fit more in my bra than in my pants pocket.. I own 2 wallets that would fit into my back pocket on my jeans! 1 is a man's wallet 🤣 I love my carhartt work leggings 😍 I have like 4 to 6 pockets deep pockets!
I do alterations for a living, and have noticed a trend in wedding dresses over the last few years where the vast majority of dresses with fuller skirts that are made of heavier-weight fabrics (i.e. mikaido or satin) have side pockets. There are exceptions for dresses made of lighter-weight materials like tulle and lace, as well as those with tighter, mermaid-style silhouettes, but overall the industry seems to be moving more towards pockets.
i haven't watched the video yet but like 20 mins ago as i was putting laundry to wash i remembered fake pockets with rage. i wanna sue the clothing industry bc i think fake pockets are false advertising and i think that if you were not gonna put pockets in your garments in the first place you shouldn't trick me and put fake ones. that's my two cents, now I'll watch the video
Totally agree! (This comment also reminded me of having to explain to so many people when fake pockets were more common that their particular garment had real pockets they just needed to remove the tacking stitches 🤣)
Currently wearing a pair of jeggings that have fake pockets on them and almost dropped my phone when I went to slip it in a pocket. Fake pockets are the devil!
Yes. I bought shorts online that looked like they had 6 pockets. Only 2 are real pockets though, as the back pockets and *side CARGO pockets* are just fake flaps.
After watching this, I realized I'm still holding on to some early 2000's trauma about how that pocket placement's going to make my hips look bigger. This is the year I say "no more" and buy whatever damn pants I want!!
I was homeschooled on a very rural ranch. During my teens most of my pants were hand me downs or from the second hand store. One of my favorite pairs was from the eighties, I think. It was corduroy with baggy legs and tight ankles, and I could fit eleven pens, a railroad whistle, and a rock or two into the pockets. On another note, I now live in West Africa, where it is still very common to buy fabric and have your clothes made for you at a seamstress or tailor's shop. My new clothes are some of my favorites!
I was born in 2006, and I’m horrified by the insane focus on thin-ness that apparently existed in the 90s-00s. Of course today we still have certain body types as the standards of beauty and everything, but we also have at least superficial body diversity in the media, many many body positive influencers/creators and just general awareness about all of this, and I’m so grateful for that. My sisters and I have never dieted, never asked whether things make us “look fat”, never wanted to lose weight. We may have other insecurities, but things have changed and continue to do so!!
I am similar to you and I’m so grateful that I had a pretty mid size body my whole life and only like a couple people in my life my sister eats basically the exact same way as me and her body type is different, so she has to wear a bigger size Now pair that with a fatphobic dad, *extremely* fatphobic.. She’s basically living in the “focus on thinness” now, I feel bad for her
Dear Shanta, as a person that was born in the 90s, yes it was bad, but I still saw the skinny trends of the early 2010s and still today see some girls starve themselves to be skinnier. I admire your confidence, I know I didn't when I was your age. That makes me happier than I can say ❤ Don't let anyone dictate how you're supposed to be! Lots of love A twenty something
Keep your eyes peeled and your head on a swivel. It's always gonna try to come back when you least expect it. See reproductive rights. Be sure to vote for individual bodily autonomy.
@@Marie-sx5jb that trend was there before. The craze of diets began in the '70s and I clearly remember ladies older than me going through hell diets to fit a pair of jeans. It is still everywhere, just compensated with the mandatory "fat" model in media, who is usually just a beautiful girl with 3-4kg more put in the right spots. I find that hypocritical, but hey people live their lives, they just don't care.
All my life, I have had shit to put in my pockets! I begged my mother to buy me boys jeans, which she did! (YAY, Mom) There is barely a reason why pants, slacks, or shorts should not have pockets! Casual skirts should also have pockets, unless the design doesn't make it possible.
The fucking male gaze is responsible for the lack of pockets, especially prior to the last 10-15 yrs, when most clothing giants were run by men. Our bodies must be completely visible to the male gaze, with nothing to obstruct their view. Pockets meant that they couldn't use the tight smooth fabric between our legs to see or genital shape, or get an accurate account of our rears.
the vast majority of casual skirts I own would not handle pockets. Your jersey knit maxi skirt won't handle pockets. The seams WILL rip and that's if you don't get pants'd first. The elastic on those skirts is just not strong enough to hold up any significant weight. (I've had several friends ruin their favorite skirts by adding pockets and then the seams rip) And lots of the more sheer, gauzy fabric certainly can't handle pockets either. I will say, all my skirts and pants that have functional belt loops, have and always have had pockets. Some in the seam, some in the waistband. I even have a handmade skirt that's gauzy and ethereal but it has a substantial waistband of a different fabric and the pocket (just one) is anchored to the waistband both by where its attached and with a pocket strap. It also rides on the right flank vs in front or directly in back to be as unobtrusive as possible. But, it was also handmade by a very small indie designer.
I make my own skirts, usually out of cute quilting fabric, and put pockets on them. Several of them I've lined the pockets with denim, since I stick random things in there. That being said, the one thing that WILL pull my elastic-waisted skirts off is my phone. I have a cord I wear around my waist, where it will hide under the skirt, and clip my phone case to that. My fitted waist skirts all have a ribbon loop attached to the waistband by the left side seam to clip it to, and the waistband keeps it from falling down.
When I was in middle & high school, it was the style for everybody to wear men's Levi's jeans & pinwale corduroys. I think the style number was 535. It was so nice having all those big pockets!
What annoys me is when you visit somewhere and they say 'no bags'. I'm like I'm not carrying this for fun. I don't have pockets that will fit my purse and phone. Obviously a rule made by a bloke with pockets.
I’m a bag carrying kinda person. Maybe it’s the anxiety but my everyday pants can absolutely accommodate phone, wallet, and keys but I feel unprepared without a bag with stuff like an umbrella and medication and lotion and hand sanitizer.
And a library book. That was my standard for every pocketbook I ever bought: Can I fit a book into it? Preferably a hardback, but at least a paperback. Kindle has been a great boon to me. 😊
I'm transitioning genders, and I intentionally bought a purse which is only big enough to hold the stuff that I used to carry in my pockets. I'm afraid that if I got a big purse, I would start putting all sorts of things in it "just in case", and it would end up like my laptop bag, which I haven't fully emptied since 2010, and I have no idea what's lurking in there anymore.
Backpacks for the win!! 😆 I find as someone who doesn't own a car, that extra space is a non-negotiable. And much as I love the idea of cute handbags, & do wish there were more affordably stylish backpacks around, evenly distributing whatever I'm carrying across both shoulders is also just a must for a bad back...? The only time I find backpacks become really problematic is in cramped opshops (care when turning required!), and on super-crowded buses, where you can't turn around fast to escape at your stop without bashing all your neighbours! 🙈
After coming out as a trans man, I went and bought me some new trousers, after wearing only high waisted skinny jeans. I was SHOOKETH to discover the almost lovecraftian, infathomable EXPANSE of space that is a man's jeans front pocket.
It's wild! I had a friend in college who would frequently take food from our dining hall to eat as a snack later. I was absolutely shocked the first time I saw him pull multiple bananas, a water bottle, and other snacks out of his pockets xD
My husband has a bigger phone than me. He can fit the whole thing in his front pocket. I can fit like half of mine in my back pocket. The front isn't even an option.
i was a teen in the late 70's (argh!), laying down to zip up our jeans was a THING!!! pockets? ps does anyone else love when Abby gets that strident tone in her voice? Joan of Arc with a flaming sword of righteous indignation is our Abby. LOVE IT!
I was thinking about the ‘70’s as well, so I thought I better check before a made a comment. From the hiphuggers of the early part of the decade to those extremely tight jeans at the end of the decade, it was not a good era for pockets in women’s clothing. I know that we young men living in the dorms at the end of the decade would wonder how some of the young women were even able to get into those tight jeans.
Pockets have definitely become waaay more common now than when I was a teen in the 2000s to early 2010s. I guess we must have made a big enough fuss about their bullcrap fake pockets lmao (and rightly so!). Companies probably only started caring when they realised the pocketless clothing weren't getting sold as much as the ones with pockets.
This was really interesting! My family sews a lot (we're larger framed & also tend to be on the heavier side in addition) & I remember wanting to put pockets in a skirt I was making as a teen & my mom told me not to because it would 'bulk out my figure'. She made a ton of her own dresses & skirts & none of them had pockets either for that exact same reason. Just goes to show that the body-shaming part of the problem was apparent for plus-size people the moment that the body type was the fashion & it only got worse from there. Personally, I'm excited to be learning how to put pockets in my skirts now.
Oh yeah… I am in my mid 50s and I remember my mom telling me never to put anything in a breast pocket of a shirt because it would “ruined the line” she learned that from her mother… So it’s not a new occurrence.
I was a Y2K teen, and last week I realized scrolling through baby bat pics of mine, I LOOKED SO THIN (a size 38- around UK 10) but everyone made me feel 'fat =ugly'. Like, stepping out from my room to school, literally everyone bullied me for being curvy, for my wide hips and boobs. Lotsa time and +20kgs later I'm finally happy with my own handmade clothing, and body type. It took me YEARS of hard work to learn to love myself. Wish we could've been spend our teenage years rather happy than uncomfortable, it seems so stupid and it feels so superficial now. Screw it, let's be all happy with our huge pockets we dare to put in our clothing 🖤🖤
I remember about 10 years ago trying on a skirt and realizing it had pockets and being so excited I was like "I have to buy this skirt!". The pocket situation has definitely improved in the last decade.
I love pockets. I’m moving back to long, voluminous skirts just so I can wear huge pockets underneath (even if they have pockets themselves because more pockets is never bad!)
I predict the rise of secret pants. Not those old palazzos from the 80's, or the hideous gauchos from the 00's, but the ye olde secret pants, in new and exciting fabrics. I like a swishy skirt, and I like trousers, why choose!
Abby mentioned once how she preferred skirts to pants, and I've taken that to heart. I'm much more comfortable, and I'm finding nice ones with pockets.
I tried using purses, but I have the opposite response from you where HAVING a purse gives me anxiety, so my boyfriend's grandma got me a wallet thing that has straps, and I can fit my phone in it, so that is my purse. I feel like if I were to carry a purse around, I would definitely be absent-minded enough to set it down in a Wal-Mart somewhere and never see it again. Also, I wear size 6 jeans and my doctor told me I'm overweight and idk how to feel about that. .-. (I'm 25.)
I clearly remember 17 telling me the same advice about not wearing pockets to make you look thinner during the 80's, i bet pocket shaming has been a part of fitting to the body since that became a thing
Oh, the body dysmorphia memories.. I was a size 36EU (XS), but I had a pouch belly (still do) and considered myself fat. I had classmates who fainted during class because they fasted during the schoolday to keep stick thin. I think for me the most liberating year was our school uniform year (it started as a joke, but continued as a test for a year), because I made the clothes we wore to fit us.
That reminded me that when I was... maybe 14? Or 13? That I somehow got my mother to buy a pair of boys jeans and a boys shirt because 1) they looked so much cooler and 2) so much more comfortable than girls clothing. Ended up wearing both of them only a few times because of the comments of, mostly my siblings, sometimes from my classmates, that by wearing those I'd wanted to be a boy. (Which wasn't true. I only liked their clothing more) And they they actually were super comfy and had great pockets. I regret not keeping them. Also, it reminded me that in the mid (?) 2000s cargo pants were in fashion. And I'm so glad that they are again. I always loved having so much storage for my things to carry around without having to use a bag.
High school in the mid oughts and did in fact have to get cargo shorts from the boys section because it was that or a 2” inseam I had friends who wore jeans for years because shorts barely existed
I never stopped loving cargo pants, pant of my dream)) Altought now its much easier to find them then it was when skinny jeans were in favour, yaaay! . BUT Im buying men's cargo pants, because still women ones either have shallow pockets or dont have it in right places *facepalm*
I grew up wearing my brother's hand me downs and often wore men's jeans. They just fit better, as I had no butt and no well defined waist. Oh, occasionally there was some comment of "lesbian" but as I didn't care what any of my classmates thought about what I did, I wasn't bothered by it. I wasn't disinterested in clothing, I just demand comfort and practicality for most of the items I wear.
I’ve almost always been fat, except for a short period between 11-13 y/o in the early ‘00s. I remember getting so upset about the low rise jeans not fitting me and not covering all the unmentionables but being the ONLY thing that could be found! Ended up shopping for mom-jeans growing up, despite the fashion failure it was (never been much into fashion to begin with). Then even those went away with the advent of the skinny jean and as someone with serious cankles, lemme tell you, those are the *worst*. It’s like wearing compression garments constantly and calling it style - except they cut the circulation from your feet and show off every unflattering lump and bump you’ve got. After years of that, I can’t handle anything around my ankles, even the loser fit of jeans currently are too tight and aren’t enough for me now. I switched to slacks a couple of years ago but even with them, a “strait cut” leg tapers significantly on the way down and tries to mold itself to my flesh like they want to be leggings rather than slacks. Wore a skirt for the first time since I was 11 over the summer and MIND BLOWN. I can move my legs! I can go up stairs without worrying about ripping the seat of my pants! I can do a damn high kick! So now I’m devouring every sewing tutorial I can get my hands on to make my own shit that will actually fit! And maybe mix my nerd love of history and cultural anthropology in while I’m at it. Thank you so much! You’ve been a great inspiration.
Welcome to the sisterhood of the circle skirt. I rarely wear jeans (only when woodworking) and spend my days in skirts and dresses. If I wear pants, it’s sweats or something I have made out of batik in a sweatpants pattern. Box pleats are your friend!
I don't like tapered leg or low rise pants either. I always look for "bootcut" or "fit & flare" style jeans & slacks, and try to find "mid-rise" (although, this still only helps somewhat, since the fashion industry seems incapable of coming to a consensus about what any of their terms mean). Good luck learning to sew!
I watched Bernadette's video on this and was really hoping for a follow-up so yay! Omg the trauma of the early 2000s...does anyone else remember dorina jeans? Now THAT was a war on pockets. No butt pockets, 4" zipper, skin-tight. Gives me full-body shivers now. I'm also VERY happy that the fashionable silhouette has shifted more towards higher-waist, looser fitting because that's just always been more flattering on me so now I can be in style by accident!
I truly appreciate that you purchased all of our teenage trauma pants and showed us how effed up the early 2000s were. I remember being frustrated with the options then but not really having a choice. I hope Gen Z can watch this and fight off any urge to bring low rise pants back. I also was pretty skinny and felt like a cow, and now as a plus size woman I'm so grateful there are more options for me (even if it's still harder to find clothing in plus sizes)
Low rise is back. Not at Paris Hilton levels yet, but certainly 1999 era low rise. Because everything in the teen shops is 1999 atm. So I fully expect seriously low waisted will be back next year.
Over the last 8 years or so, the generic "nice office dress pants" I've bought for work went from no pockets, to 1 small watch pocket in the front , to 2 small pockets at the hips to my last pair with pockets that were too big and I had to shorten them! Thanks for explaining the science behind clothes sizes. It all makes sense now!😂
i am 53 years old. i have been overweight since the birth of my first child in 89. i am 5'6" tall with a long torso and short legs. let me tell you what a nightmare it was to find jeans in the 2000s and 2010s!! i do not wear low rise or skinny legs because they are neither comfortable or make me feel confident. i have never been a trend follower. let me just say that when "mom jeans' (hate that term) made their debut, i was THRILLED!
Great video! Once more I am so grateful that I was born exactly when I was ... 1946. I never quite reached 4'11", and while I was tiny until my 30s, age (and 3 babies, the last when I was 42), along with a real appreciation for eating, means that for at least the last 25 years, it's been utterly impossible to find ready-to-wear jeans ... my primary wardrobe staple since my hippified 20s. I had little use for a purse in that decade, but over time, it got preposterous. At one point, I was in a shoe store in Chattanooga that was having a weird contest ... the woman with the heaviest purse would win a significant coupon. My purse weighed over 16 pounds! That's more than many bowling balls! No wonder my shoulder was having problems! I reformed, got a small wallet with attached keychain, and it fits nicely into the front pocket of the jeans I have custom made by a group in India. I get to say what pocket styles, zipper or buttons, the width of the legs (last 2 were a sort of bell-bottom), even the color of thread and the style of the rivets. And the cost is actually less, even with shipping, than I'd pay for all but the least expensive ready-made jeans. I also wear my now thinning hair in braids with yarn woven in. Just sign me, "Not a slave to fashion, but a much happier old woman!"
I'm 39, I turned 17 in 2000. I was 5'11 & had the metabolism of a hummingbird on coke. Low rise jeans were my enemy because shirts long enough to cover my midriff if I wore them did not exist (tunics were not a thing until later), but weirdly I did want to wear bigger pockets to add weight to my frame so I wouldn't get asked if I was anorexic every 3 days like clockwork. Of course I also had exactly no control over my wardrobe until college, and lived through highschool almost exclusively on handed down items from shorter women (except my mom, who also bought me 2 pairs of jeans a year and kept me in socks and underwear). It was miserable, but it was an unusual miserable. Not having the pocket money to buy teen magazines turned out to be a good thing in retrospect!
So, I was assigned female at birth, and wore "girls" clothing growing up. I always had a number of issues with them, not least of which, when a garment didn't come in separate length sizes, it was going to always be too short (people wonder why I never wear anything other than jeans). I vividly remember reaching a point where I could no longer wear children's sizes (which was where you still got pockets, cause kids needs space for rocks and shells and string and such), and the one time buying trousers wasn't a journey through hell was when we went into a dedicated jeans shop, and not only did they have a length that looked like it was the right size (34". I was TWELVE.), they also came with proper pockets. Luckily, I didn't really care about fashion in the early '00, and lived in a place where fashion was behind anyway, so extremely low-rise jeans were never really a thing here.
Abby, I know if you take extra time for you, but I would gladly watch a 30 or 45 minute video from you. You have lots of knowledge and your videos are informative and calming to watch.
*** I am going to write about my struggles with weight, body image and miscarriage*** Abby, you spoke to my Soul in this video. I graduated high school in 04 and turned 18 in 03, so it sounds like we are around the same age. I was a size 5 from about 5th grade through my Freshman and Sophomore years of College. I wore the dreaded low rise jeans, especially the ones WITHOUT back pockets. Luckily, I was also part of the East SF Bay Punk scene, so I was also wearing men's Dickies (before it was cool haha), so at least some of my clothes had pockets. What a weird time it was. Around 99/00 I had I had those excessive baggy pants that were covered in pockets, as all the Skaters did, but then by about 02 and beyond came the low rise. I remember high rise was not even considered, or available. My 20's was spent in a more reasonable midrise bootcut. I did not try skinny jeans until I was about 30. I must admit, I love a good highrise tummy support skinny. My Mom belly pretty much requires a high rise these days. What cracks me up is how "Mom jeans" are, or were a thing. Honestly, my 37 year old vintage/classic style self does not pay attention to whatever is current. I'm actually leaning heavily towards 80's Glam Metal attire, because it's fun and I do what I want! haha! ADHD brain went off topic there. What I meant to get to was how our age group was force fed the idea that our bodies = our self worth. Nail on the head Abby!! As I mentioned, I was a long time size 5. In my early 20's I remember going jeans shopping and discovered that I no longer fit in size 5. I cried. Unfortunately it was the first of many times crying in a dressing room. I spent most of my adult years as an 8, which was fine. I was a 10 for a bit in 2013-14 after having my first kid. At 30 I divorced and got back down to 8, which was great. After that I met my now amazing Husband but then started a toxic job (finally left after 3 years), the pandemic happened, I had a cervical cancer scare (it cleared up, yay) and then 2 back to back miscarriages. My body was not happy and therefore I gained a lot of weight in about 6 months and got to about a size 12. Luckily, I had a successful pregnancy after leaving that toxic job and my second baby will be 1 year this month. Having this baby left my body a wreck. I am the heaviest I've ever been, especially in my upper body. It is so hard for me to look at pictures of myself. The inner person inside who grew up in that time where our body = self worth is hard to ignore. This video really helped me identify and and shine light on that and now that it is up to the surface I can work on it. It's interesting how we can have all of this old programing causing issues but we cannot identify it until something triggers the memory. Also, I am working on getting my health back in line. Not specifically to "look good", but because I want to be healthy for my kids, although I do want to also look like the version of myself in my mind, haha. I do not want to look a certain way for anyone else though. I know intellectually and in my heart that our body = self worth is bullshit. I want to match how I vision myself, which is totally within reason. I want to be physically stronger and have more endurance to stick around to live life on my terms for a very long time, whilst being fabulous :) Also, I want to finally live my dream of being the singer of a rock-n-roll cover band. That requires some stamina haha. Thank you for being a positive and fierce voice for our age group!! As you can see, this was very inspiring and is opening up a path to healing some old wounds. You rock!
I've done the back to back miscarriage thing too. I'm just a bit younger than you. I'm so sorry that happened to you. I feel your pain about the weight management thing. I'm pretty consistently a 12/14 depending on cut and fabric type. I loathed the lower cut jeans when they were in. Nothing from that era fit me right and it was super frustrating. I hope your fabulous husband is telling you like mine does me that he honestly doesn't care. To my hubby the extra I gain from the babies is just evidence of my love for him because I made him a dad. He just wants me happy and healthy. I wish that for you too. ❤️
@@adedow1333 You are so sweet and I appreciate your kind support. Yes, my Husband adores me and my body and tells me every day. He is always reminding me of that and is also encouraging because he knows that my main goal is based around my health. I'm quite a few years older than him, so I want to make sure that I am also healthy and have a long happy life with him. Heart disease runs in my family, so I'm kind of at the shit or get off the pot time now in my later 30's. I'm fine with stretch marks and I love my now wider hips. Basically, my lower half is great and just needs some strength training. It's my upper body that is carrying all of the extra weight and it physically feels heavy, you know what I mean? It would be nice to not have to go to the chiropractor every 4 weeks because my neck cannot stay in alignment longer than that. It's not just my big boobs this time, which is new. That's how I know that it's different this time. This is unhealthy for my body and it's showing up in my heart health. I'm having fun with this though. I've been so stagnant the past 3 years. Now I am getting more active and having fun for my health. Singing and dancing around the house is great exercise for the body and soul :) I'm serious about finally bringing out my inner Rock Star. I'm going to do the damn thing.
@Katy Floyd I love that you are bringing out your inner rock star! I keep hoping that one day I will find a pair of fabulously glittery or sequined converse-like shoes that are actually comfortable for my feet. P.S. Since you're already diving into exercise, it might be worth looking into PT to see if there are specific core/back/nek muscles you can strengthen that would help keep the spine in alignment so you can cut back on chiro visits if you want to. I know it's helped multiple family members with issues.
@@trinamorrison2570 thank you and excellent advise. I actually go to an amazing advanced body therapy massage therapist every month. He always gives great advice, it's just my job to follow through with it haha. I actually have an appointment next week and I'm planning on asking him for specific exercises to work on. He has already helped me with many other old injuries and was the biggest help throughout my pregnancy and recovery. No wonky postnatal hips this time around. My previous pregnancy left me with misaligned hips that created a chain reaction of issues over the years. I'm good this time though, yay. Our bodies and how they function are so fascinating, don't you think? This journey of studying anatomy and physiology to help heal myself has been quite the journey. When you know better you can do better 😊
I'm so early for once. I was really young during the low rise jean fad, but I know for a fact it wouldn't work for me. I learned to sew just to make myself clothing with pockets. I did a Morgan Donner and added pockets to half of my dresses right out the gate. Pockets for life.
I was in my 30’s during the low rise jean phase and so thankfully wasn’t going to go there! I remember not buying/wearing any pants for about a decade cos I couldn’t find any that looked good! (Thank goodness for leggings!) …Want to add that I wasn’t naked from the waist down! 😂😂
I was 14-16 during the craziest part of that fad. My mom wouldn’t really let me have any low rise pants because she didn’t think they were “appropriate for me”. In hindsight, they wouldn’t have stayed up on my hips. I never really developed much flesh on my hips, and I need my pants nearly at my natural waist to feel comfortable with them.
I have noticed it's getting somewhat easier to find pockets, and they're definitely better than they were ten years ago. But they're still not always great. I have several pairs of pants which, although they are relatively loose fitting, have pockets that are too small for my phone. I have a couple of other pairs where the pockets are technically big enough, but the angle is wrong, so my phone tends to fall out when I sit down. And then I have a few pairs from a fantastic designer on Etsy where the pockets are completely functional and useful and everything I need them to be. Unfortunately, she doesn't make clothes suitable for winter, but in the summer her pants are the absolute best, all because of the pockets.
I am sitting here, remembering back to the tight jean craze of the 80's (no stretch materials, but lots of ankle zippers), but I remember nice pockets. Oh those low rise jeans, I hated them. I always felt they would fall off. And I am a skinny person, I thought they would just slide off while walking. And show parts of my body I didn't want to show.
The other thing that is not mentioned too often is the nerve damage due to the hip being so tight (to prevent the trousers from slipping down). Burning, tingling sensations around the hips and down the thighs were due to excessive pressure on the nerves in the hip area.
@@Rhaifha as someone who has always had plentiful ass. It felt the same or even worse with a lot of booty. Those pants were not designed with the curve of a but in mind so they stopped halfway up the curve at the broadest part meaning everything below was smaller. They were always sliding down
So glad to talk about this because I rant about this all the time! I now work a “mens” job and wear men’s pants/shorts and I can’t stand having to wear “woman’s” clothes……even brands like carhartt who make woman’s pants for the exact jobs I am working, but also remove the much larger pockets that the same styles in men’s line have for no reason! Why! It’s so frustrating! I need my damn pockets!
I'm glad I hated magazines (too many personal reasons) but I definitely got hit with the "my body is wrong" thing by way of the only jeans available were crap jeans and pants that physically did not fit me the way the garments were designed. Yay trauma.
This. I thought the magazines were stupid, but when every pair of jeans in the store are lowrise skin tight and uncomfortable, you deal with what you've got. And learn to hate clothes shopping when nothing looks good or feels good. I still hate jeans.
I have never been what you would call skinny, and I was a teen in the mid to late 90's. Finding clothes that looked nice was tricky. I remember the worry about having back pockets on my jeans and thinking it made me look bigger, and I also vividly remember having jeans where the top of the white cotton from the pocket would sometimes show slightly because I was "supposed" to have a completely flat stomach and I was always embarrassed about that and still have shame about my tummy 😕 It's like they never had anyone who wore larger sizes actually try on the clothes to see if they worked, which is probably exactly what was happening. 🙄
Omg yes! Idk how I forgot all about how the inside of pocket showing drove me nuts! Meanwhile my smaller bodied friends' pockets only showed from the other end when they cut their teeny jeans into teeny daisy dukes 😬😒🤬
I have a vintage skirt, I think it might be an antique, and it took me about 10 times wearing it to discover it has massive pockets. I was so giddy when my hand slipped inside while I was adjusting it.
As a person with a moderate hip to waist ratio and difficulty finding my size in brick and motar stores, I've found that the Gloria Vanderbilt "Amanda" jeans have decent pockets and decent life expectancy. I've worn the same 3 pairs for 2 years now. Not an ad, just know that struggle 💗
I liked the Bandolino brand "Mandie" jeans for the same reasons. But, they've become harder for me to find at a reasonable price, so I've switched to the "Amanda's." Perhaps they were affiliated brands given the similar name. The Bandolino fit me just a tad nicer though.
As a young mom, I have Gloria Vanderbilt Amanda jeans (from Costco!) in about three different sizes. They're pretty fab! I remember feeling super lame buying them at first because my mom has worn them for years, but hey. Whatever fits!
Sams club sells bandolino brand jeans. I've bought a couple pair from my local sams. Gloria Vanderbilt fit me nicely too. I have lost 30 lbs and needed new jeans so I found 2 or 3 used pair at Goodwill. I was happy about that!
Pockets are so important! I was in college in the early 2000s and I went through a phase then where I didn't want to carry a purse. I hated the super low rise jeans, but even the so called "regular" rise jeans were pretty low by today's standards. That didn't leave much room for pockets and it was so frustrating. Even now, I have to carry my phone with me (because I can't hear it or answer in time if it's in my purse) so that means getting a smaller phone. I hate that phones keep getting bigger and bigger. Jean pockets have gotten better now, and I have noticed several places where I can buy a dress or skirt online that has pockets. The bigger problem I've found is with dress (or dress casual) slacks. I can't wear jeans to work, though I don't have to dress in a suit. So before I started working from home that meant neutral colored dress slacks. Finding those in stores with pockets big enough to hold my phone was VERY difficult. It still is, to be honest. It's like they expect me to walk around all day with one of those ugly phone belt clip things. 😵💫
Love you and your video's But I specifically shop in the men's section because the fabric and build of the clothes is so so much better! Just pick two t-shirts one from the Female section and one from the Male and just feel or hold against the light... It's just not fair 😔
Yes!!!... Also, female sizes are crap & make no sense (esp. when they threw 0 & 00 into the mix, wtf?)... I like getting men's pants 👖 cause I can get my EXACT measurements (28-30×30). 😊
I should totally write a blog about men's shirts for this (straight) lady Called "My Lesbian Closet" why Minnesota winters demand "male" clothing. If you ever worked in an office with a dress code (why, who knows) and were forced into ill-fitting "cute shoes", life sucking panty hose, and women's dress pants (not flattering or comfortable or practical) and always needed the hidden blanket or office mittens or illegal space heater
Amazing video, Abby! As a non-American I want to thank you for putting the measures in centimeters as well! It allowed me to understand and feel the impact of the difference even more! Thank you!
I've just made my first pair of trousers... the size of the patterned pockets was so good! I can get my whole (S22+) phone in them. Have also started flatlining most of my pocket bags with firm plain woven cotton so that keys won't go through them! (Yes I have the privilege of being taught to sew by my mum (about 35 years ago).
Professional pants for women are quite lacking in pockets. (Not even like the most formal dress pants. Just slightly up from jeans.) I had several pairs of pants that had tiny tiny pockets, like you could put a lipbalm and that's it. So I sewed in normal pockets. Another pair had the back pocket placket but nothing under it, so bam, I added a pocket. I would be sad if I couldn't sew in these pockets. I bought a cute skirt from a discount store. Added seam pockets. I just add seam pockets everywhere. I guess cause I'm shopping at Old Navy and Kohls and Marshalls and the like.
Thank you; the history was very interesting and not anything I had previously heard. I believe you when you say you have pockets, but I have to tell you this is not my experience. My work trousers have pitiful little 3-inch things(I measured). Now I wear plus-size, so perhaps that is why I still don't see decent pockets in most clothing. None of my bought clothing(including a linen dress procured from a small manufacturer)has pockets that will fit my whole hand. I do not know if leaving pockets out of or giving tiny pockets in plus-size clothes is supposed to make the clothing "flatter" us, maybe? However, I still have great frustration around pockets and hope decent pockets make it into clothing available to me soon. In the meantime, I will continue to suffer pocket envy.
You know, with all the other size-ist bs that comes from the fashion industry, purposefully doing tiny pockets a la the 2000s/2010s with that "it's more flattering" bs makes *total* sense. Makes me wish I had the time to do a size comparison of pockets in straight sizes vs. plus sizes in women's clothing...
@@AbbyCox I was involved in a horrible car accident. & in a wheelchair for about 2 years due to a spinel injury. (I'm fine now & have full mobility). As a result I put on a TONE of weight & went from a size 14 to a size 22 (depression binge eating). & I can tell you from first hand experience that while. The dress sizes may go up the pocket sizes do not.
As I'm sure you are aware fashions run in cycles. The hip-hugger bell bottoms of the '70s were fine, with a crop top. However not so much in the 90 and 2000 as I'm running around an ER and no longer a size 8. Pockets you say. Trying to find a tank long enough to tuck in was difficult. Finding scrub pants with decent pockets was impossible until cargo pants came out.
My current jeans can't hold anything bigger then a ring in the front pockets, and I hate sitting on my phone. I've never even liked skinny jeans. Even as a teen in the early 00's I wanted to wear mom jeans while everyone wore hip higgers...
This was fascinating and I love it. Also, ever since I started embracing more 1940s/50s fashion, not only have I been SO much more comfortable (autism and denim are not good playfellows), I've also been finding more skirts with actual functional pockets. Which, like, I love.
I am 100% OK with any cartoon villain plot describing the fanny pack industry's attempt at destroying pockets, then failing miserably as society deemed it bad fashion. Also, your cocktail stirrer mic holder is so *elegant* :)
I really love the topics you choose. I noticed though that you skipped right over my favorite style when I was younger (specifically late eighties and early nineties) when Ralph Lauren’s safari look took off and cargo pants became popular (real cargo pants not the skin tight disgrace they became). Functional pockets!
I remember my mother in the 90s literally cutting the hip pockets out of her pants and sewing up the slit. She said they were unflattering. Mum was a lovely curvy lady and made every effort to look even 3 ounces thinner. Makes me sad to think about it because I was self conscious as well but I wore baggy clothes to hide, because I was skinny, and I didn't understand her struggle.
I was a teen during that time too. I still catch myself with that mindset. I wanted to try the wide leg trousers and was nervous because they had pockets. I already have mom pouch, I was worried about adding to that bulk. Welp, it was absolutely a silly thought as they looked lovely.
SAME as well as pleated front trousers! So ridiculous. They can take my high waisted wide legged trousers with decent pockets out of my cold dead hands lol
Abby, I love you so much for talking about the magazine articles and clothing that was being sold for women in the early 2000's! I was in my late 20's and early 30's at that time. It is still traumatic to me to think about what the expectations were for my body. I was at my heaviest, getting up to 292 lbs at 5'6", and all I knew as an adult was that I was not good enough. I could not find anything beautiful about myself because clothing was so horrible. Plus sizes were not any better than regular sizes in clothing. Now I sew my own clothes as much as I can. I knit and am actually working on making a pocket pattern that works best for me. I did a ton of work on myself, and by 2007 was owning my own beautiful self! So, I love when you do these topics, makes my heart sing!!! ❤ Thank you so much!
THANK YOU so much for talking about the weird pockets=fat analogy. I haven’t heard about that concept for a long time, and I loved your analysis of it as a marketing ploy. I felt fat and (therefore) ugly as a 14 year old wearing size 2. I spent my teens trying to hide my hips from the world since I somehow thought they were a shameful feature. Pockets added maybe a centimeter to my middle, but it felt like they added a foot. It definitely took me years to realize that it doesn’t matter at all. Glad to be on the other side of that.
At first I was going to skip the section you gave a warning about but I’m glad I didn’t because I love how unapologetically you call out that todays fashion is based on which body types are trendy. I’m in my late 20s now and I wish I had found your type of content in my teens instead of magazines. Love your videos and can’t wait for the handbag one!
My current favorite pair of jeans used to be my brother's, and he didn't like how they fit. But they fit my WHOLE HAND in the pocket, while my other jeans can only fit about half my hand in the "bigger" back pockets. Maybe it's because I'm still wearing a lot of skinny jeans, idk...
As a plus-size woman, I hate that the common type of pocket in pants made "for my size" tend to be these slanted in-seam pockets that bulge just from my hips. So annoying.
Idk if this is in your handbag vid, but yet another aspect of the rise of handbags was safety. Being mugged was a constant fear for women and girls, and being able to throw a handbag was far preferred to the risk of some miscreants getting their hands on you.
Yes, it is possible to find women’s clothing that has pockets, but there is a reason my kiddo (currently 11) and I refer to the different clothing sections of the store as the “girls” section and the “pockets” section. And why, when she was 7, the only way I could get her to stop wearing long jeans in 90 degree weather was to promise to sew pockets into all of her shorts. And why I’ve also had to sew loops to many of her clothes so she could clip on a door key so she could have the same freedom to go in and out of the building just like her male friends without keeping keys on a lanyard and risk getting it caught while she climbed trees. Do some young girl’s clothing have pockets? Yes. But a significant portion of them do not. Or the pockets are far too small. Or the clothes are far too expensive to buy on a regular basis. And the lack of pockets has a direct impact on a girl’s ability to be independent because she has no place to put her treasures or keys or notes or pocket change and therefore she needs someone to carry it for her or go without.
Ohhh that video idea about handbags and purses sounds really interesting, I hope you'll end up making that video! Amsterdam used to have the Tassenmuseum (Bag museum) which sadly closed due to lack of funds during the pandemic. I walked into it once with my mum not really being interested, as bags aren't really my thing, but it turned out to be more about the chronological history of bags and others objects used to carry stuff around. So they had 18th century pockets, regency reticules, and lots of other stuff. The information provided with all the objects was great too and I learned a lot. So I imagine a video of yours being something like that. (also I feel kinda dumb, but I don't get the 'Stem is everywhere' joke. Can someone explain?)
It’s a very “me” joke - stem stands for science technology engineering and math which are male dominated spaces. So every time I make a comment about engineering or physics i kept laughing at that clip cause STEM is *literally* everywhere but people act like fashion, sewing, etc don’t really count (cause it’s “art” even though engineering and sewing go hand in hand really) There’s also a push here to work “only” in stem fields - to the detriment of the arts (to combat this a bit weve now made STEAM - which includes art now) It’s a weird joke - I just was way too amused at myself so I left it in
I am so bummed to hear that the handbag museum closed in Amsterdam! I went there many years ago and loved it. I wonder if they have a website… could be a good resource.
The last time I bought jeans from target, they had stitching at the front that *looked like* hip pockets but actually was just a line of twin needle stitching. :-(
Here's an idea just wearing men's pants my mama put me in boys jeans because I was growing too fast and they didn't have any size that worked for me and in girls and my mom said she wore men's pants 👖 and she like the pockets and her sweatpants have pockets
Yeah by can see why we don't have pockets in fashion today here's an idea let's just make Pockets get some Jean material and just so it into the area where you want the pocket now you go well I got pockets you can do it in the back and the front
The sweatpants would work (drawstring waist and supposed to be loose). If your body shape works with men's jeans, this is a possibility. If they're going to need a lot of tailoring to fit, it'll be less hassle (and much less expensive) to have a tailor lengthen the pockets in women's jeans (also puts it in the realm of diy for more people).
I totally remember peering through Seventeen magazine and reading all about pockets not looking good on my specific body type (muscular but still had curves/hips). They even said that if you had pants with the trouser type pockets, to see them shut for a cleaner line and to not draw attention to your hips!
I dont know if they count as fast fashion honestly, but I get all of my jeans from Levi directly and they have great pockets, at least in their currently trending styles. I go to work in black sport leggings that have pockets I use to bring my 26oz water bottle to work with me. Comfortably. But I really feel it took fashion to swing back to loose and high waisted for pockets to be deep enough to hold more than a chapstick again.
Hm last time I bought Levi's jeans several years ago I got ones from JCPenney, and I bought both women's and men's jeans for myself with a midrise and straight leg. When turned inside out you could see the men's front pockets were about 4 inches longer despite both pairs of jeans being a similar cut, rise, and tightness. The styles were 514 in men's and 525 "perfect waist straight" in women's. Also when the jeans are inside-out you can see the men's front pocket has some written spiel too long to fit on the women's pocket, with a picture of two horses pulling away from each other with ropes attached to a pair of jeans in the middle to show its strength and says stuff like "patented May 20 1873. Quality never goes out of style TM For over 140 years Our celebrated high quality denim have been before the public. THIS IS A PAIR OF THEM! " And goes on for 9 more lines of text. Edit: 4 inches = 10 cm
Wow, I guess I'll believe that pockets are back, I eventually basically gave up on shopping for anything new at all like a decade ago after years of frustration and just going to thrift stores trying my luck against the darn frustrations. The whole thing's been a massive point of quiet infuriation for me this whole century. Especially with the seemingly-interminable bare midriff whether you like it or not thing, between tops not being long enough and jeans meant to show off hips I didn't really have, (They were kind of a problem if if you were too twiggy as well, never mind trying to get physical work done. I was always like, 'Once they take the fabric away, they don't want to put it back.' Basically there was a bit of a sweet spot where you could get a bit of flare at the bottom for boots and not too low a waist and after that, it was either 'Show tummy or wear 'Mom Jeans' with tiny leg openings.' So, like a lot of others, apparently, I kept taking good jeans out of the 'work clothes' drawer and putting em back in service. I think someone thought it was a trend: the next time I saw something cut right, with workable pockets, I like howled in the store when they came pre-frayed and messed-up like that was the point of us wearing the old stuff. And of course quality's gone in the toilet since then. (So therefore I been back to oversized boy-jeans, and being like, 'Sorry to stereotype the lezie mechanic thing but you made it too hard to look good at it too long! Ironically when the corporatebacked politicians are trying to make more gender-conformity happen. ) Anyway, so much of everyday fashion has seemed to be a major illusion of choice when there's really none at all, unless maybe you're living a life when everything you need is purportedly on a smartphone. The pockets are a major barometer of that, I think. I remember laughing when they tried bringing military-style cargo pants back as a 'look' and ...sure enough, fake pockets and fragile materials. So, there's some of decades worth of ranting. Especially about 'distressed' ie pre-f'ed up clothes. I mean, I never wore ripped clothes in my life even when I was punk rock, but you could see people needing a head start if they wanted to do metalhead, cause jeans would otherwise 'frustratingly ' last decades pretty unscathed. This is no longer the issue when things only last a season or two before fraying all on their own. It's part of why like Dickies had a fashion thing going on in some scenes, cause 'work clothes' but still practical every day.... Then you notice little details like the clothing industry clearly hasn't picked up a hammer since the early Eighties at least, cause those little 'hammer loops' on the side are no longer big enough for actual hammers people use these days with the rubber grips and all. And they make 'smartphone-sized' pockets that kinda hold half of one, ...if they don't bend over or sit down, so it's not even working for that. So, out of touch, whoever makes the clothes. So focused on appearances that they thought a lot of us gals were wearing our old jeans cause it was some visual statement, so therefore, people must want more old-looking jeans, instead of it being 'No one will sell us suitable *new* jeans so how about something like these were when we bought them, only, err, new?'
I was a teenager in the 90's, and had one of my favorite pairs of jeans ever when I was 13. They had a pair of pockets on the front of the thighs just above the knees! They had a slanted openings, and the higher side was deep enough to hold a pen with the cap clipped to the edge. It was when grunge was getting big. I'd wear those things with my flannel shirts and Payless combat boots. Loved them.
Another factor not really covered here is cost. I can't afford madewell jeans. When you scrolled through the sites that all had pockets, it looked like the average cost of a skirt was over $200. That's not usable for me. I've switched to mainly wearing loose high waisted pants, which I love, so I've got pockets, but I do feel like wages vs cost of living is another component to consider. That said, this is a fantastic video and I really appreciate the warning about body size talk. I look forward to the handbag video!
You can find pretty good jeans for way less money than on that site, just depends on where you buy them. We have flee markets that sell clothing for the fraction of the cost cause they get it cheaper by buying it abroad with no taxes, and the quality is still good, even better than some of the branded store ones.
I've been buying clothes from eShakti. Most of their clothes are in the $50-$70 range, so still not cheap, but better than $200. Everything has pockets, you can get them in custom sizes, and the materials seem to be thicker and higher quality than typical women's clothes.
I brought my first pair of work pants (like blue collar workers we call them tradie pants here) and there are pockets everywhere now I live in these pants when I am not at work. As Abby said kinda, buy the things that match your pocket expectations
I've had to explain to mys husband several times that I can't put my phone in a front pocket, but I'm also not going to sit on my phone if it's in a back pocket because that wouldn't work very well either. He basically lives in carpenter pants and cargo pants with tons of pockets. Whenever he wears too many holes in them, i steal them to convert into skirts for myself so I can have decent pockets
I agree about the “pockets = bigger” thing - I remember. I would add that most pockets were made and positioned badly and so DID make your hips look odd or bigger 😒 Which is why I avoided pockets! Now at the ripe old age of 52, I don’t care!! So I wear what I want as long as it fits properly
Yo, right after I watched this MattPatt posted on Fashion Theory about pockets! You and your gang should make a video reacting to his video and rate how well he did
oh boy, being in high school at a time when low waisted jeans were the only option, it has been such a blessing to see high rise cuts come into style! I was never able to feel good in pants, let alone feel cute and confident, for all of my teens and into my early 20s and now that there are options for roomier, high rise, well-fitted jeans (thank you madewell) I feel so cute and stylish whenever i'm wearing my jeans because imagine wearing clothes that actually fit and function on your body? life changing lol never going back
I worked for a vending company. I couldn't be carrying around a purse, and needed to keep things in my pockets. I had a couple of pair of pants that were going unused because they had none. so I took them to a seamstress. I asked if she could put pockets in my pants. She corrected me. She said, "you mean take them out" and proceeded to start telling me the cost. I interrupted her and said, no, I want pockets put IN the pants. She looked at me like I had 2 heads and said.."no one woman wants pockets anymore. Why would you want pockets?. I gave up and left. I was pissed. 😠 To this day, I don't care for purses. It takes away the use of one hand/arm. Even the ones with shoulder straps are a pain by falling off your shoulder. Ugh. 🤦♀ I have a little purse that has a wrist strap, that is just big enough to hold a pen and my small wallet. The only time I use a bigger one, is if I need to bring a hairbrush. I like pockets. I currently have a lovely pair of grey pants..but sadly they have no pockets. I'm almost afraid to ask around if anyone could put pockets in them. 😥😥 (Side note. I know I'm overweight, and I dislike it. But due to physical health issues, there's not much I can do about it. So I just wear loose fitting clothing. I'd never wear anything that hugged my form. (except maybe from the upper ribs up, or from just below the hips down.) I especially won't wear any top that won't cover my tummy. So, pockets in my pants wouldn't be a problem. They would be hidden like the rest of me. 😉)
This was super informative and made me realize I’m part of the misinformation problem of believing things don’t have pockets/only have tiny pockets 😅 I always assumed it was a symptom of purses but I see there’s far more direct connections to be made to how styles are constructed. I notice that, while I’ve tried (and even own/recently owned) plenty of women’s clothing with no or too-small pockets, those are also items like skinny jeans, body-fitted shorts, lightweight dresses and rompers, a body on dress, and above-the-knee flared skirts. They’re not items that can have better pockets. If I wore longer/fuller skirts and dresses and loose/looser jeans I would likely find the pockets you demonstrated in the video. My own holy grail of pockets I own is my one pair of cargo jeans but while I assumed they have great pockets cause cargo pants are known for pockets, they’re also very loose pants so they have tons of room for large pockets, and they’re a sturdy material. I will definitely be looking at clothes with the lense of what pockets could this material or style work for now.
I am high waisted, and long through the crotch, and those low rise jeans were a nightmare! I went years without buying jeans and wore mostly skirts. And these days, if it doesn’t have pockets, I am just not going to buy it…. Thanks for the great video!
OMG…. 😣 I was traumatized by similar articles about pockets and jean cuts and body size (gasp!) in the 70s, when I was a teenager. BAD Glamour and Mademoiselle magazines!!! 😡. Thank you so much for talking about this, Abby! 🙏 I was shamed about my body size and shape back then, and thought I was fat, too (I wasn’t). Oh, the insecurity! Oh, the body dysmorphia! I’m 64 now. When I look at photos of myself at that age, I see a teen and young woman who was a perfectly normal size and shape. The magazines were peddlers of body shaming!
I hated low rise jeans, just ugh. I never read 17, but growing up I never went a day without hearing "you are lucky you are skinny." It was usually the first thing that was pointed out about me. Also, there really is so much math in crochet, which I never truly processed until I started designing. Fun and educational as usual.
Ok so let me try and explain the STEM joke (cause I know it's causing some confusion😅 ) - The STEM clip is shown after every time I mention engineering and physics. For those who don't know, STEM stands for Science Technology Engineering Math, and in the States there's been this huge push to focus on only "STEM" subjects in schools and jobs (leaving the arts behind - though whoever comes up with this stuff has since added the A into the fold for Arts and now we're seeing a more equitable STEAM being used - at least in schools). The clip is of the woman saying "Stem is everywhere" and it's true - even in places that don't traditionally fall into "STEM" categories - like sewing, knitting, crocheting, weaving, ceramics, painting, drawing, etc.
Most conversations and media around STEM center on computers, cars, space, medicine, etc. So this is just a very weird way for me to point out that sewing, garment construction, and basically every fiber/textile related craft is also STEM, even though most folks wouldn't consider it such. (basically this is a very weird joke that I found hilarious that is unfortunately confusing to others, but it does have a deeper level of meaning to it.) I hope this helps explain it better! 😅
It may different in other places, but I'm from Canada. Our "stem" programs are actually "steam". I honestly don't get why forget the arts...tbh it's the least expensive one. Like yeah sure kids code learn to say code by reading and writing it but you can't fully without a computer . Art can be as simple as paper and a pencil. Art history alone is just mostly listening. I find it weird we have to even incorporate steam at all ,as I remember these subjects being the regular part of school.
As the daughter of a long line of engineers, I got the joke, and found it hilarious :)
engineering and science outreach teacher for many years here. Loved the joke and it is so true the most common hobbies of afab high schoolers that show STEM minds and even female engineers is sewing, creative construction of pieces and those problem-solving skills. Sewing and other textile based skills are a way of using their minds and talents in a more traditional female way and I love seeing and explaining to them that you are actually doing all the STEM skills basics in your design and creation. We ran a program where we added tech to clothes and designed lights, movement etc. (disclaimer to be clear sewing can be a hobby and career for all genders as STEM is. I just saw this pattern in my rural Australia outreach work that has some heavy gendering of hobbies still.)
I found the STEM joke absolutely hilarious! I laughed harder and harder every time the clip played! 😂
Thank you for explaining! lol! I kept thinking it was an ad or something!
As an older millennial with a background of s*xual trauma, I remember the struggle of finding jeans I was comfortable wearing in the early aughts. The low rise trend made it impossible to find pants(not just jeans, but ANY pants, even sweatpants) that came up high enough to make me feel truly covered. I didn't want anyone to see my body ever, and the only clothing available to me at the time accentuated hips and butts and boobs. I hated it. I felt like the fashion industry was saying, "You will only ever be an object of physical desire, and there's not a thing you can do about it." This was why I started sewing my own clothes at 13. I wanted to take back control of my body. My clothing was my armor, and I wanted beautiful things to wear that made me feel powerful and confident. Now, I don't own a pair of jeans that I haven't made myself. So, the lack pockets are only because I'm too lazy to put them in!
I am glad you were able to take back your power. I am so happy for you!💗💗
I had the exact same experience, though as an older Zoomer in a place where fashion trends were behind America. I desperately hated how naked low rise jeans would make me feel, but wasn't allowed to buy boys jeans either, so I just wore oversized long "unisex" shirts to try and compensate. I felt ugly in them but it was better than feeling like a sex object (in my eyes). Learning to sew would've been very smart... even though fashion trends are less extreme than that now, even the curse of all shirts being cropped and jeans being tight remains strong 😅
I was lucky that I was a very thin teen with no curves in early 2000s. I remember the shirts with necklines down to my navel (I wore a vest top under them) and the super low waist "hipster" jeans. They all looked great if you had that "heroin chic" Kate Moss shape, but they'd be pornographic if you had an hourglass figure. I'm so glad high waisted jeans came back around in time for me going up 2 clothing sizes. Ironically, size 8s (UK) were not a thing back when super skinny was the fashionable look. I remember being hauled around town by my mother, trying to find a dress that fit and only finding 1 in 3 malls. I was actually more like a size 6 back then. Primark was a trailblazer with their XS-XXL sizing range.
I’m guessing you wrote this in order to get comments like “you are so brave” lol
You are a logical genius. Even at the age of 13 you realized that customization required you to learn a skill, so you pursued it and gained your freedom.
(Also, I've complimented another woman in the supermarket on her amazing skirt, and her exact response was "Thanks. It has pockets" which was awesome because we *both* knew the value of those!)
😂I hunt for pockets and have had this same conversation several times.
After losing $60 out of women's jean pocket, I aggressively enlarge all pockets in pants. And I hope whoever found that money really needed it.
Did you lose it in the late '90s in Thuringia? If so, then it went into my piggy bank.
Oof, I almost lost an ID card that would be very difficult to replace thanks to those weird very large slash shallow pockets that seem to be the other option instead of inch deep pockets. Thankfully it was still under my car door, where apparently it fell out of my pocket to as I was getting out of my car 🤦
Omg, I remember the 2000's pockets you had to fold a note to get it in and even then it'd stick out.
Ugh the amount of opal cards I lost when I was regularly going to Tafe! The pockets were so small and slippery when you sat down your cards/money would always fall out without you noticing
(Opal cards are an Australian train ticket that functions like a pre-loaded credit card and you cannot get a refund for the money if you lose it)
@@bellasmith8821 yup lost a couple of Myki cards too from my favourite jeans! I sewed an extension in to make the pocket deeper!
I still remember 17ish years ago, taking my phone that *just* fit in my jeans pocket, and dropped it into my toddler's pants pocket, and it fit better in his pocket than mine. Because clearly my 2 year old needed bigger pockets than I did.
toddlers need to be able to carry all those random sticks and rocks from the park 😤
absolutely no excuse. It's ridiculous.
@@carmenwigginI was just going to comment this!
As someone who graduated from high school in the very early 2000s, it was a VERY dark time for self-esteem
I lost three phones to toilets in college. I'm 37 and still check my back pockets for things before I go to the bathroom and probably will for the rest of my life.
Before it was worse. You only had high-waist jeans and pants in thick fabrics with weird large cut below the waist and narrow ankles.
Or the equally high-waisted mix between trousers and skirts.
All of those clothes looked very bad on me, gave me low self-esteem and also the physical pain of having my tummy constantly pressed almost to underbreast, while sitting for long hours at school or work.
Low-waist was a liberation. I just don't go for extreme low waist.
Yes! All the clothes told me my body wasn’t a good body. It is amazing how the mixed that message in without ever directly saying it.
when i graduated from high school in 2004 i was at my peak gothic phase and all that wonderful gothic clothing had large pockets (and these clothes also came in all sizes), so i was good back then. nowadays i made it my mission to enlarge all the too small pockets in my trousers or even sew pockets into skirts and dresses which don't have any.
i think cause kids were taking the wrong drugs. they were trying to be alcoholic cokewhores they saw on tabloids. of course it made them insecure. but now everyone's a stoner and people are cool with however they look.
When my twins were toddlers, I bought them both overalls from the same popular kids brand. I turned them inside out to wash them & I was shocked at how small the girl pockets were compared to the boy pockets. For toddlers!
That is horrifying. I bet they cost the same. For less material!
@@justkiddin84 They did cost the same. Also, the girls version was shorter & more fitted because 2 year olds really care about fashion.
Most girls clothes are cut slimmer - my daughter is constantly outgrowing clothes faster than her twin brother despite being basically the same height & weight (honestly, slightly smaller than him).
@@andreas.4764 Instead of looking at actual human bodies, they just see the $$$, sadly.
@@andreas.4764thats actually insane how even baby clothes are dictated by gendered roles and "norms" that adults are forced to perform 🥴🥴
You didn't find much difference in your men's vs women's test but I'm a non-binary trans guy, so I have a lot of experience buying from both sides of the stores (and my weight has fluctuated A LOT over the past few years so I've had to keep going out and getting new stuff that actually fits) and I have 100% noticed a difference in jean pockets, though mainly with fast fashion brands (which I am now erring away from anyway) - I shocked my best friend once by showing her how I could fit an entire kindle tablet into the front pocket of a pair of men's jeans, whilst half the women's jeans I've owned just don't even HAVE pockets on the front and fairly useless pockets (or even one pocket, singular) on the back.
The amount of privilege in flippantly telling everyone to “just buy Madewell” $130 jeans killed me. In the middle of a cost of living crisis. Don’t feel bad if you can’t afford high end jeans, just take care of what you can afford and learn to do some repairs. I just sew extensions onto my pockets.
What is Non binary trans guy?
My pajama bottoms don't have pockets, but my husband's do. I was so mad when I discovered that!
yes!!!!! HEAR HEAR
💯 I got a couple jumpsuits recently from Target and they have massive pockets which I love! I am glad affordable brands are offering this. I too am slowly trying to move away from these brands but as a plus size woman that makes only an OK income it is hard to find a lot that is “cute.”
I too was a late teenager/early 20's when the low waist thing hit which as someone with big hips and a naturally high waist just did not work at all. But because it was ubiquitous and as you say the body is now the fashion not the clothes the message I got was not 'these clothes don't work on me' but 'my body is wrong'. One of the things that first interested me in Victorian/Edwardian fashion was the 'actually my body shape would have worked then, maybe it's not actually so bad!' and it really made me feel a lot better about how I looked. And yes - damn those girly magazines like 17 for their s****y body shaming!
I was plus size when all that went down (still am right now) like 1x/2x. It was BRUTAL for us. Constantly bombarded with messages that I was disgusting and should lose weight. People legit threw food at me suggesting I should eat it and laughed. Hell someone even messaged me online to let me know he felt I was less then human because of my weight. Fashion choices then were non-existent. There bad now but BOY were they bad then. Yay trauma! That said we're still not allowed decent pockets today in most plus size clothes though.....
DUDE, yes, this. I had the great misfortune to have a Marilyn body in the Kate Moss heroin-chic era. I was always treated like the fat fatty, but if I were in HS today, I would be admired from all sides (not to mention the great strides in body positivity). I internalized the message that I was not good enough, that if I could just change I would be accepted and good enough, and here I am 20 yrs later, still working through that toxicity. I can remember a supposed best friend describing me as "a big girl, with big tits". I was maybe a junior's 11, and a C cup, with a great hipspring. Nobody was brave enough to publicly date the fat girl. Back to the subject though, since this was heroin chic, all those goddamn babydoll slip dresses did NOT have pockets, so we were forced to wear those obnoxious baby back packs. ugh.
I remember a deep shame that I couldn't wear a lot of pants because of plumbers crack which seemed such a large man type problem. I just had feminine bottom, hips, and thighs. Imagine being scared to sit down all the time.
I have a chunky top body and regular size hips so I was in a constant fight with gravity from 98-2008.😞
Those years created serious trauma in my opinion. It's really absurd because fashion demanded low waist jeans, but if you bow to maybe take something you dropped and (naturally) your bum went out with those fucking jeans, you were called a slut or ridiculed. It was hell for me being a teen in those years.
I never had issues with my pockets cause I've been plus size, and companies would always be like "oh you're big, you get all this extra fabric and space cause no one wants to see your shape." Then after I lost some weight and got my 1st straight size jeans, I was furious when I realized i couldn't fit more than my chapstick in them! How am i supposed to hold all the rock i find?!
I was a size 12 in high school and college. My mother had me in every diet and exercise plan under the sun. I was told everywhere that I was fat. I am size 16? now at 58 and am really fat. I look at old pictures and think "sweet child, you were not fat, you just didn't have pretty clothes that fit" (clothes for non-thin girls and women were horrible) and my mother was the size of a pencil. I am "fat" now and I don't care. I. Trying to lose weight for health, but I am not postponing life until I am "thin"
I so agree. I weighed 118 in high school (size 8) at 5’5” I thought I was enormous and ugly. At 29 I got married and weighed 123 and at the alter wondered if people were laughing at how fat I looked in that white dress. Now at 60, and a size 16/18 I love myself as I am right now and realize how ridiculous my line of thinking was. All from media of the 60s-early 80s. So sad. I love how young women are empowering themselves and realizing weight/size doesn’t equal worth. I am loving Abby’s videos. Applause for the young women of today.
@@luvnalaska44 Wait…. You are 5’8”??? And a size 16??? That’s just about right for your height. My daughter is 5’8” and she looks FAB in size 16?almost everything. If you are not happy with your “look” try a different style. I’ll bet you’re gorgeous.
@@jeanmartin6410 Jean! I wish. I was 5’5” in high school and 5’6” now. I was almost 5’7” but have been on the shrinking train. Haha
Hi, sorry to hear that you think a size 16 is fat, because you seem to still have negative connotations about your body. I fully agree that if you need to loose weight for health reason (according to doctor) or because you want to be stronger or something - but dont do it because you think you are fat 😊 And good for you to not wait for loosing weight before enjoying yourself 😃🎉
@@jeanmartin6410 I am age 58 and did lose weight from size 20 to 16. I hope to lose more for health and to hopefully get rid of diabetes, but the young me didn't live life because I was fat and klutzy. I live life now.
Also honestly the fabric quality these days means that even things with "good size pockets" become things with sagging seams or holey pockets because they just don't use the right fabric and support structures to actually have the pockets supported and bear weight (I don't think I've seen a pocket supported by a waistband seam outside of jeans in commercial fashion in recent memory).
Yes, I'd honestly rather have no pockets over the kind of pockets I'm getting. They just add bulk to my hips and look sloppy without adding much functionality
"Rudimentary sizes that are kind of just based off of feelings and how the weather looks" scarily accurate!
I will also say that more affordable clothing stores are still selling jeans with very short pockets. And unfortunately the amount of people living in poverty means they are never going to afford brands like Madewell that are now doing nice sized pockets
Thank you! I was going through the comments looking for someone to mention that as nice as Madewell and Everlane may be, most of us cannot drop $100 on a single pair of jeans.
If you can see at all, you should be able to lengthen the pockets. But you damned well should not have to.
My husband and I theorize that my formative years in the 2000s without pockets, plus ADHD, significantly impacted my ability to keep track of my stuff. He has designated "pocket stuff" that moves from outfit to outfit...I am constantly setting down and misplacing wallet, keys, phone because I hold it in my hand or move it from bag to bag.
This is one of many reasons I REFUSE to have more than one purse.
Years ago I got a friend with (at the time undiagnosed) ADHD the gift of a pouch/purse she could move between all her bags. It contains all the essentials - purse, keys, meds, etc. So she's only got to remember the pouch, not find all it's components (with a weekly phone alert to check the contents and replace any used meds).
Was a bit of a lifesaver and I've since got one for myself too! (I also cheat by having a couple of them and still spare keys with multiple friends. Belt and braces job, because I really need them!)
eh. I blame that on not having systems. One ADHD person to another, get a valet tray/box/drawer. The Victorian version for women would have been a chatelain & her dressing table. I recommend a valet tray for EVERYONE but especially for those with ADHD who typically change into jammies or house clothes after being out. Because lets be honest, even if we carry a purse or a backpack, we often stick stuff in our pockets too. A valet tray will be where you dump your pockets as soon as you get home. Money, wallet, receipts, change, phone, chapstick, pretty rock you found... whatever. Then, when you have the headspace, you house the items dumped. For me, that's usually before bed. Receipts go into their folder. Change into jar. Lipstick/chapstick back into drawer. Phone onto charger (which is at the valet tray)... etc. You're doing a favor for your future self by having things then laid out for the next day you go out. I actually learned this from my dad who had a drawer in our dining room buffet that he used for this. His pocket protector, his keys, his watch, his belt buckle, wallet, coin purse... it all got organized in there. Every night. He was a plumber for a school district so he had lots of keys and had work/weekend watches, belt buckles, etc. Turns out, whole neurodivergent family.
@@helenl3193 I do this! I have a meds pouch, a wallet, a misc pouch (lipstick/gum/feminine products/tiny perfume/etc). They just move from bag to bag or backpack. I also do this for my knitting. I have a notions pouch that moves from project to project but when I'm not on the go with a project, it sits on my desk. (was undiagnosed ADHD until 2021).
I have ADHD as well. I finally sewed a purse to fit everything I need except a water bottle. I gave up on having more than one purse. I couldn't remember which purse I left things in, or be bothered with deciding which outfit went with which bag.
For the first time in a VERY long while, I have to leave the house to attend classes. I choose to wear my late 1890s clothing because I'm more comfortable wearing a corset than I am "showing" my actual body in contemporary clothing. You pointed out in your video about what you learned from years of wearing 18th-century clothing that people aren't seeing your actual body when you wear stays or a corset and how that can be mentally comforting. Thank you a thousand times for putting that into words! My baseline anxiety level is stupid high, and feeling like people will judge my body is just one more reason for me not leaving the freaking house! If I have a corset on with appropriate hip padding, that anxiety doesn't exist. There was a lot wrong with the world in the 19th century, but at least society didn't require most young girls and young women to starve themselves so they'd be worthy of being seen.
I also have social anxiety and feel so comfy in oversize clothes that hide my body because people can't perceive me this way
I'll bet you looked just gorgeous!
I think wearing 1890's clothing is a great idea! Now I just need to level up my sewing skills. 😂 But after seeing UA-camrs like Rachel Maksey go from complete newbie with sewing to creating her own costumes, I can up my game too.
I bet you look fabulous and I know the feeling - when I have to go out and be around people I wear corsets and flared longer skirts/dresses with sweaters and/or jackets so the corset isn't so obvious. I read a study that showed that wearing a properly fitted corset actually helps ptsd anxiety, and I think that study was onto something. Anyway, just wanted to let you know you're not alone, corsets etc may be actually measurably helpful for anxiety, and you don't have to go full 1890s fashion-wise (unless you want to, then of course rock the awesome historical looks :) to enjoy the protective engineered effect that corsets can provide.
@@katem2411 Hmm, hearing you talk about your corset reminds me of those things called Thumned Shirts that are made to help dogs with anxiety by evenly providing pressure around their body. I wonder if your reduced anxiety is because of the same mechanism?
As a teen in the 60s I can assure you that the same fashion thing happened then too. Low rise pants, jeans that were skin tight without spandex! Pockets? Only the skirts I made had pockets . The fashion rational was that pockets spoiled the line of the garment. Actually not the pockets but the fact that putting something in the pockets would be a disaster, declassee, immediately turned you into an ugly ducking.
Today, yes you can get pockets IF you can afford to pay for those clothes. My daughter's wedding dress had pockets.... the pockets in my leggings can hold one key or maybe a quarter.
Oh yeah! Remember when Levi 501's were THE jeans to wear... no matter the fit?! I could just barely fit my dorm key into the pocket.
Hip huggers were the rage & having to wear leotards to cover up the backside made life very interesting in the 70s.
@@barbaragomez5687 yes Danceskins, you had to get down to your bra and panties to use the toilet. I had then in many colours and the wrap around skirts that matched. The only pocket was my bra.
I appreciate your point about affordability. It is a privilege that should be taken into account ☺️
Pockets in jackets/blazers were sewn shut to "protect the line of the garment."
Some girls put on their new jeans and sat in a tub of hot water then wore them til they dried. Shrink to fit. One girl in my dorm had to lie on the floor to pull her jeans on, then she'd pull the fabric together while her roommate zipped them up.
Worked better than a girdle.
My biggest pet peeve is fake back pockets in women's dress pants. They go to all the trouble of sewing in fake pocket slots, but do not actually have any, you know, pockets.
I would add that buying items to put into pockets was a pain. The style and sizes of items for women differ from items for men. Until the intro of smartphones, it was impossible to find a wallet that can be slipped into a pocket. Wallets sold as woman's wallets were way too large. Producers seem to believe that women demanded wallets capable of carrying dozens of cards and a checkbook. I would wear long vest or sweater with pockets to deal with the lack of good pockets.
This point was in my handbag section 😂😂😂
Yes!! I have often joked I can fit more in my bra than in my pants pocket.. I own 2 wallets that would fit into my back pocket on my jeans! 1 is a man's wallet 🤣 I love my carhartt work leggings 😍 I have like 4 to 6 pockets deep pockets!
A hard case RFID works. I even have one with the Starry Night Painting all over it.
Actually they are from 1/4 inch to 3/4 inch deep.
The wallet needed a *coin* section, too!
@@thummumcrysanth If a wallet cant store your money, cards, coins, and pictures of your loved ones, then what are we even doing?
I do alterations for a living, and have noticed a trend in wedding dresses over the last few years where the vast majority of dresses with fuller skirts that are made of heavier-weight fabrics (i.e. mikaido or satin) have side pockets. There are exceptions for dresses made of lighter-weight materials like tulle and lace, as well as those with tighter, mermaid-style silhouettes, but overall the industry seems to be moving more towards pockets.
Yeah, my sister’s wedding dress was a very crisp silk with a full skirt and I’m pretty sure she had pockets.
So, we get pockets that one day. Yay?
i haven't watched the video yet but like 20 mins ago as i was putting laundry to wash i remembered fake pockets with rage. i wanna sue the clothing industry bc i think fake pockets are false advertising and i think that if you were not gonna put pockets in your garments in the first place you shouldn't trick me and put fake ones. that's my two cents, now I'll watch the video
Totally agree! (This comment also reminded me of having to explain to so many people when fake pockets were more common that their particular garment had real pockets they just needed to remove the tacking stitches 🤣)
Currently wearing a pair of jeggings that have fake pockets on them and almost dropped my phone when I went to slip it in a pocket. Fake pockets are the devil!
I found some real pockets, with just an opening, with fake zip pockets on top! I've never understood them.
Omg exactly, I bought a coat without pockets and I was furious, what the hell is even the point- just put in real pockets then
Yes. I bought shorts online that looked like they had 6 pockets. Only 2 are real pockets though, as the back pockets and *side CARGO pockets* are just fake flaps.
After watching this, I realized I'm still holding on to some early 2000's trauma about how that pocket placement's going to make my hips look bigger. This is the year I say "no more" and buy whatever damn pants I want!!
Same. I was like, "Is she speaking directly to ME?" I absolutely remember those Seventeen Mag (and other similar magazine) articles...
I refuse to wear dress pants because of pockets (and uncomfortable waistbands, but mostly pockets). I only wear skirts or dresses to work.
I was homeschooled on a very rural ranch. During my teens most of my pants were hand me downs or from the second hand store. One of my favorite pairs was from the eighties, I think. It was corduroy with baggy legs and tight ankles, and I could fit eleven pens, a railroad whistle, and a rock or two into the pockets.
On another note, I now live in West Africa, where it is still very common to buy fabric and have your clothes made for you at a seamstress or tailor's shop. My new clothes are some of my favorites!
I had a pair of corduroy parachute pants when I was little. My kids wear them now. Super cute!
I love this - "eleven pens, a railroad whistle, and a rock or two into the pockets. " Just what is needed for an adventure!
I wish we had this option, still. To be able to have clothes made the way you want them!! Sigh.
I was born in 2006, and I’m horrified by the insane focus on thin-ness that apparently existed in the 90s-00s. Of course today we still have certain body types as the standards of beauty and everything, but we also have at least superficial body diversity in the media, many many body positive influencers/creators and just general awareness about all of this, and I’m so grateful for that. My sisters and I have never dieted, never asked whether things make us “look fat”, never wanted to lose weight. We may have other insecurities, but things have changed and continue to do so!!
I am similar to you and I’m so grateful that I had a pretty mid size body my whole life and only like a couple people in my life
my sister eats basically the exact same way as me and her body type is different, so she has to wear a bigger size
Now pair that with a fatphobic dad, *extremely* fatphobic..
She’s basically living in the “focus on thinness” now, I feel bad for her
Dear Shanta, as a person that was born in the 90s, yes it was bad, but I still saw the skinny trends of the early 2010s and still today see some girls starve themselves to be skinnier.
I admire your confidence, I know I didn't when I was your age. That makes me happier than I can say ❤
Don't let anyone dictate how you're supposed to be!
Lots of love
A twenty something
Keep your eyes peeled and your head on a swivel. It's always gonna try to come back when you least expect it. See reproductive rights. Be sure to vote for individual bodily autonomy.
@OdinsSage no shit lmao (however I would say im probably older than the average yt shorts user these days)
@@Marie-sx5jb that trend was there before. The craze of diets began in the '70s and I clearly remember ladies older than me going through hell diets to fit a pair of jeans.
It is still everywhere, just compensated with the mandatory "fat" model in media, who is usually just a beautiful girl with 3-4kg more put in the right spots. I find that hypocritical, but hey people live their lives, they just don't care.
All my life, I have had shit to put in my pockets! I begged my mother to buy me boys jeans, which she did! (YAY, Mom) There is barely a reason why pants, slacks, or shorts should not have pockets! Casual skirts should also have pockets, unless the design doesn't make it possible.
The fucking male gaze is responsible for the lack of pockets, especially prior to the last 10-15 yrs, when most clothing giants were run by men. Our bodies must be completely visible to the male gaze, with nothing to obstruct their view. Pockets meant that they couldn't use the tight smooth fabric between our legs to see or genital shape, or get an accurate account of our rears.
@@florindalucero3236 Thankfully, men don't tend to look my way!! 🤣🤣🤣🦖👹👺
the vast majority of casual skirts I own would not handle pockets. Your jersey knit maxi skirt won't handle pockets. The seams WILL rip and that's if you don't get pants'd first. The elastic on those skirts is just not strong enough to hold up any significant weight. (I've had several friends ruin their favorite skirts by adding pockets and then the seams rip) And lots of the more sheer, gauzy fabric certainly can't handle pockets either. I will say, all my skirts and pants that have functional belt loops, have and always have had pockets. Some in the seam, some in the waistband. I even have a handmade skirt that's gauzy and ethereal but it has a substantial waistband of a different fabric and the pocket (just one) is anchored to the waistband both by where its attached and with a pocket strap. It also rides on the right flank vs in front or directly in back to be as unobtrusive as possible. But, it was also handmade by a very small indie designer.
I make my own skirts, usually out of cute quilting fabric, and put pockets on them. Several of them I've lined the pockets with denim, since I stick random things in there.
That being said, the one thing that WILL pull my elastic-waisted skirts off is my phone. I have a cord I wear around my waist, where it will hide under the skirt, and clip my phone case to that. My fitted waist skirts all have a ribbon loop attached to the waistband by the left side seam to clip it to, and the waistband keeps it from falling down.
When I was in middle & high school, it was the style for everybody to wear men's Levi's jeans & pinwale corduroys. I think the style number was 535. It was so nice having all those big pockets!
What annoys me is when you visit somewhere and they say 'no bags'. I'm like I'm not carrying this for fun. I don't have pockets that will fit my purse and phone.
Obviously a rule made by a bloke with pockets.
I’m a bag carrying kinda person. Maybe it’s the anxiety but my everyday pants can absolutely accommodate phone, wallet, and keys but I feel unprepared without a bag with stuff like an umbrella and medication and lotion and hand sanitizer.
Same
And a library book. That was my standard for every pocketbook I ever bought: Can I fit a book into it? Preferably a hardback, but at least a paperback. Kindle has been a great boon to me. 😊
Same - it's reassuring to have a little of everything plus a book and a power bank to hand.
I'm transitioning genders, and I intentionally bought a purse which is only big enough to hold the stuff that I used to carry in my pockets. I'm afraid that if I got a big purse, I would start putting all sorts of things in it "just in case", and it would end up like my laptop bag, which I haven't fully emptied since 2010, and I have no idea what's lurking in there anymore.
Backpacks for the win!! 😆 I find as someone who doesn't own a car, that extra space is a non-negotiable. And much as I love the idea of cute handbags, & do wish there were more affordably stylish backpacks around, evenly distributing whatever I'm carrying across both shoulders is also just a must for a bad back...?
The only time I find backpacks become really problematic is in cramped opshops (care when turning required!), and on super-crowded buses, where you can't turn around fast to escape at your stop without bashing all your neighbours! 🙈
After coming out as a trans man, I went and bought me some new trousers, after wearing only high waisted skinny jeans. I was SHOOKETH to discover the almost lovecraftian, infathomable EXPANSE of space that is a man's jeans front pocket.
It's wild! I had a friend in college who would frequently take food from our dining hall to eat as a snack later. I was absolutely shocked the first time I saw him pull multiple bananas, a water bottle, and other snacks out of his pockets xD
And that is why I (cis woman) go purposely to the men's clothing section for jeans. The material and the pocket capacity is all I need
"almost lovecraftian, infathomable EXPANSE of space" 🤣🤣I love the description!
My husband has a bigger phone than me. He can fit the whole thing in his front pocket. I can fit like half of mine in my back pocket. The front isn't even an option.
@@LillaIgelkotten yesss. old navy men's jeans are my favorite. otherwise American eagles mom jeans are nice
i was a teen in the late 70's (argh!), laying down to zip up our jeans was a THING!!! pockets? ps does anyone else love when Abby gets that strident tone in her voice? Joan of Arc with a flaming sword of righteous indignation is our Abby. LOVE IT!
I was thinking about the ‘70’s as well, so I thought I better check before a made a comment. From the hiphuggers of the early part of the decade to those extremely tight jeans at the end of the decade, it was not a good era for pockets in women’s clothing. I know that we young men living in the dorms at the end of the decade would wonder how some of the young women were even able to get into those tight jeans.
My mum once told me that she and other girls used to wear jeans to then got inside the bathtub so the jeans would fit very tightly.
@@DragonriderEpona Aye, I had heard that as well.
Lol, yeah, the relatively recent addition of stretch to jeans really made them much easier to put on
My mom was a teen in the 70s…this must be why I HATED jeans as a young child, every pair she bought me were too small/tight 😂😂😂
Pockets have definitely become waaay more common now than when I was a teen in the 2000s to early 2010s. I guess we must have made a big enough fuss about their bullcrap fake pockets lmao (and rightly so!). Companies probably only started caring when they realised the pocketless clothing weren't getting sold as much as the ones with pockets.
Cellphones 😉
This was really interesting! My family sews a lot (we're larger framed & also tend to be on the heavier side in addition) & I remember wanting to put pockets in a skirt I was making as a teen & my mom told me not to because it would 'bulk out my figure'. She made a ton of her own dresses & skirts & none of them had pockets either for that exact same reason. Just goes to show that the body-shaming part of the problem was apparent for plus-size people the moment that the body type was the fashion & it only got worse from there. Personally, I'm excited to be learning how to put pockets in my skirts now.
Oh yeah… I am in my mid 50s and I remember my mom telling me never to put anything in a breast pocket of a shirt because it would “ruined the line” she learned that from her mother… So it’s not a new occurrence.
Larger framed = thicc af
I was a Y2K teen, and last week I realized scrolling through baby bat pics of mine, I LOOKED SO THIN (a size 38- around UK 10) but everyone made me feel 'fat =ugly'. Like, stepping out from my room to school, literally everyone bullied me for being curvy, for my wide hips and boobs.
Lotsa time and +20kgs later I'm finally happy with my own handmade clothing, and body type. It took me YEARS of hard work to learn to love myself. Wish we could've been spend our teenage years rather happy than uncomfortable, it seems so stupid and it feels so superficial now.
Screw it, let's be all happy with our huge pockets we dare to put in our clothing 🖤🖤
I wish paniers would come back. I could have a basket on either hip while keeping my hands free. Heaven.
I remember about 10 years ago trying on a skirt and realizing it had pockets and being so excited I was like "I have to buy this skirt!". The pocket situation has definitely improved in the last decade.
I love pockets. I’m moving back to long, voluminous skirts just so I can wear huge pockets underneath (even if they have pockets themselves because more pockets is never bad!)
I predict the rise of secret pants. Not those old palazzos from the 80's, or the hideous gauchos from the 00's, but the ye olde secret pants, in new and exciting fabrics. I like a swishy skirt, and I like trousers, why choose!
Abby mentioned once how she preferred skirts to pants, and I've taken that to heart. I'm much more comfortable, and I'm finding nice ones with pockets.
I tried using purses, but I have the opposite response from you where HAVING a purse gives me anxiety, so my boyfriend's grandma got me a wallet thing that has straps, and I can fit my phone in it, so that is my purse. I feel like if I were to carry a purse around, I would definitely be absent-minded enough to set it down in a Wal-Mart somewhere and never see it again.
Also, I wear size 6 jeans and my doctor told me I'm overweight and idk how to feel about that. .-. (I'm 25.)
I clearly remember 17 telling me the same advice about not wearing pockets to make you look thinner during the 80's, i bet pocket shaming has been a part of fitting to the body since that became a thing
Oh, the body dysmorphia memories.. I was a size 36EU (XS), but I had a pouch belly (still do) and considered myself fat. I had classmates who fainted during class because they fasted during the schoolday to keep stick thin. I think for me the most liberating year was our school uniform year (it started as a joke, but continued as a test for a year), because I made the clothes we wore to fit us.
36 is xs? I thought it is s and xs is 34.
That reminded me that when I was... maybe 14? Or 13? That I somehow got my mother to buy a pair of boys jeans and a boys shirt because 1) they looked so much cooler and 2) so much more comfortable than girls clothing. Ended up wearing both of them only a few times because of the comments of, mostly my siblings, sometimes from my classmates, that by wearing those I'd wanted to be a boy. (Which wasn't true. I only liked their clothing more)
And they they actually were super comfy and had great pockets. I regret not keeping them.
Also, it reminded me that in the mid (?) 2000s cargo pants were in fashion. And I'm so glad that they are again. I always loved having so much storage for my things to carry around without having to use a bag.
High school in the mid oughts and did in fact have to get cargo shorts from the boys section because it was that or a 2” inseam I had friends who wore jeans for years because shorts barely existed
I buy my daughter boys underpants because they last longer and have more appealing patterns (for her) and yes, she likes being a girl too.
I never stopped loving cargo pants, pant of my dream)) Altought now its much easier to find them then it was when skinny jeans were in favour, yaaay! . BUT Im buying men's cargo pants, because still women ones either have shallow pockets or dont have it in right places *facepalm*
I grew up wearing my brother's hand me downs and often wore men's jeans. They just fit better, as I had no butt and no well defined waist. Oh, occasionally there was some comment of "lesbian" but as I didn't care what any of my classmates thought about what I did, I wasn't bothered by it.
I wasn't disinterested in clothing, I just demand comfort and practicality for most of the items I wear.
I’ve almost always been fat, except for a short period between 11-13 y/o in the early ‘00s. I remember getting so upset about the low rise jeans not fitting me and not covering all the unmentionables but being the ONLY thing that could be found! Ended up shopping for mom-jeans growing up, despite the fashion failure it was (never been much into fashion to begin with).
Then even those went away with the advent of the skinny jean and as someone with serious cankles, lemme tell you, those are the *worst*. It’s like wearing compression garments constantly and calling it style - except they cut the circulation from your feet and show off every unflattering lump and bump you’ve got.
After years of that, I can’t handle anything around my ankles, even the loser fit of jeans currently are too tight and aren’t enough for me now. I switched to slacks a couple of years ago but even with them, a “strait cut” leg tapers significantly on the way down and tries to mold itself to my flesh like they want to be leggings rather than slacks.
Wore a skirt for the first time since I was 11 over the summer and MIND BLOWN. I can move my legs! I can go up stairs without worrying about ripping the seat of my pants! I can do a damn high kick! So now I’m devouring every sewing tutorial I can get my hands on to make my own shit that will actually fit! And maybe mix my nerd love of history and cultural anthropology in while I’m at it.
Thank you so much! You’ve been a great inspiration.
Skirts and cargo pants are savers! :)
Welcome to the sisterhood of the circle skirt. I rarely wear jeans (only when woodworking) and spend my days in skirts and dresses. If I wear pants, it’s sweats or something I have made out of batik in a sweatpants pattern. Box pleats are your friend!
I never get why people choose to wear clothes that restrict movement so much. This is why I only wear men's joggers.
I don't like tapered leg or low rise pants either. I always look for "bootcut" or "fit & flare" style jeans & slacks, and try to find "mid-rise" (although, this still only helps somewhat, since the fashion industry seems incapable of coming to a consensus about what any of their terms mean).
Good luck learning to sew!
I watched Bernadette's video on this and was really hoping for a follow-up so yay! Omg the trauma of the early 2000s...does anyone else remember dorina jeans? Now THAT was a war on pockets. No butt pockets, 4" zipper, skin-tight. Gives me full-body shivers now.
I'm also VERY happy that the fashionable silhouette has shifted more towards higher-waist, looser fitting because that's just always been more flattering on me so now I can be in style by accident!
I truly appreciate that you purchased all of our teenage trauma pants and showed us how effed up the early 2000s were. I remember being frustrated with the options then but not really having a choice. I hope Gen Z can watch this and fight off any urge to bring low rise pants back. I also was pretty skinny and felt like a cow, and now as a plus size woman I'm so grateful there are more options for me (even if it's still harder to find clothing in plus sizes)
Low rise is back. Not at Paris Hilton levels yet, but certainly 1999 era low rise. Because everything in the teen shops is 1999 atm. So I fully expect seriously low waisted will be back next year.
I've made myself a promise that I will only buy clothes with pockets and only buy flat comfortable shoes.
Over the last 8 years or so, the generic "nice office dress pants" I've bought for work went from no pockets, to 1 small watch pocket in the front , to 2 small pockets at the hips to my last pair with pockets that were too big and I had to shorten them!
Thanks for explaining the science behind clothes sizes. It all makes sense now!😂
i am 53 years old. i have been overweight since the birth of my first child in 89. i am 5'6" tall with a long torso and short legs. let me tell you what a nightmare it was to find jeans in the 2000s and 2010s!! i do not wear low rise or skinny legs because they are neither comfortable or make me feel confident. i have never been a trend follower. let me just say that when "mom jeans' (hate that term) made their debut, i was THRILLED!
Great video! Once more I am so grateful that I was born exactly when I was ... 1946. I never quite reached 4'11", and while I was tiny until my 30s, age (and 3 babies, the last when I was 42), along with a real appreciation for eating, means that for at least the last 25 years, it's been utterly impossible to find ready-to-wear jeans ... my primary wardrobe staple since my hippified 20s. I had little use for a purse in that decade, but over time, it got preposterous. At one point, I was in a shoe store in Chattanooga that was having a weird contest ... the woman with the heaviest purse would win a significant coupon. My purse weighed over 16 pounds! That's more than many bowling balls! No wonder my shoulder was having problems! I reformed, got a small wallet with attached keychain, and it fits nicely into the front pocket of the jeans I have custom made by a group in India. I get to say what pocket styles, zipper or buttons, the width of the legs (last 2 were a sort of bell-bottom), even the color of thread and the style of the rivets. And the cost is actually less, even with shipping, than I'd pay for all but the least expensive ready-made jeans.
I also wear my now thinning hair in braids with yarn woven in. Just sign me, "Not a slave to fashion, but a much happier old woman!"
I'm 39, I turned 17 in 2000. I was 5'11 & had the metabolism of a hummingbird on coke. Low rise jeans were my enemy because shirts long enough to cover my midriff if I wore them did not exist (tunics were not a thing until later), but weirdly I did want to wear bigger pockets to add weight to my frame so I wouldn't get asked if I was anorexic every 3 days like clockwork. Of course I also had exactly no control over my wardrobe until college, and lived through highschool almost exclusively on handed down items from shorter women (except my mom, who also bought me 2 pairs of jeans a year and kept me in socks and underwear). It was miserable, but it was an unusual miserable. Not having the pocket money to buy teen magazines turned out to be a good thing in retrospect!
So, I was assigned female at birth, and wore "girls" clothing growing up. I always had a number of issues with them, not least of which, when a garment didn't come in separate length sizes, it was going to always be too short (people wonder why I never wear anything other than jeans). I vividly remember reaching a point where I could no longer wear children's sizes (which was where you still got pockets, cause kids needs space for rocks and shells and string and such), and the one time buying trousers wasn't a journey through hell was when we went into a dedicated jeans shop, and not only did they have a length that looked like it was the right size (34". I was TWELVE.), they also came with proper pockets. Luckily, I didn't really care about fashion in the early '00, and lived in a place where fashion was behind anyway, so extremely low-rise jeans were never really a thing here.
I really appreciate that you used a bar spoon to hold your mic for the sponsor segment. I found it way funnier than I think it was meant to be
It made me feel like I was hosting the Price is Right and I felt much joy lol
I had to pause the video to double check. Thought my eyes were going 🧐
@@AbbyCox I giggled on the inside. Like all yusss
I loved this too. So funny.
@@AbbyCox LOL, Nerd Forge uses a garden trowel as her "microphone". So you are in good company.
Ahhh..pockets.
My female flight attendant uni has pockets so shallow to be unusable.
The MEN'S uni has plenty of normal pockets!😡
Abby, I know if you take extra time for you, but I would gladly watch a 30 or 45 minute video from you. You have lots of knowledge and your videos are informative and calming to watch.
I second this. Long-form videos are the best.
Amen to this!
Absobloodylutely! Share all the stuff 🙂
*** I am going to write about my struggles with weight, body image and miscarriage***
Abby, you spoke to my Soul in this video. I graduated high school in 04 and turned 18 in 03, so it sounds like we are around the same age. I was a size 5 from about 5th grade through my Freshman and Sophomore years of College. I wore the dreaded low rise jeans, especially the ones WITHOUT back pockets. Luckily, I was also part of the East SF Bay Punk scene, so I was also wearing men's Dickies (before it was cool haha), so at least some of my clothes had pockets. What a weird time it was. Around 99/00 I had I had those excessive baggy pants that were covered in pockets, as all the Skaters did, but then by about 02 and beyond came the low rise. I remember high rise was not even considered, or available. My 20's was spent in a more reasonable midrise bootcut. I did not try skinny jeans until I was about 30. I must admit, I love a good highrise tummy support skinny. My Mom belly pretty much requires a high rise these days. What cracks me up is how "Mom jeans" are, or were a thing. Honestly, my 37 year old vintage/classic style self does not pay attention to whatever is current. I'm actually leaning heavily towards 80's Glam Metal attire, because it's fun and I do what I want! haha! ADHD brain went off topic there. What I meant to get to was how our age group was force fed the idea that our bodies = our self worth. Nail on the head Abby!! As I mentioned, I was a long time size 5. In my early 20's I remember going jeans shopping and discovered that I no longer fit in size 5. I cried. Unfortunately it was the first of many times crying in a dressing room. I spent most of my adult years as an 8, which was fine. I was a 10 for a bit in 2013-14 after having my first kid. At 30 I divorced and got back down to 8, which was great. After that I met my now amazing Husband but then started a toxic job (finally left after 3 years), the pandemic happened, I had a cervical cancer scare (it cleared up, yay) and then 2 back to back miscarriages. My body was not happy and therefore I gained a lot of weight in about 6 months and got to about a size 12. Luckily, I had a successful pregnancy after leaving that toxic job and my second baby will be 1 year this month. Having this baby left my body a wreck. I am the heaviest I've ever been, especially in my upper body. It is so hard for me to look at pictures of myself. The inner person inside who grew up in that time where our body = self worth is hard to ignore. This video really helped me identify and and shine light on that and now that it is up to the surface I can work on it. It's interesting how we can have all of this old programing causing issues but we cannot identify it until something triggers the memory. Also, I am working on getting my health back in line. Not specifically to "look good", but because I want to be healthy for my kids, although I do want to also look like the version of myself in my mind, haha. I do not want to look a certain way for anyone else though. I know intellectually and in my heart that our body = self worth is bullshit. I want to match how I vision myself, which is totally within reason. I want to be physically stronger and have more endurance to stick around to live life on my terms for a very long time, whilst being fabulous :) Also, I want to finally live my dream of being the singer of a rock-n-roll cover band. That requires some stamina haha.
Thank you for being a positive and fierce voice for our age group!! As you can see, this was very inspiring and is opening up a path to healing some old wounds. You rock!
I've done the back to back miscarriage thing too. I'm just a bit younger than you. I'm so sorry that happened to you. I feel your pain about the weight management thing. I'm pretty consistently a 12/14 depending on cut and fabric type. I loathed the lower cut jeans when they were in. Nothing from that era fit me right and it was super frustrating. I hope your fabulous husband is telling you like mine does me that he honestly doesn't care. To my hubby the extra I gain from the babies is just evidence of my love for him because I made him a dad. He just wants me happy and healthy. I wish that for you too. ❤️
@@adedow1333 You are so sweet and I appreciate your kind support. Yes, my Husband adores me and my body and tells me every day. He is always reminding me of that and is also encouraging because he knows that my main goal is based around my health. I'm quite a few years older than him, so I want to make sure that I am also healthy and have a long happy life with him. Heart disease runs in my family, so I'm kind of at the shit or get off the pot time now in my later 30's. I'm fine with stretch marks and I love my now wider hips. Basically, my lower half is great and just needs some strength training. It's my upper body that is carrying all of the extra weight and it physically feels heavy, you know what I mean? It would be nice to not have to go to the chiropractor every 4 weeks because my neck cannot stay in alignment longer than that. It's not just my big boobs this time, which is new. That's how I know that it's different this time. This is unhealthy for my body and it's showing up in my heart health. I'm having fun with this though. I've been so stagnant the past 3 years. Now I am getting more active and having fun for my health. Singing and dancing around the house is great exercise for the body and soul :) I'm serious about finally bringing out my inner Rock Star. I'm going to do the damn thing.
80's Glam Metal attire is so fun! I am so happy for you!
@Katy Floyd I love that you are bringing out your inner rock star! I keep hoping that one day I will find a pair of fabulously glittery or sequined converse-like shoes that are actually comfortable for my feet.
P.S. Since you're already diving into exercise, it might be worth looking into PT to see if there are specific core/back/nek muscles you can strengthen that would help keep the spine in alignment so you can cut back on chiro visits if you want to. I know it's helped multiple family members with issues.
@@trinamorrison2570 thank you and excellent advise. I actually go to an amazing advanced body therapy massage therapist every month. He always gives great advice, it's just my job to follow through with it haha. I actually have an appointment next week and I'm planning on asking him for specific exercises to work on. He has already helped me with many other old injuries and was the biggest help throughout my pregnancy and recovery. No wonky postnatal hips this time around. My previous pregnancy left me with misaligned hips that created a chain reaction of issues over the years. I'm good this time though, yay. Our bodies and how they function are so fascinating, don't you think? This journey of studying anatomy and physiology to help heal myself has been quite the journey. When you know better you can do better 😊
I'm so early for once. I was really young during the low rise jean fad, but I know for a fact it wouldn't work for me. I learned to sew just to make myself clothing with pockets. I did a Morgan Donner and added pockets to half of my dresses right out the gate. Pockets for life.
I was in my 30’s during the low rise jean phase and so thankfully wasn’t going to go there! I remember not buying/wearing any pants for about a decade cos I couldn’t find any that looked good! (Thank goodness for leggings!)
…Want to add that I wasn’t naked from the waist down! 😂😂
I was 14-16 during the craziest part of that fad. My mom wouldn’t really let me have any low rise pants because she didn’t think they were “appropriate for me”. In hindsight, they wouldn’t have stayed up on my hips. I never really developed much flesh on my hips, and I need my pants nearly at my natural waist to feel comfortable with them.
I have noticed it's getting somewhat easier to find pockets, and they're definitely better than they were ten years ago. But they're still not always great. I have several pairs of pants which, although they are relatively loose fitting, have pockets that are too small for my phone. I have a couple of other pairs where the pockets are technically big enough, but the angle is wrong, so my phone tends to fall out when I sit down.
And then I have a few pairs from a fantastic designer on Etsy where the pockets are completely functional and useful and everything I need them to be. Unfortunately, she doesn't make clothes suitable for winter, but in the summer her pants are the absolute best, all because of the pockets.
I am sitting here, remembering back to the tight jean craze of the 80's (no stretch materials, but lots of ankle zippers), but I remember nice pockets. Oh those low rise jeans, I hated them. I always felt they would fall off. And I am a skinny person, I thought they would just slide off while walking. And show parts of my body I didn't want to show.
No one’s asscrack was safe during the early 2000s.
I always felt like I just didn't have enough ass to keep the low rise jeans from falling down. 😂
@@AbbyCox truth!
The other thing that is not mentioned too often is the nerve damage due to the hip being so tight (to prevent the trousers from slipping down). Burning, tingling sensations around the hips and down the thighs were due to excessive pressure on the nerves in the hip area.
@@Rhaifha as someone who has always had plentiful ass. It felt the same or even worse with a lot of booty. Those pants were not designed with the curve of a but in mind so they stopped halfway up the curve at the broadest part meaning everything below was smaller. They were always sliding down
So glad to talk about this because I rant about this all the time! I now work a “mens” job and wear men’s pants/shorts and I can’t stand having to wear “woman’s” clothes……even brands like carhartt who make woman’s pants for the exact jobs I am working, but also remove the much larger pockets that the same styles in men’s line have for no reason! Why! It’s so frustrating! I need my damn pockets!
I'm glad I hated magazines (too many personal reasons) but I definitely got hit with the "my body is wrong" thing by way of the only jeans available were crap jeans and pants that physically did not fit me the way the garments were designed. Yay trauma.
This. I thought the magazines were stupid, but when every pair of jeans in the store are lowrise skin tight and uncomfortable, you deal with what you've got. And learn to hate clothes shopping when nothing looks good or feels good. I still hate jeans.
I have never been what you would call skinny, and I was a teen in the mid to late 90's. Finding clothes that looked nice was tricky. I remember the worry about having back pockets on my jeans and thinking it made me look bigger, and I also vividly remember having jeans where the top of the white cotton from the pocket would sometimes show slightly because I was "supposed" to have a completely flat stomach and I was always embarrassed about that and still have shame about my tummy 😕 It's like they never had anyone who wore larger sizes actually try on the clothes to see if they worked, which is probably exactly what was happening. 🙄
Omg yes! Idk how I forgot all about how the inside of pocket showing drove me nuts! Meanwhile my smaller bodied friends' pockets only showed from the other end when they cut their teeny jeans into teeny daisy dukes 😬😒🤬
@triciaryland3587 Ugh, yes!! The short short cut offs. 🫣 No thank you.
I have a vintage skirt, I think it might be an antique, and it took me about 10 times wearing it to discover it has massive pockets. I was so giddy when my hand slipped inside while I was adjusting it.
As a person with a moderate hip to waist ratio and difficulty finding my size in brick and motar stores, I've found that the Gloria Vanderbilt "Amanda" jeans have decent pockets and decent life expectancy. I've worn the same 3 pairs for 2 years now. Not an ad, just know that struggle 💗
I liked the Bandolino brand "Mandie" jeans for the same reasons. But, they've become harder for me to find at a reasonable price, so I've switched to the "Amanda's." Perhaps they were affiliated brands given the similar name. The Bandolino fit me just a tad nicer though.
I love Gloria Vanderbilt "Amanda" jeans! I guess it took a woman to realize what women want
As a young mom, I have Gloria Vanderbilt Amanda jeans (from Costco!) in about three different sizes. They're pretty fab! I remember feeling super lame buying them at first because my mom has worn them for years, but hey. Whatever fits!
Sams club sells bandolino brand jeans. I've bought a couple pair from my local sams. Gloria Vanderbilt fit me nicely too. I have lost 30 lbs and needed new jeans so I found 2 or 3 used pair at Goodwill. I was happy about that!
Pockets are so important! I was in college in the early 2000s and I went through a phase then where I didn't want to carry a purse. I hated the super low rise jeans, but even the so called "regular" rise jeans were pretty low by today's standards. That didn't leave much room for pockets and it was so frustrating. Even now, I have to carry my phone with me (because I can't hear it or answer in time if it's in my purse) so that means getting a smaller phone. I hate that phones keep getting bigger and bigger. Jean pockets have gotten better now, and I have noticed several places where I can buy a dress or skirt online that has pockets. The bigger problem I've found is with dress (or dress casual) slacks. I can't wear jeans to work, though I don't have to dress in a suit. So before I started working from home that meant neutral colored dress slacks. Finding those in stores with pockets big enough to hold my phone was VERY difficult. It still is, to be honest. It's like they expect me to walk around all day with one of those ugly phone belt clip things. 😵💫
I recently bought a pair of work pants from a company known for making work pants. The pockets are functionally useless. I was shocked.
Love you and your video's But I specifically shop in the men's section because the fabric and build of the clothes is so so much better! Just pick two t-shirts one from the Female section and one from the Male and just feel or hold against the light... It's just not fair 😔
and the sleeves on 'women's t-shirts'!!! I want a short sleeve, not a shoulder cover!!
@@dissodatore if even your arm fit's through them without cutting off circulation 😅
Yes!!!... Also, female sizes are crap & make no sense (esp. when they threw 0 & 00 into the mix, wtf?)... I like getting men's pants 👖 cause I can get my EXACT measurements (28-30×30). 😊
I should totally write a blog about men's shirts for this (straight) lady
Called "My Lesbian Closet" why Minnesota winters demand "male" clothing.
If you ever worked in an office with a dress code (why, who knows) and were forced into ill-fitting "cute shoes", life sucking panty hose, and women's dress pants (not flattering or comfortable or practical) and always needed the hidden blanket or office mittens or illegal space heater
Amazing video, Abby! As a non-American I want to thank you for putting the measures in centimeters as well! It allowed me to understand and feel the impact of the difference even more! Thank you!
I've just made my first pair of trousers... the size of the patterned pockets was so good! I can get my whole (S22+) phone in them. Have also started flatlining most of my pocket bags with firm plain woven cotton so that keys won't go through them! (Yes I have the privilege of being taught to sew by my mum (about 35 years ago).
Well done!
Professional pants for women are quite lacking in pockets. (Not even like the most formal dress pants. Just slightly up from jeans.) I had several pairs of pants that had tiny tiny pockets, like you could put a lipbalm and that's it. So I sewed in normal pockets. Another pair had the back pocket placket but nothing under it, so bam, I added a pocket. I would be sad if I couldn't sew in these pockets. I bought a cute skirt from a discount store. Added seam pockets. I just add seam pockets everywhere. I guess cause I'm shopping at Old Navy and Kohls and Marshalls and the like.
Thank you; the history was very interesting and not anything I had previously heard. I believe you when you say you have pockets, but I have to tell you this is not my experience. My work trousers have pitiful little 3-inch things(I measured). Now I wear plus-size, so perhaps that is why I still don't see decent pockets in most clothing. None of my bought clothing(including a linen dress procured from a small manufacturer)has pockets that will fit my whole hand. I do not know if leaving pockets out of or giving tiny pockets in plus-size clothes is supposed to make the clothing "flatter" us, maybe? However, I still have great frustration around pockets and hope decent pockets make it into clothing available to me soon. In the meantime, I will continue to suffer pocket envy.
You know, with all the other size-ist bs that comes from the fashion industry, purposefully doing tiny pockets a la the 2000s/2010s with that "it's more flattering" bs makes *total* sense. Makes me wish I had the time to do a size comparison of pockets in straight sizes vs. plus sizes in women's clothing...
@@AbbyCox I was involved in a horrible car accident. & in a wheelchair for about 2 years due to a spinel injury. (I'm fine now & have full mobility). As a result I put on a TONE of weight & went from a size 14 to a size 22 (depression binge eating). & I can tell you from first hand experience that while. The dress sizes may go up the pocket sizes do not.
As I'm sure you are aware fashions run in cycles. The hip-hugger bell bottoms of the '70s were fine, with a crop top. However not so much in the 90 and 2000 as I'm running around an ER and no longer a size 8. Pockets you say. Trying to find a tank long enough to tuck in was difficult. Finding scrub pants with decent pockets was impossible until cargo pants came out.
I remember a cute skirt set i had with pockets in the 80s. I wonder what happened to it. Ugh, what happened to some of the nice clothes I had? 😂😂
If you’re like me, you “outgrew” them long ago! 😄 (I’m 64. Was a young adult in the 80s.)
My current jeans can't hold anything bigger then a ring in the front pockets, and I hate sitting on my phone. I've never even liked skinny jeans. Even as a teen in the early 00's I wanted to wear mom jeans while everyone wore hip higgers...
This was fascinating and I love it. Also, ever since I started embracing more 1940s/50s fashion, not only have I been SO much more comfortable (autism and denim are not good playfellows), I've also been finding more skirts with actual functional pockets. Which, like, I love.
I am 100% OK with any cartoon villain plot describing the fanny pack industry's attempt at destroying pockets, then failing miserably as society deemed it bad fashion.
Also, your cocktail stirrer mic holder is so *elegant* :)
I really love the topics you choose. I noticed though that you skipped right over my favorite style when I was younger (specifically late eighties and early nineties) when Ralph Lauren’s safari look took off and cargo pants became popular (real cargo pants not the skin tight disgrace they became). Functional pockets!
I remember my mother in the 90s literally cutting the hip pockets out of her pants and sewing up the slit. She said they were unflattering. Mum was a lovely curvy lady and made every effort to look even 3 ounces thinner. Makes me sad to think about it because I was self conscious as well but I wore baggy clothes to hide, because I was skinny, and I didn't understand her struggle.
I was a teen during that time too. I still catch myself with that mindset. I wanted to try the wide leg trousers and was nervous because they had pockets. I already have mom pouch, I was worried about adding to that bulk. Welp, it was absolutely a silly thought as they looked lovely.
SAME as well as pleated front trousers! So ridiculous. They can take my high waisted wide legged trousers with decent pockets out of my cold dead hands lol
You go girl! Wide leg/palazzo trousers are the best! They always look good ❤
Abby, I love you so much for talking about the magazine articles and clothing that was being sold for women in the early 2000's! I was in my late 20's and early 30's at that time. It is still traumatic to me to think about what the expectations were for my body. I was at my heaviest, getting up to 292 lbs at 5'6", and all I knew as an adult was that I was not good enough. I could not find anything beautiful about myself because clothing was so horrible. Plus sizes were not any better than regular sizes in clothing. Now I sew my own clothes as much as I can. I knit and am actually working on making a pocket pattern that works best for me. I did a ton of work on myself, and by 2007 was owning my own beautiful self! So, I love when you do these topics, makes my heart sing!!! ❤ Thank you so much!
THANK YOU so much for talking about the weird pockets=fat analogy. I haven’t heard about that concept for a long time, and I loved your analysis of it as a marketing ploy.
I felt fat and (therefore) ugly as a 14 year old wearing size 2. I spent my teens trying to hide my hips from the world since I somehow thought they were a shameful feature. Pockets added maybe a centimeter to my middle, but it felt like they added a foot.
It definitely took me years to realize that it doesn’t matter at all. Glad to be on the other side of that.
At first I was going to skip the section you gave a warning about but I’m glad I didn’t because I love how unapologetically you call out that todays fashion is based on which body types are trendy. I’m in my late 20s now and I wish I had found your type of content in my teens instead of magazines. Love your videos and can’t wait for the handbag one!
My current favorite pair of jeans used to be my brother's, and he didn't like how they fit. But they fit my WHOLE HAND in the pocket, while my other jeans can only fit about half my hand in the "bigger" back pockets. Maybe it's because I'm still wearing a lot of skinny jeans, idk...
As a plus-size woman, I hate that the common type of pocket in pants made "for my size" tend to be these slanted in-seam pockets that bulge just from my hips. So annoying.
Idk if this is in your handbag vid, but yet another aspect of the rise of handbags was safety. Being mugged was a constant fear for women and girls, and being able to throw a handbag was far preferred to the risk of some miscreants getting their hands on you.
Yes, it is possible to find women’s clothing that has pockets, but there is a reason my kiddo (currently 11) and I refer to the different clothing sections of the store as the “girls” section and the “pockets” section. And why, when she was 7, the only way I could get her to stop wearing long jeans in 90 degree weather was to promise to sew pockets into all of her shorts. And why I’ve also had to sew loops to many of her clothes so she could clip on a door key so she could have the same freedom to go in and out of the building just like her male friends without keeping keys on a lanyard and risk getting it caught while she climbed trees. Do some young girl’s clothing have pockets? Yes. But a significant portion of them do not. Or the pockets are far too small. Or the clothes are far too expensive to buy on a regular basis. And the lack of pockets has a direct impact on a girl’s ability to be independent because she has no place to put her treasures or keys or notes or pocket change and therefore she needs someone to carry it for her or go without.
Ohhh that video idea about handbags and purses sounds really interesting, I hope you'll end up making that video! Amsterdam used to have the Tassenmuseum (Bag museum) which sadly closed due to lack of funds during the pandemic. I walked into it once with my mum not really being interested, as bags aren't really my thing, but it turned out to be more about the chronological history of bags and others objects used to carry stuff around. So they had 18th century pockets, regency reticules, and lots of other stuff. The information provided with all the objects was great too and I learned a lot. So I imagine a video of yours being something like that.
(also I feel kinda dumb, but I don't get the 'Stem is everywhere' joke. Can someone explain?)
It’s a very “me” joke - stem stands for science technology engineering and math which are male dominated spaces. So every time I make a comment about engineering or physics i kept laughing at that clip cause STEM is *literally* everywhere but people act like fashion, sewing, etc don’t really count (cause it’s “art” even though engineering and sewing go hand in hand really)
There’s also a push here to work “only” in stem fields - to the detriment of the arts (to combat this a bit weve now made STEAM - which includes art now)
It’s a weird joke - I just was way too amused at myself so I left it in
I am so bummed to hear that the handbag museum closed in Amsterdam! I went there many years ago and loved it. I wonder if they have a website… could be a good resource.
The last time I bought jeans from target, they had stitching at the front that *looked like* hip pockets but actually was just a line of twin needle stitching. :-(
Here's an idea just wearing men's pants my mama put me in boys jeans because I was growing too fast and they didn't have any size that worked for me and in girls and my mom said she wore men's pants 👖 and she like the pockets and her sweatpants have pockets
Yeah by can see why we don't have pockets in fashion today here's an idea let's just make Pockets get some Jean material and just so it into the area where you want the pocket now you go well I got pockets you can do it in the back and the front
The sweatpants would work (drawstring waist and supposed to be loose). If your body shape works with men's jeans, this is a possibility. If they're going to need a lot of tailoring to fit, it'll be less hassle (and much less expensive) to have a tailor lengthen the pockets in women's jeans (also puts it in the realm of diy for more people).
I totally remember peering through Seventeen magazine and reading all about pockets not looking good on my specific body type (muscular but still had curves/hips). They even said that if you had pants with the trouser type pockets, to see them shut for a cleaner line and to not draw attention to your hips!
I dont know if they count as fast fashion honestly, but I get all of my jeans from Levi directly and they have great pockets, at least in their currently trending styles. I go to work in black sport leggings that have pockets I use to bring my 26oz water bottle to work with me. Comfortably. But I really feel it took fashion to swing back to loose and high waisted for pockets to be deep enough to hold more than a chapstick again.
To add, I'm 29 (so was similarly scarred by low-rise, shallow pocketed jeans circa 2003) and I wear 4x sizes.
Hm last time I bought Levi's jeans several years ago I got ones from JCPenney, and I bought both women's and men's jeans for myself with a midrise and straight leg. When turned inside out you could see the men's front pockets were about 4 inches longer despite both pairs of jeans being a similar cut, rise, and tightness. The styles were 514 in men's and 525 "perfect waist straight" in women's. Also when the jeans are inside-out you can see the men's front pocket has some written spiel too long to fit on the women's pocket, with a picture of two horses pulling away from each other with ropes attached to a pair of jeans in the middle to show its strength and says stuff like "patented May 20 1873. Quality never goes out of style TM For over 140 years Our celebrated high quality denim have been before the public. THIS IS A PAIR OF THEM! " And goes on for 9 more lines of text.
Edit: 4 inches = 10 cm
Wow, I guess I'll believe that pockets are back, I eventually basically gave up on shopping for anything new at all like a decade ago after years of frustration and just going to thrift stores trying my luck against the darn frustrations. The whole thing's been a massive point of quiet infuriation for me this whole century. Especially with the seemingly-interminable bare midriff whether you like it or not thing, between tops not being long enough and jeans meant to show off hips I didn't really have, (They were kind of a problem if if you were too twiggy as well, never mind trying to get physical work done. I was always like, 'Once they take the fabric away, they don't want to put it back.' Basically there was a bit of a sweet spot where you could get a bit of flare at the bottom for boots and not too low a waist and after that, it was either 'Show tummy or wear 'Mom Jeans' with tiny leg openings.'
So, like a lot of others, apparently, I kept taking good jeans out of the 'work clothes' drawer and putting em back in service. I think someone thought it was a trend: the next time I saw something cut right, with workable pockets, I like howled in the store when they came pre-frayed and messed-up like that was the point of us wearing the old stuff. And of course quality's gone in the toilet since then. (So therefore I been back to oversized boy-jeans, and being like, 'Sorry to stereotype the lezie mechanic thing but you made it too hard to look good at it too long! Ironically when the corporatebacked politicians are trying to make more gender-conformity happen. )
Anyway, so much of everyday fashion has seemed to be a major illusion of choice when there's really none at all, unless maybe you're living a life when everything you need is purportedly on a smartphone. The pockets are a major barometer of that, I think. I remember laughing when they tried bringing military-style cargo pants back as a 'look' and ...sure enough, fake pockets and fragile materials.
So, there's some of decades worth of ranting. Especially about 'distressed' ie pre-f'ed up clothes. I mean, I never wore ripped clothes in my life even when I was punk rock, but you could see people needing a head start if they wanted to do metalhead, cause jeans would otherwise 'frustratingly ' last decades pretty unscathed. This is no longer the issue when things only last a season or two before fraying all on their own. It's part of why like Dickies had a fashion thing going on in some scenes, cause 'work clothes' but still practical every day.... Then you notice little details like the clothing industry clearly hasn't picked up a hammer since the early Eighties at least, cause those little 'hammer loops' on the side are no longer big enough for actual hammers people use these days with the rubber grips and all. And they make 'smartphone-sized' pockets that kinda hold half of one, ...if they don't bend over or sit down, so it's not even working for that.
So, out of touch, whoever makes the clothes. So focused on appearances that they thought a lot of us gals were wearing our old jeans cause it was some visual statement, so therefore, people must want more old-looking jeans, instead of it being 'No one will sell us suitable *new* jeans so how about something like these were when we bought them, only, err, new?'
I was a teenager in the 90's, and had one of my favorite pairs of jeans ever when I was 13. They had a pair of pockets on the front of the thighs just above the knees! They had a slanted openings, and the higher side was deep enough to hold a pen with the cap clipped to the edge.
It was when grunge was getting big. I'd wear those things with my flannel shirts and Payless combat boots. Loved them.
Another factor not really covered here is cost. I can't afford madewell jeans. When you scrolled through the sites that all had pockets, it looked like the average cost of a skirt was over $200. That's not usable for me. I've switched to mainly wearing loose high waisted pants, which I love, so I've got pockets, but I do feel like wages vs cost of living is another component to consider. That said, this is a fantastic video and I really appreciate the warning about body size talk. I look forward to the handbag video!
You can find pretty good jeans for way less money than on that site, just depends on where you buy them. We have flee markets that sell clothing for the fraction of the cost cause they get it cheaper by buying it abroad with no taxes, and the quality is still good, even better than some of the branded store ones.
I've been buying clothes from eShakti. Most of their clothes are in the $50-$70 range, so still not cheap, but better than $200. Everything has pockets, you can get them in custom sizes, and the materials seem to be thicker and higher quality than typical women's clothes.
I brought my first pair of work pants (like blue collar workers we call them tradie pants here) and there are pockets everywhere now I live in these pants when I am not at work. As Abby said kinda, buy the things that match your pocket expectations
I've had to explain to mys husband several times that I can't put my phone in a front pocket, but I'm also not going to sit on my phone if it's in a back pocket because that wouldn't work very well either. He basically lives in carpenter pants and cargo pants with tons of pockets. Whenever he wears too many holes in them, i steal them to convert into skirts for myself so I can have decent pockets
I agree about the “pockets = bigger” thing - I remember.
I would add that most pockets were made and positioned badly and so DID make your hips look odd or bigger 😒 Which is why I avoided pockets!
Now at the ripe old age of 52, I don’t care!! So I wear what I want as long as it fits properly
Yo, right after I watched this MattPatt posted on Fashion Theory about pockets! You and your gang should make a video reacting to his video and rate how well he did
oh boy, being in high school at a time when low waisted jeans were the only option, it has been such a blessing to see high rise cuts come into style! I was never able to feel good in pants, let alone feel cute and confident, for all of my teens and into my early 20s and now that there are options for roomier, high rise, well-fitted jeans (thank you madewell) I feel so cute and stylish whenever i'm wearing my jeans because imagine wearing clothes that actually fit and function on your body? life changing lol never going back
I worked for a vending company. I couldn't be carrying around a purse, and needed to keep things in my pockets. I had a couple of pair of pants that were going unused because they had none. so I took them to a seamstress. I asked if she could put pockets in my pants. She corrected me. She said, "you mean take them out" and proceeded to start telling me the cost. I interrupted her and said, no, I want pockets put IN the pants. She looked at me like I had 2 heads and said.."no one woman wants pockets anymore. Why would you want pockets?. I gave up and left. I was pissed. 😠
To this day, I don't care for purses. It takes away the use of one hand/arm. Even the ones with shoulder straps are a pain by falling off your shoulder. Ugh. 🤦♀ I have a little purse that has a wrist strap, that is just big enough to hold a pen and my small wallet. The only time I use a bigger one, is if I need to bring a hairbrush. I like pockets. I currently have a lovely pair of grey pants..but sadly they have no pockets. I'm almost afraid to ask around if anyone could put pockets in them. 😥😥
(Side note. I know I'm overweight, and I dislike it. But due to physical health issues, there's not much I can do about it. So I just wear loose fitting clothing. I'd never wear anything that hugged my form. (except maybe from the upper ribs up, or from just below the hips down.) I especially won't wear any top that won't cover my tummy. So, pockets in my pants wouldn't be a problem. They would be hidden like the rest of me. 😉)
This was super informative and made me realize I’m part of the misinformation problem of believing things don’t have pockets/only have tiny pockets 😅 I always assumed it was a symptom of purses but I see there’s far more direct connections to be made to how styles are constructed.
I notice that, while I’ve tried (and even own/recently owned) plenty of women’s clothing with no or too-small pockets, those are also items like skinny jeans, body-fitted shorts, lightweight dresses and rompers, a body on dress, and above-the-knee flared skirts. They’re not items that can have better pockets. If I wore longer/fuller skirts and dresses and loose/looser jeans I would likely find the pockets you demonstrated in the video. My own holy grail of pockets I own is my one pair of cargo jeans but while I assumed they have great pockets cause cargo pants are known for pockets, they’re also very loose pants so they have tons of room for large pockets, and they’re a sturdy material.
I will definitely be looking at clothes with the lense of what pockets could this material or style work for now.
I am high waisted, and long through the crotch, and those low rise jeans were a nightmare! I went years without buying jeans and wore mostly skirts. And these days, if it doesn’t have pockets, I am just not going to buy it…. Thanks for the great video!
OMG…. 😣 I was traumatized by similar articles about pockets and jean cuts and body size (gasp!) in the 70s, when I was a teenager. BAD Glamour and Mademoiselle magazines!!! 😡. Thank you so much for talking about this, Abby! 🙏 I was shamed about my body size and shape back then, and thought I was fat, too (I wasn’t). Oh, the insecurity! Oh, the body dysmorphia! I’m 64 now. When I look at photos of myself at that age, I see a teen and young woman who was a perfectly normal size and shape. The magazines were peddlers of body shaming!
I hated low rise jeans, just ugh. I never read 17, but growing up I never went a day without hearing "you are lucky you are skinny." It was usually the first thing that was pointed out about me. Also, there really is so much math in crochet, which I never truly processed until I started designing. Fun and educational as usual.