I’ve never met a woman who didn’t get excited about pockets. Especially large ones that will hold more than a tiny tube of chapstick and loose change.
Pockets on a wedding dress that can carry tissues, your lipstick and something blue. Pockets on a jacket for dog treats, your keys and even a wallet! Pockets large enough to hold your phone.
But pockets also have a political history that I hadn’t realized until I embarked on these paper doll coats: Pockets, in many ways, represent the freedom and independence that women have fought to gain throughout history.
Pockets represent a means of portable privacy that women lacked for centuries. Mens clothing had pockets long before womens’ did, and the expectation was that the husband would carry money and any small necessities in his own pockets. And even when women did start to “carry” pockets in the 17th century, they were pouches worn so close to their body, and under so many layers of fabric, that they basically had to fully undress to access the contents.
There are even rumors that during the French Revolution, women carried pamphlets and revolutionary material in them, so pockets were banished from women's clothing.
Dangerous Coats by Sharon Owens
Someone clever once said
women were not allowed pockets
in case they carried leaflets
to spread sedition
which means unrest
to you and me
a grandiose word
for commonsense
fairness
kindness
equality
So ladies, start sewing
dangerous coats
made of pockets & sedition
Fine silver coat with 24k gold applied via an ancient technique called Keum Boo. Thin sheets of gold are applied to the fine silver through heat and burnishing. The back of the coat features a pocket where you can tuck a little piece of paper. What important word, poem, mantra or phrase would you put in your pocket?
Approximately 1.5” long and 3/4” wide on an 18” chain with a handmade hook clasp.
(My grandma Jane was a stylish woman who knew how to use leopard print to her advantage. While she didnt’ have a coat quite like this, it reminds me of her.)