"Ty'ed about my middle, next to my smock": the cultural context of women's pockets

Date
1994
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University of Delaware
Abstract
Women wore detached pockets until the 1840s, or 300 years after men had adopted inset pockets. Not only did women devise a very different means of carrying items with them, but they also made these pockets quite large and often decorated them with beautiful ornamentation. Examining a common object like a pocket demonstrates that women in the eighteenth century created objects based on socially-constructed gender roles, activities, and experiences in response to complex cultural issues. ☐ To put pockets in context, some basic questions were explored. Pockets came into use on a consistent basis toward the end of the seventeenth century, replacing the suspended drawstring bag as a largely female pocket-substitute. Fashion played the most obvious role in the development of the pocket, particularly the hoop introduced in the first decade of the eighteenth century, yet to consider only fashion to understand the pocket is to miss the complex interaction between people, ideas, behaviors, and objects. Women carried many items with them ranging from the obvious to the unusual, for example, for reasons relating to safety and consumerism. Dress construction and the expense of fabric prior to industrialization also influenced pockets. ☐ While women could purchase pockets, most women made them following other familiar textile decoration such as crewel work and quilting. Productivity, social calls, and housekeeping skills, among other reasons, provide the contexts to explain why women took the time to embellish their pockets. While not often visible for reasons of orderliness, privacy, and crime, wearing pockets just under the gown or apron allowed others to see the pocket and its decoration more often than previously thought. Finally, pockets did not belong to women alone; artists utilized them as symbols ranging from greed to sexual relations.
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"Copyrighted materials in this document have not been filmed at the request of the author. They are available for consultation, however, in the author's university library. [Pages] 88-113"--unnumbered page inserted by UMI after page 87.
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