*Noir Jazz music playing*
[The Theorist]: All I needed was one big break, one huge game changing theory to win me back
the love of my life. That's when she walked in. You could tell just by looking at her
that this was a girl with secrets to hide. [Mysterious women]: Are you The Theorist? [The Theorist]: Clearly, she did not read the sign on my door. Or maybe she was just
playing dumb. There is no way to tell. [Mysterious women]: Well, are you? I mean, you're just kind of staring at
me, mutt
ering under your breath. [The Theorist]: Ah, sorry. I got
caught up in monologuing. Yeah. Yeah, that's me. You looking for a theory? [Mysterious women]: There's been a
murder, and I need you to solve it. [The Theorist]: Great. We're
talking sonic? demonic? animatronic? [Mysterious women]: Pocket. Hello Internet! Welcome to Style Theory, the
channel that serves your beauty and brains. If you're here, then congratulations. You are part
of history. You are one of the first people to not only s
ee this episode, but also the final channel
to complete the great theorist wheel: Game, Film, Food, and now Style. Four kingdoms,
living together in harmony like Avatar. You know what's even cooler than
watching a single video, though, being one of the first to subscribe to that
new channel. Claim it because then you could say you've been here since day one. Also,
while you're down there doing me a favor, let me run a quick poll. Hit the like button. If
you've never had to think about the
size of your pockets, if you just hit that like button, then
you are a lucky person and also probably a dude. You see, when I first pitched the idea of
dedicating our next channel to style and fashion, all the female members of team Theorist jumped
up and insisted that we do an episode about the size of women's pockets. They insisted that
women's pockets are not only smaller than men's, but are in fact so small that they've
become completely useless. At the time, I didn't really get what th
e big deal was. But
Loyal Theorists, now that I've done the research, I can tell you that this conspiracy goes
deep. Unlike women's pockets. You see, the systemic murder of women's pockets is
simultaneously a mystery and a cover up, a conspiracy to hide the truth behind flashy
trends and pretty faces, all while the big guys in their shadowy rooms with their even
bigger pockets, figurative pockets this time, pull the strings behind runway curtains. So
who stands to win big when women are lo
sing precious inches of personal storage freedom?
Before we can break down our suspects we need to understand where this pocket problem first
started. The first record of anything relating to a pocket dates back to Ötzi, also known as the
Iceman. Europe's oldest natural mummy from around 3350 to 3105 B.C. His body was found preserved
wearing a belt with an attached pouch, making him one of, if not the oldest example of what
I personally call Ye Olde Fannypack. And while Otzi was the first,
he definitely wasn't the
last. This type of belt pouch combo was typical for centuries around the world. In Japan, you
saw pouches attached to sashes around the waist. In Europe this style developed into what's
commonly referred to as tie-on pockets. Even in the new world, decorative bags were very
common among indigenous Americans. And boy, did these babies hold a lot. Stand aside
there cargo pants, you can't hold a candle to the amount of candles I'm stuffing into these
bad boys. Because
of how functional they were, these tie-on bags were worn by both men
and women at the time. There was just one problem. Loosely tied hanging bags make
it way too easy for pickpockets to run away with all your belongings. In fact, the Old Bailey
Criminal Database, which tracks Old London crimes, has an absolutely staggering 113 pages of search
results for just pickpocketing alone. And mind you, these are the people who were caught.
Have to leave the house. Pack your pockets and prepare for
crime. Clearly, there needed to
be a better solution. So what's the answer to all this petty pocket thievery? Inside pockets.
Pockets starting to migrate into and under your clothing. And this, Loyal Theorists,
is where the great pocket divide begins. Depending on your source, the late 1600s
to early 1700s is generally considered the breaking point for pocket equality.
Men's pockets moved into their clothes, being sewn into their pants
coats and pretty much wherever. Women, however, were l
eft to tie their
pockets to their waists with two options either above their outfits for easy reach
or under their petticoats for privacy, but with little access to their personal effects.
If you went with the under the petticoat option, you were either lucky enough to have a slit built
into your skirt in order to get to your things, or you were left searching for a place to strip
down to your skivvies just to reach your keys. But why? Why would fashion diverge like this?
Who's responsible
? Send in the suspects, boys! Three suspects, three potential pocket perps. Let's look at them one at a time, shall
we? Suspect number one: Style. The trends, the fashion darling. Were pockets simply to last
century for the modern day stylish woman? Well, from the late 18th century, the French Revolution
caused a wave of changes to clothes of all kinds, as what you wore suddenly was seen as a political
statement. The large, voluminous skirts that used to be popular were associated with the o
ld
regime and thus quickly went out of fashion. I wonder why you wouldn't want to be associated
with the old regime during the French Revolution. Oh yeah, that makes sense. Nothing
like the risk of being beheaded to get you to refresh your wardrobe. Waistlines
raised, skirts and dresses slimmed down and in the midst of all this evolution,
women's pockets had nowhere to go. Men's pockets, however, were doing just fine.
Despite men's fashion also settling into a sleeker style during this per
iod, pockets were deemed
a necessity for their clothes, and somehow they found a way to be both flattering and functional.
Go figure, it can be done if you just try. Even these pants! Which, are these even
pants? Well, even these quote unquote “pants” have themselves a pocket built in…
for the men. But not the women. Why the double standard? bulges! Nope, nope. Not like
that. Well, actually, yeah, kind of like that. You see, it was considered unattractive
to break up the clean lines of a w
oman's dress. It was also a sign of
status to have nothing to carry as women didn't own property or have
their own money, their husbands did. While there were still some tie-on pockets
working with a higher waistline and some small pockets only large enough to fit a
handkerchief. Women needed to find other means of carrying their stuff. And that
fashion trend has largely persisted since. Let's look at everyone's favorite
staple, skinny jeans. Back in the early 2000s you could not escape
t
hese bad boys. And I mean it, you literally could not escape them. Have
you ever tried peeling yourself out of a pair of extra tight skinny jeans at the end
of a long day? It’s like skinning a sausage. But enough about my past traumas, let's go back to
pockets. Men's skinny jeans have themselves deep functional pockets. While women can barely fit
half their hand in, let alone most phones these days. When the iPhone 6 was announced, people
wrote multiple articles about whether or not the pho
ne would be able to fit in the pockets of
women's clothing. In fact, this study showed that women's pockets are on average 48% shorter and
6.5% narrower than the respective men's pockets. It might not seem like a lot, but size starts to
matter real fast once you start talking about fit. Speaking of your looks, you want to know
an amazing accessory that'll never ruin your silhouette and fit into a pocket
of any size? A subscription to this channel. It goes with any outfit
and will never go
out of style. Plus you can help support a brand new
channel. Isn’t that beautiful? So go ahead click that subscribe button so
you can be notified of all our newest, weirdest theories. Did you know that
spray on dresses are a thing nowadays? It is like one of the wildest things
I've ever seen, and it truly represents the future of fashion. That theory is
coming up in the next couple of weeks, so if you want to check it out, that
subscribe button is going to help you do that. In the meantime
, though,
let's get back to the pocket, shall we? With all this talk about carrying things,
it's time to look at suspect number two for who potentially killed pockets. The purse
industry, whether you call it a purse, a pocketbook or a handbag, it all
leads back to the same thing: money. If you can't carry something in your pocket,
you have to put it somewhere else. And that's exactly what happened. When pockets start
to go out of fashion in popular society, what entered the scene was a
li
ttle item called the redicule. And I do mean, little item. Look at this thing,
it's so teeny. I suppose you could say that it's so small it's reticulous. Am I right? I am so
sorry. I am so ashamed of my actions. These small decorative bags could barely fit, well,
anything. Women went from being able to carry a lot with little effort to having everything
shrink to fit the meager space of a glorified coin purse. If they didn't mind having their
items on display for everyone to see, they could
always utilize a chatelaine, a decorative waist
chain that leaves nothing to the imagination. According to this illustration from 1849, it was
the best present for ladies at the time due to its multiple uses. I guess I know what I'm getting
Steph and Olllie for Christmas this year. From their first big introduction, bags only became
more and more of a mainstay in a woman's wardrobe. Fashion houses quickly took to the idea
with Louis Vuitton giving bags structure, size and more durability.
This new
handbag spoke to a need in the market, a need for independence that had been lost when
the large pockets of the past first disappeared. But with new options and a whole new market
opened up, who needed pockets? Now you could get a woman to pay for an outfit and the
accompanying bag to hold her things. Sure, it was a necessity, but it was also a
fashion statement and a symbol of status. The style, brand name and size of the bag
would tell someone everything you wanted them to know
about you. Remember the
reticule? It was decorative, fancy. It was designed to show off. You weren't working
class lugging around a bunch of heavy things. You had, like, a tic tac in there or something.
You didn't need to get your hands dirty. A bag meant that you were someone of value.
But once everyone has themselves a bag, how do you differentiate yourself? Well, with
bigger brands and higher price tags. In 2021, the global handbag market is
valued at $49 billion and growing. People now
buy handbags as investment pieces,
choosing to invest their money in the handbag stock market over Wall Street. I'm not even
joking about that. Why invest in GameStop when you can have yourself a $1.9 million Birkin
bag? In the first nine months of 2022 alone LVMH, the corporation behind brands like
Louis Vuitton, Christian Dior and Fendi, earned around $60 billion in the U.S., with
nearly half of that being from fashion and leather goods. The world's most expensive
handbag is currently v
alued at $3.8 million. We are talking about some Scrooge McDuckian
levels of money all wrapped up in a fancy designer bag. If that ain’t motive
to keep women's pockets shallow, I don't know what is. And since
we're on the topic of motive, it's time to reveal suspect number three,
The Man, the BroJack Horsemans of the world. Now, before anyone starts a flame war down
in the comments. This isn't coming from me. This is coming from historical documentation
written by people far smarter than m
e. You see, it's hard to talk about pockets without also
mentioning our favorite frenemy, politics. It's always there, lurking in the background
like some kind of certified creeper. And politics are everywhere when it comes to
fashion. Let's lay out the case, shall we? If we rewind back to the late 18th century,
when style was shifting to slim silhouettes, politics was there whispering in its ear: “If
women had the space to carry so much, what else could they carry? Money? secrets? independ
ence?”
And that's not an exaggeration here either. Criminal reports from this era listed women using
their pockets to do everything from shoplifting to stealing neighborhood ducks to plotting
the assassination of major political figures. No joke. Cecile Renault, a royalist, was executed
for attempting to kill Maximilien Robespierre, a key figure during the French Revolution,
using a set of pen knives that she hid in her, you guessed it, pockets. And so suddenly
there was a strong political
motivation for the key decision makers to make
pockets go the way of the dinosaurs and super low rise jeans. Suddenly, pockets
became a symbol of revolution. In the 1800s, an organization called the Rational Dress
Society attempted to protest against the current fashions they viewed as constricting
and impractical. They and other members of the Victorian Dress Reform Movement wanted their
clothes to reflect the freedom that they wanted. Their main points of order focused mainly on the
pop
ular corsets and skirts at the time, opting to push for looser styles, boneless stays, and most
importantly of all, pants. Bicycle costumes and bloomers suits suddenly gave women pockets for
resting their hands and pistols in. Seriously. They were called pistol pockets, special pockets
lined with duck or leather to contain and conceal small firearms. While that might not have
hit mainstream, it did open a door for the future. The suffragette movement and the
World Wars sparked another wave
of pocket rebellion. With the men off at war, masculine
fashions became the norm for working women. The suffragette suit was a multi-pocket slap to
the face of societal expectation and had one of the more fun historical fashions known best as
secret pants. Pants that give the illusion of wearing a long skirt while allowing you the
freedom of movement and storage of pants. In short pants and their respective pockets
meant rebellion. And to politics nothing is scarier than something that brea
ks
the mold. But when the wars were over, women were expected to fall back in hand over
their pants and pockets to their husbands, except they suddenly realized how fun and
nice and useful all those things were. So there you have it, my friends. Three
suspects. And as you might have figured out, the murder of pockets wasn't just a
one man job. It was a group effort, all three forces working together to do the deed. So after almost 200 years of pocket wars,
where do we stand? Fake and shall
ow pockets still plague women's clothing. Is it inevitable
that pockets remain a luxury just for men? Well, it doesn't have to be that way.
Honestly, it's up to you, the buyer. Your money is what's going to
shape the future of pockets. Capitalism am I right? Much like
the suffragettes with their suits, modern women's fashion is working to take
back pockets, with smaller fashion brands taking a stand and inserting portable
personal storage into their outfits. Having Pockets has now become a
main
selling feature for women's dresses, and fitting fully functional storage
into stylish silhouettes is how up and coming designers are making a name for
themselves. It's a revolution using the weapon companies fear the most, not
pistol pockets, the almighty dollar. If you buy it and show the fashion
industry that you demand equal pockets, they're going to have to listen or
else they're going to watch as their bank account shrinks to the size of a skinny
jeans pocket, a women's skinny
jeans pocket. And listen, I'm not here to tell you what
to wear. I fully believe fashion is one of the biggest ways to express yourself, whether
you prefer a bodycon dress or an oversize tee. Whether you love to collect designer bags
or make your partner carry all your stuff. Fashion is freedom, and people deserve to be
able to choose pockets no matter their gender. So the next time you compliment a woman's
outfit and they happily exclaim “Thanks, it has pockets” celebrate with them, knowi
ng
just how long it took them to get there. And that, my friends, is the
power of a pocket. But hey, that's just a theory, A STYLE
THEORY! Keep looking sharp. By the way, if you think pockets are the only
interesting thing about a pair of pants, then you need to check out our other new episode that we
just uploaded breaking down what the Hulk's pants would really be made of to survive his super sized
transformation. Spoiler alert; it's not spandex, and what they're made out of is going to
be
real expensive. That video is on screen right now. Go click it. It is binge watch day, baby.
We got ourselves a new channel and we got five videos to celebrate all at the same time. So
go watch them all. Complete the watch circle.
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