The Evolution of the Pocket

1901

The ancient wore a single pouch at his belt. The modern has — how many pockets in an ordinary costume for outdoors? Let us count them: In the trousers five, in the waistcoat five, in the jacket five, in the overcoat five, making 20 in all, a full score of little pokes or bags, and arranged so conveniently that they are scarce noticed.

Truly this is an evolution: How long may it be before we have pockets in our hatbands — where the Irishman carries his pipe, the American soldier his toothbrush and internally the pettifogger his legal papers, the papers that his predecessors in England thrust into the typical "green bag?" How long before there may be pockets in our gloves — for there are, I believe, patents covering this invention — and in our shoes? The cane also, with its screw top, begins to be a useful receptacle.

Two centuries from now, so the man with a long foresight can clearly see, the main idea underlying the wearing of clothes will have entirely changed. The chief purpose of garments will no longer be considered to protect the body. They will be regarded first of all as textile foundations for innumerable pockets. — Tudor Jenks in Woman's Home Companion.