The photograph reminds us why pockets were first added to shirts. Minus ten points to any reader who thought I meant the young woman but I will admit that I've been looking for an excuse to post a photo of a pretty girl or two.
Shirt pockets appeared on professional men in the early 1960's when Brooks Brothers added a pocket to its oxford cloth shirts, until that day the most famous off-the-rack shirt of them all. That single act was the beginning of the long decline of both the shirt and the institution.
Now I know a lot of men are used to having a pocket there but I challenge them to look at the photo and fail to observe how the pocket, and its visible contents, distract from Don Draper's Mad Men look.
Suit wearing men have plenty of other places to store things. Need I say more?
Thursday, August 14, 2008
On Shirt Pockets
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20 comments:
Will--Excellent site, it is one of my daily 'must reads'—keep up the great work!
I recently have started to develop my MTM shirt wardrobe and have a question I am not sure how to answer—hoping you can help.
My office is business casual, and as such I do not have the opportunity to wear suit as often as I may like. That being said, many of my shirts are more casual in nature with button-down collars. My question is do button-down collars and pockets always go hand-and-hand, or would it still be appropriate to have a button-down collar shirt with no pocket? On a similar note, what would be the most appropriate cuff style (single versus double button barrel) for this style of shirt as well?
Thank you!
Hm? I was under the impression that the vast majority of men's shirts had pockets even in the thirties.
I am sure I have seen reproductions of American Catalogues from the 1920s which show men's formal shirts with pockets, although they appear to have been mounted lower down on the shirt.
The popularity of shirt pockets is, I think, due to the need to work without a jacket in warm offices, which in its turn requires a place to secure pens, sticky notes, ladies' telephone numbers etc during the course of the working day.
I have nothing but respect for the people who bought shirts from catalogs fifty years ago but this site is about how the best dressed men in the world have done things for generations.
None of the long-established world class shirtmakers of my experience will willingly put a pocket on a dress shirt. And look at the photo of Astaire sitting at his dressing table in Flusser's Style and the Man. No pocket.
Millertime, I think a double button barrel cuff witha placket button is a more finished look on any dress shirt but a one button cuff wouldn't be the ruin of you. A pocket, on the other hand, is a sin.
Could not agree more. I think the a shirt pocket gets a secure place on your list of 'mortal sartorial sins'
Shirt pockets are cheap.Make men look like third-rate accountants...The horror,the horror...
O.
Perhaps most importantly, pockets on OTR shirts make the shirt harder to alter (you can only remove so much fabric without the pocket sitting in a funny place.
In my economically challenged days I learned a great tip from a WBUR show (unfortunately I can't recall the name of this brahmin)- take a seam ripper to the pockets of your new shirts before you wash them.
Gave me a great looking shirt after laundering and I still use it on my corporate logo gear for tradeshows.
AMEN. Finally, someone else in the world noticed this. I thought I was the only one who thought pockets on shirts were crazy, but I keep finding all these pocketed shirts. Baghghghghgh!
George Frazier, author of the 1960 Esquire article, The Art of Wearing Clothes, was an ardent admirer of Brooks but even he complained of the Brooks pocket which I read in his biography, Another Man's Poison, last summer. It's a great book if you can find it.
Another great post! In February I ordered my first 5 MTM shirts, all sans pocket. Yesterday I picked up my first bespoke shirt--also sans pocket.
To pocket or not to pocket? I wear a suit most of the time and I put wallet and pen in the suit's inner pockets whether I have shirt pockets or not. More important to me than pockets is the Mad Men reference. It is my favorite show. I would love to read some analysis of the clothes the men wear in relation to a suitable wardrobe for this day and age.
Daryl
I think Will discussed the clothes in the show in an earlier post.
When were the clothes of Mad Men discussed. I started visiting this blog only a few weeks ago. Thanks.
Daryl
Here you go.
http://asuitablewardrobe.dynend.com/2008/04/gray-hair.html
welcome to the internet Daryl. Try using the 'search' function...
This decline seems to have accompanied the reduced use of fine cigarette cases, which I imagine would be stored in an inner suit pocket much like business card cases are today. Cause or effect?
Surely it is beyond any rational argument that pockets on shirts are aesthetically unacceptable? Like Shaul-ike, I simply question the duration of the offence, whilst speculating on what the motivation of the offenders must be.
I hate shirts with pockets if its a dress shirt. If I am wearing it with a suit and i still do not have enough space I would take a bag. I do like shirt pockets on casual shirts that I wear without a jacket. Where I live is a coastal area - not cold any time of the year exept the cool winds that the monsoons bring. Thus I never need a jacket. The shirt pocket then comes in handy for some of my notes, phone numbers and other bits of papers I need that would get lost in my bag. All my five dress shirts do not have pockets(very rarely used) and the rest of my huge shirt wardrobe is casual and have pockets.
- Jonas Fred (http://thejournalofstyle.blogspot.com)
bollocks! pockets are fantastic! where one breast pocket makes for a utilitarian accessory, two makes the man. without an abundance of pockets, the well-dressed man is nothing more than a foppish nancy boy.
they're ideal for stowing, tucking, stuffing and otherwise keeping-for-later-use the man's accoutrements -- and any self-respecting fellow should have plenty to carry and collect during his day.
perhaps the well-to-do and poseurs who think that being idle and manly are somehow compatible can keep their pockets empty and their blouses and breast free from them altogether, but honestly, anyone else needs pockets.
they might not know it even. put on a decent cotton shirt with two (TWO!!) breast pockets -- with flaps and gussets (that allow for over-stuffing with packs of cigarettes and who-knows-what) -- and any man will, at the very least, LEARN to use his pockets. even putting braces over the flaps should not stop a guy from loving his pockets.
like so much in our world, we settle for the symbol of a thing without respecting or understanding it's true value. don't let the breast pocket be added to the list.
if you want to look like some silky prat in pajamas, get yourself a slick shirt and walk about bare-breasted and impotent -- do it -- join the legions -- the good-natured neutered.
or, learn to understand what style is -- a way of doing things. doing means just that -- action. live lively and live well -- and do it with a plenitude of pockets.
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