A History of Pockets, part I, an interview with Dr. Ariane Fennetaux

Summary

Dressed: The History of Fashion – Episode: A History of Pockets, Part I with Dr. Ariane Fintot Release Date: January 8, 2025

In the inaugural part of the two-episode series on the history of pockets, hosts April Callahan and Cassidy Zachary engage in a profound conversation with Dr. Ariane Fintot, Associate Professor at Universite de Paris and co-author of A Hidden History of Women's Lives, 1660-1900. This episode delves deep into the evolution, significance, and intricate details of women's pockets from the 17th to the 19th centuries, uncovering a facet of fashion often overlooked yet rich with cultural and social implications.

Historical Context and Significance

The episode opens with Dr. Fintot referencing a somber piece of history—the 1888 Whitechapel murders attributed to Jack the Ripper. She cites an excerpt from a police constable’s notebook detailing the personal items found on Catherine Eddowes, one of the victims, emphasizing the prominence of pockets in women's daily lives:

"For many women, what was inside their pockets constituted an important, perhaps fundamental element in their maintenance of their place or reputation to the world." ([04:03])

This grim introduction sets the stage for exploring how pockets were not merely functional but also carried symbolic weight in defining a woman's identity and social standing.

Detached vs. Sewn-In Pockets

A significant portion of the discussion centers on the distinction between detached (tie-on) pockets and sewn-in pockets. Dr. Fintot explains that while sewn-in pockets were predominantly a male feature from the 16th century onward, women primarily used detached pockets:

"They look like a sort of tear-shaped pouch or bag that would be attached to a tape or a piece of ribbon that could be worn either as a single or as a pair and that you wore under your skirt." ([05:38])

These pockets, often adorned with delicate embroidery or made from various materials like linen, silk, and even leather, were a defining element of women's fashion but remained concealed beneath their garments.

Gendered Nature of Pockets

The conversation highlights the gendered aspects of pocket design and usage. While men enjoyed the practicality of sewn-in pockets integrated into their attire, women’s pockets were separate accessories, reflecting societal norms and gender roles of the time. Dr. Fintot notes:

"Men had sewn-in pockets or integral pockets from roughly the 16th century at least... Women didn't have attached pockets; they had these detached pockets." ([07:39])

Research Methodology and Primary Sources

Dr. Fintot and her co-author Barbara Berman conducted extensive primary source research, documenting nearly 400 pocket examples from museum collections across the UK. They utilized diverse resources, including:

• Old Bailey Court Records: These provided vivid accounts from trials, offering insights into the daily lives and social standings of ordinary women who might not have left personal diaries or letters.
• Coroner’s Reports: Offering detailed descriptions of items found on deceased individuals, these reports shed light on the contents and, by extension, the lifestyles of women.
• Laundry Records: Highlighting the intersection between personal belongings and household management, these records revealed how pockets were treated within the domestic sphere.

Dr. Fintot emphasizes the richness of these sources:

"It's a different voice and it's very vivid because you have the voices of the actual people... it's really a snapshot of whatever a person... might carry in her pocket." ([08:22])

Materials and Decoration of Pockets

The episode delves into the variety of materials used for women's pockets, challenging the expectation of a "triumph of cotton" in their construction. Instead, pockets were made from a diverse array of textiles:

• Linen and Silk: Preferred for their durability and aesthetic qualities.
• Leather and Wool: Utilized by tradeswomen and servants who required sturdy materials.
• Printed Cottons: Though not as prevalent as initially expected, some pockets featured fashionable printed designs, especially in specific contexts like bridal attire.

Decoration played a pivotal role, even though pockets were typically concealed. Embroidery was a common embellishment, ranging from floral patterns to personal monograms and even contemporary event motifs like Lunardi’s hot air balloon ascent:

"One is a printed pattern that was published in a magazine... depicts the ascent in a hot air balloon... on the face of a pocket." ([27:47])

This decorative aspect served both aesthetic purposes and practical ones, such as reinforcing areas prone to wear.

Sociocultural Implications

Pockets were more than mere accessory items; they were intimate extensions of a woman's persona. Dr. Fintot explores the dual nature of pockets as both private spaces for personal items and as tools for maintaining social order:

"The pocket is this one of the really interesting things... it allows us to glimpse at different layers of society." ([11:33])

Moreover, the act of sewing and decorating pockets was a significant aspect of women's education and social interaction, often serving as a medium for personal expression and social bonding.

Conclusion and Teasers for Part II

As the episode concludes, Dr. Fintot hints at the deeper exploration of the items women carried and the intimate nature of pockets, promising a continuation that will uncover the private worlds contained within these historical accessories. Listeners are invited to view accompanying images on the podcast’s Instagram and to stay tuned for the second part of the series.

"Please tune in for part two of this two-part episode and until then, we hope you consider the manner in which you use your pockets next time you get dressed." ([32:23])

Notable Quotes

• "For many women, what was inside their pockets constituted an important, perhaps fundamental element in their maintenance of their place or reputation to the world." — Dr. Ariane Fintot ([04:03])

• "They look like a sort of tear-shaped pouch or bag that would be attached to a tape or a piece of ribbon that could be worn either as a single or as a pair and that you wore under your skirt." — Dr. Ariane Fintot ([05:38])

• "The pocket is this one of the really interesting things... it allows us to glimpse at different layers of society." — Dr. Ariane Fintot ([11:33])

Final Thoughts

This episode of Dressed: The History of Fashion masterfully intertwines fashion history with social anthropology, using the humble pocket as a lens to examine broader themes of gender, identity, and societal norms. Through meticulous research and engaging discussion, Dr. Ariane Fintot and the hosts illuminate the profound significance of pockets in women’s lives across centuries, setting the stage for an even deeper exploration in the upcoming second part.

Transcript

[Kristen]

What is Dax?

[Dax]

Are you tracking all our cars on Carvana Value Tracker on all our devices? Yes, Kristen, yes I am.

[Kristen]

Well, I've been looking for my phone.

[Dax]

For In Dax's domain we see all. So we always know what our cars are worth.

[Cassidy Zachary]

All of them?

[Dax]

All of them. Value surge trucks up 3.9%.

[Cassidy Zachary]

That's a great offer.

[Dax]

I know. Sell, sell. Track your car's value with Carvana Value Tracker today.

[Kristen]

As humans, we're naturally driven by the search for better. But when it comes to hiring, the best way to search for a candidate isn't to search at all. Don't search Match with Indeed. When I was looking to hire someone, it was so slow and overwhelming. I wish I had used Indeed. If you need to hire, you need Indeed. Indeed is your matching and hiring platform with over 350 million global monthly visitors, according to Indeed Data, and a matching engine that helps you find quality candidates fast. Ditch the busywork. Use Indeed for scheduling, screening and messaging so you can connect with candidates faster. And Indeed doesn't just help you hire faster. 93% of employers agree Indeed delivers the highest quality matches compared to other job sites according to a recent Indeed survey. And listeners of this show will get a $75 sponsored job credit to get your jobs more visibility@ Indeed.com podcast. That's Indeed.com podcast. Terms and conditions apply.

[April Callahan]

Please enjoy this episode from the Dressed Archive. We will be back with season eight and all new dressed content in February 2025.

[Dr. Ariane Fintot]

With over seven billion people in the world, we all have one thing in common. Every day, we all get dressed.

[Barbara Berman]

Welcome to Dressed the History of Fashion, a podcast that explores the who, what, when of why we wear. We are fashion historians and your hosts.

[Dr. Ariane Fintot]

Cassidy Zachary and April Callahan. Okay, today Cass, if you'll permit me, I would like to start out reading a little bit from a police constable's notebook from September of 1888. Yes, and this details the personal items found on the body of a 43 year female victim of a crime which took place in London's Whitechapel neighborhood. These are the items that were found on her person. Quote One white handle table knife and one metal teaspoon. A red leather cigarette case with white metal fittings. One tin matchbox, empty Two short clay pipes, black One small tooth comb. One red piece of red flannel containing pins and needles. A ball of hemp. One tin box containing tea one ditto dodo of sugar. One piece of flannel and six pieces of soap two small ticking bags 12 pieces of white rag one cotton pocket handkerchief, red and white bird's eye border, one large white handkerchief, one piece of white coarse linen and one piece of old white apron. And no money whatsoever on her, Is that it?

[Barbara Berman]

That's all. And some of our listeners who are true crime buffs out there might have already picked up on this date that April mentioned, 1888 is the year. And maybe dress, listeners, you've already made some connections to the events which occurred in the Whitechapel section of London during this year. The woman who carried these items was Catherine Eddowes, the presumed fourth victim of none other than Jackson the Ripper. And Catherine was apparently carrying all of the items April just listed, not in a handbag or small piece of luggage, but rather she was carrying them in her pockets.

[Dr. Ariane Fintot]

Yes. And as today's guest has noted, quote, for many women, what was inside their pockets constituted an important, perhaps fundamental element in their maintenance of their place or reputation to the world. End quote.

[Barbara Berman]

And we are so pleased to welcome Dr. Ariane Fintot, Associate professor at Universite de Paris. Welcome Ariane, to the show today. And she is going to be here to discuss her wonderful book, the A Hidden History of Women's Lives, 1660-1900, which she co authored with Barbara Berman. Dr. Finto, thank you for joining us today.

[Dr. Ariane Fintot]

Ariane, thank you so much for joining us today on Dressed. The History of the Pocket has actually been one of our most requested episodes from our listeners. We are thrilled to finally eventually be doing this episode with you. And you, of course, are joining us to speak about your and Barbara's book, which came out in 2019. And I just have to say this is a serious tour de force of research. You guys did so much primary source research. It's amazing. And of course it's like also really wonderfully illustrated with all these amazing photos of extant pockets that are held in museum collections all around the uk. I think that you noted in the book that you documented nearly 400 examples in the course of your research. So for our listeners, can you describe exactly what type of pocket your research in the book covers? Because it's a very specific style that was really worn mainly during the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries.

[Unknown]

Yes. So the book is about a very, as you say, a very specific type of pocket that was worn by women for about two and a half centuries. And they're detached pockets. So they look like a sort of tear shaped pouch or bag that would be attached to a tape or a piece of ribbon that could be worn either as a single or as a pair and that you wore under Your skirt and they've got a. Usually they've come in different shapes and sizes, but usually the standard form is this oblong tear shape bag with a vertical slit opening down the middle and then you would access through the side of your skirt or petticoat. But they're detached from your clothing.

[Dr. Ariane Fintot]

Yeah, and it must be noted of course, that fixed pockets more akin to what we think of the modern pocket today, also existed at this same time. But the type of tie on pockets that we're going to talk about today were very much a gendered garment. Why and how so?

[Unknown]

Yeah, there were what we call sewn in pocket, which is the equivalent of the modern day pocket, the pocket that's actually attached to your garment. They did exist. Obviously they existed mostly in men's garments though. So men had sewn in pockets or integral pockets from roughly the 16th century at least. This is the earliest dated examples that we have. So they could have pockets in their doublets, in their jerkins, in their breeches. They had lots of pockets actually. But women didn't have attached pockets, they had these detached pockets. Although some women did. Like. It has to be noted that although we did look at detached pocket or tie on pockets, there are examples of integral pockets in women's garments in the 17th century, for instance. But there remain the exception.

[Dr. Ariane Fintot]

Yeah, and there's definitely a couple plates, fashion plates from Galerie des Modes, which was like from the late 18th century where the women have patch pockets on the outside of their dress. But again, that is like the aberration really. And aside from the museum collections where you were documenting that extant pockets, you consulted many written accounts from this period. Not only accounts written by women describing their lives and their diaries, et cetera, et cetera, but much of the core of your research actually comes from the proceedings of London's Old Bailey. So I'm hoping you can tell us what was the Old Bailey and what type of resources did you glean from their records? Because this is really interesting.

[Unknown]

So the Old Bailey is fantastically rich source. Basically the Old Bailey was the main court for London for any crime that was happening in the city of London. So in the courtroom you'd have the testimonies and there was a publication that started appearing which was the proceedings of whatever trials were held at the Old Bailey. And this became therefore a publication that some people would read for cheap thrills because obviously it's criminal stories. It's interesting, people found it interesting. But it reproduces the testimonies of the defendants, of the prosecutors and any witnesses that were party to or brought to give testimony during the trial. And it's incredibly vivid. So you have the voices of the actual people. And it's people sometimes who. You wouldn't really leave any records. They wouldn't write diaries or letters. Most of them are lower than the social scale from the people who do leave written records like account books or diaries or correspondence. So it's really interesting because you can see the hustle and bustle of London. And obviously the hustle and bustle of London is made of crime and hypocrite and from people, really common people, people who sell sausages or apples in a market or potatoes, or somebody who's running an inn or. So it's a different voice and it's very vivid.

[Dr. Ariane Fintot]

Besides the court records and also the diaries and correspondence that you referenced, you also used some other really fun types of primary sources. Can you tell us a little bit about those?

[Unknown]

Fun. I don't know whether I'd call them fun. We had corpus reports, so coroner's reports. They basically the documents that would be produced when a body was found on the public pathway in the public street outside. And it's usually either somebody who just drops dead or suicide. People, people found drowned and obviously to try. Because they're just a body, they're a corpse. To try and identify them, the coroner has to list the description of what they're wearing and whatever might help to identify them. So they go through their pockets and list what's in their pockets. So that's. Although it's always a little bit grim because it's obviously somebody who's a young woman who was found drowned in the Thames. Sometimes there's one who has like a dish with arsenic in her pocket, so she's probably committed suicide. So they're very poignant. But they also give you a snapshot of whatever a person, again, who wasn't necessarily elite, might carry in her pocket.

[Dr. Ariane Fintot]

I guess when I referenced fun, I was thinking more, and those are obviously an incredibly rich resource. You also used a lot of laundry records, which I thought was really interesting as well.

[Unknown]

Yes. So because pockets were part of your whites, in a way, so they went in with your chemise, your under petticoats, your crafts, your shoes. So all the kind of white linen. They are part of the things that people would wash regularly. So people would give out to the laundress or send to the wash house. And that's another interesting thing that we. Because pockets are really liminal. They're in between dress and undress, they're in between Something that you show and something that you hide. They're not always visible, but they're not always invisible either. They're in between. So they allow us to glimpse at different layers of society, but also different layers of clothing and appearances and the management of that. And for instance, how people would wash their things, how often, how that got organized or how disorganized that could be, because laundry was one of those occasions when the order of the household came undone or the women tried to keep track of their belongings by marking, by having lists and numbering different items and making sure which item is where. This is really an attempt at keeping order in a situation which is potentially completely chaotic because it's dirty linen. So already it's subversive. It's getting anything that's potentially solid dirty into the open somehow because somebody else is going to be looking at your dirty stuff, getting it mixed up maybe with somebody else's dirty stuff. So the laundry moment is a moment of chaos that women really try to keep under some kind of order. And it's the pocket is this is one of the really interesting things. We didn't start off thinking, oh, we're going to find out lots about laundering and how you keep things clean and how you keep things in order. But in a way it really provided us an insight into that as well.

[Dr. Ariane Fintot]

A very specific insight into women's lives and also the servants that were helping them as well. So I'm wondering, speaking of laundry, and of course we have talked about on the show many times that a lot of the historic dress wasn't. The outer garments weren't able to be laundered. Right. So it's this inner layer of your linen, your undergarments that are keeping your outer garments clean, generally speaking. What can you tell us about the types of materials that were being used for these types of tie on pockets?

[Unknown]

Because the book spans the period which is associated with the triumph of cotton. We started off expecting, in a way to find more cottons. And it's interesting to see when you look at pockets, obviously dated from different time periods, which you can date from different clues, material clues in the objects, that cotton was not as prevalent in pockets as it was maybe in terms of exterior fashion. For instance, the printed cottons were transformative at the end of the 18th century. They make. They are present a little bit, obviously mainly in the form of patchwork pieces, or maybe they're remnants from other projects. But people don't use those fashionable textiles so much for their pockets. And the kind of old fibers, the traditional fibers like linen does carry on very late into the 19th century, even when cotton, in a way is cheaper because it's produced massively in Britain. But the textiles are quite varied. So you have wool, you have leather, that's not really textile, but that's sort of material that's really hard wearing that so makes practical sense for women who use or need dependable pockets. And you find that associated with traders, innkeepers, for instance, servants who want sturdy materials, something that's going to withstand the strain, the weight, and also the attempts of potential pickpockets. But you also find really fine materials like silk, either plain or more elaborate. And obviously you do find some cottons, but it's not a triumph of cotton, as you might have expected or as we expected to find. So it's interesting to see that maybe at different levels, the different depth of your garments, you maybe had different rationale about what was appropriate or fitting to use. And that may be things that were showing more printed cottons, for instance, where you have. There's a woman, for instance, in one of the old baking cases, I think she has a trunk that is stolen. She's a servant and she's got a trunk with all her stuff stolen. So obviously she'd come to London with what she thinks she's going to need. So that's her belongings for that period of her life where she's going to be a servant, she intends to be a servant in London. And in her trunk, you see, she's got different pairs of pockets. She also has a printed cotton gown. She's got uncut or unused cotton, so cotton that she can potentially turn into anything she wants. And she's got, I think, two pairs of pockets, I think, and none of them are made of cotton. So it's not like she didn't have the means because she had other things made of cotton, of printed cotton, but obviously not through the pockets. But that's something we found that was quite interesting or. But then sometimes the interior unseen layer is. Still has some kind of echo with the more outside layer of your clothing. And we found this, for instance, there's a doll we looked at, and the doll has a petticoat, the outside petticoat and a pocket match. So they're made from the same fabric and it's printed cotton or in a bride's. The order of a bride for a sort of wedding attire. So she. This is an order that is placed with a Scottish dressmaker. And the bride specifically asks for the pockets to be met. The same fabric and the same silk and the same color as the outside dress, the dress that would be visible. So there's a really interesting interplay between visibility and invisibility and the different regimes of what you should prioritize for each. And sometimes they match and sometimes they don't.

[Dr. Ariane Fintot]

That's really fascinating. We are going to take a very brief sponsor break, but more on just who was creating all of these products markets when we come back. Today's episode is sponsored by Acorns Dressed Listeners, the New year is upon us and with the annual refresh of our calendars, so too comes our personal list of New Year's resolutions. And if you're anything like me, every year that includes contributing more to my investment and savings accounts. But as the months go by and expenses arise and opportunities appear, I don't always meet my savings goals.

[April Callahan]

Which is why we want to remind you about Acorns. You've heard us mention Acorns before because they make it easy to start automatically saving and investing so your money has a chance to grow for you, your kids and your retirement.

[Dr. Ariane Fintot]

You don't need to be an expert. Acorns will recommend a diversified portfolio that fits you and your money goals. You also don't need to be rich. Acorns lets you invest with the spare money you've got now. You can start with $5 or even just your spare change.

[April Callahan]

Financial wellness is not impossible. Acorns gives you small, simple steps to get you and your money a chance to grow and keep you on track with your savings and investment goals. Head to acorns.com dressed or download the Acorns app to start saving and investing for your future today.

[Dr. Ariane Fintot]

A non client endorsement compensation provides incentive to positively promote Acorns Tier 1 compensation provided investing in all this risk. Acorns Advisors LLC is an SEC registered investment advisor. View important [e-mail] Dressed Menopause Perimenopause these can be some of the most uncomfortable phases of a woman's life. If you find yourself in either of these, well, Hormone Harmony is here for you. Hormone Harmony capsules contain science backed herbal extracts called Adaptogens. Now here's the beauty about Adaptogens. They help the body adapt to any stressors like chaotic hormonal changes that happen naturally throughout a woman's life.

[April Callahan]

Happy Mammoth, the company that created Hormone Harmony is dedicated to making women's lives easier and that means using only science backed ingredients that have been proven to work for women. They make no compromise when it comes to quality and it really shows.

[Dr. Ariane Fintot]

And get this Hormone Harmony isn't just for menopause. Any woman with symptoms of hormonal imbalances can take it. But it is perfect for those horrible menopause symptoms that put a woman's life on hold.

[April Callahan]

And for a limited time, you can get 15% off your entire first order@happy mammoth.com. just use the code dressed at checkout. That's happy mammoth.com and use the code dressed for 15% off today.

[Dax]

If you're running a retail business, don't let disorganized order fulfillment cause chaos. Use Shipstation instead. From running a business out of your garage to multiple warehouses, shipstation is ideal for every phase of your growth. Save time with one login for all your stores and by automating tasks. Plus you'll get the best shipping rates from global carriers. Calm the chaos with the shipping software that delivers. Start a free [e-mail] audio that's shipstation.com.

[Dr. Ariane Fintot]

Audio welcome back, Dr. Fenito. I'm curious, given this intimate, even sexual association that sometimes comes along with the pocket, who was actually creating them?

[Unknown]

Interesting that you're highlighting their sexual nature because they are of a very evocative form. And this is when we give public lectures and we show the pictures. People are always almost shocked by how sexual they they look because they do have this oblong shape with a vertical slit down the middle. So it is very gendered in its imagery as well. And these pockets could be made at home, so you made your own because they're very simple to make to some extent. They just use the basic methods that women knew. They knew their sewing, very basic sewing skills. So you could. It doesn't require any specific or expert needlework skills. Any woman in that period would know would be taught. Maybe she's not going to like it, but she would have received some needlework training. And it doesn't require anything difficult. It's really basic the skills they're required. So you could very easily make them at home. And this is usually part of what young girls were taught. How to sew with is a good exercise because it combines different things that you would then find in making a chemise or in making a petticoat. So that. And it's a miniature project, it's manageable for a young girl. So you made them yourself, you. But you could also make that. You could also buy them ready made and this from a relatively early stage, from the 17th century. Already you find readymade pockets, people buying ready made pockets from the children, sellers, people with their pecs. From the end of the 17th century.

[Dr. Ariane Fintot]

Also, too, we were talking about needlework. What role did embellishment or decoration play in given that for the most part, a woman's pocket or pockets were supposed to remain hidden?

[Unknown]

So that's a puzzling question, isn't it? Why are pockets embellished when they're mostly hidden? There's two ways you could unpack that question, which obviously has puzzled us. Yeah, the writing, the research, underwriting of the book. One way you can think about this is, first, is why not? And is decoration purely geared towards visibility? Is decoration purely about other people's gaze? Or is it also about your own personal satisfaction that you know you're wearing something that is pretty, something that you have made yourself pretty, that your skills and your investments in time and labor has made pretty? And isn't there a kind of pleasure and intimate satisfaction in wearing something that you know is pretty, even if nobody else can see it? And the other way you can turn the question around is to think that they might have been mostly invisible when worn, but they were not invisible when unworn. And because they had catch pockets, in a way, they had a life as objects were not worn. And for instance, as a needlework project, there were something that were reasonably small, so easy to take along to a friend. For instance, if you're invited to spend an afternoon, have tea. And we know that needlework was a very sociable activity, that women, they went recluse in their or sitting rooms doing their embroidery on their own. You would do your embroidery, you would do your work as somebody was reading, as somebody else was in the same sitting room playing and you chatting. So it's a very sociable activity. And therefore, during those time, those sociable times where you would do your knitted work, where you made a pocket, then this pocket would be visible to people, and your skill in making that pocket pretty would be visible. And this is actually the visibility of the making of the pocket is probably one of the ways that learning how to make a pocket was transmitted. One of the really interesting things we found is that although this object with this specific shape, that doesn't really change for about two and a half centuries, so has existed in this way. There is no written instructions to teach women how to make this pocket or this type of pocket in print until 1838 is the earliest printed instructions. So what happened for the 150 years before that? Obviously, not having printed instructions didn't keep women from doing it and then their daughters from doing it in their town and their daughters from doing it. And how would they have learned, probably by seeing somebody else do it. I think, again, it touches on the question of visibility, which is really interesting. And obviously the relationship between dress and visibility is a fraught one. The mooted point, do you wear things purely for visibility sake or are there other things at stake?

[Dr. Ariane Fintot]

Yeah, well. And speaking of visibility, I'm hoping maybe you can tell us about some of the common types of decorative motifs that were used for pockets.

[Unknown]

Pockets. The patterns or the decorative schemes that were used for pockets, they're different types of decoration. One of the main decorative vocabulary that we find is embroidery. We often think of embroidered pockets, which tend to be more 18th century for embroidery. The pattern is often floral, is often scrolling flowers that sort of grow from a pot or some kind of flower vase at the bottom of the pocket. And you have scrolling flowers that circle the opening. That's a basic template or decorative template that you find in embroidery. But you also have things that differ. You have pockets with human figures, not just flowers, but also human. A man and a woman or a man's face. You have pockets with letters, with names, which is not just an identifying. It's not just a laundry mark. It's more than that. It's somebody's full name. For the embroidery of pockets, women could obviously make their own. Whatever caught their fancy, you could have your pockets embroidered by somebody else. This is something you find in ads that one of the services offered is embroidered pockets. Get your pockets embroidered. Or there were patterns that were printed and published in female magazines, women's magazines of the time, and there's one that we couldn't include in the book because we found it only after. And it's a really pretty pattern and it's got squirrels eating nuts spotted all across the face of the pocket. And there's another pattern that is interesting because there's an actual. It's a printed pattern that was published in a magazine, and we have actually a pocket that followed that pattern. And that is. Depicts the ascent in a hot air balloon that was made by Lunardi in London in 1768, I think. And so it's more. It depicts a current event or something that happened that caught people's fancy a little bit. Extraordinary. Somebody going up in the air in a hot air balloon. And that's on the face of a pocket.

[Barbara Berman]

Wow.

[Unknown]

And then if you look at other types of decoration, not embroidery, that's patchwork. And then in terms of patchwork, it's not amazingly elaborate in terms of the different patterns you find in quilts. It's not like that. It tends to be more standard. One thing that's interesting is often the way decoration also serves a kind of design purpose. And this is something we found for instance, with the embroidery, which of course there's a kind of aesthetic element to the embroidery, but there's also something very practical about the embroidery which is that it's going to reinforce certain areas. And we have noted that it tended to be the areas that are mostly susceptible to wear or tension or strain. And that's the outside or the sort of opening around the opening is often a focus of decoration. And below the opening, just below the opening. And that serves the very practical purpose of reinforcing those areas because obviously there's more stitching and those stitches reinforce the fabric. And obviously with that you can also read a more anthropological analysis of how you underline the opening. And by underlining the opening you also both draw attention to it and guard it. This is something that anthropologists note about decorations on different types of vessels. Often the opening is decorated as a way of defining an inside and an outside and guarding the inside.

[Barbara Berman]

Dr. Fento, thank you so much for joining us on part one of this two part episode on the history of the pocket. Later this week we will delve a little further into what types of items women carried in their tie on pockets and the intimate nature of this private space beneath their skirts.

[Dr. Ariane Fintot]

We'll of course be posting some images of amazing examples of tie on pockets on our Instagram this week and you can find those at Dressed Underscore podcast.

[Barbara Berman]

And please tune in for part two of this two part episode and until then we hope you consider the manner in which you use your pockets next time you get dressed.

[April Callahan]

Dressed will be back with season eight and all brand new episodes in February of next year.

[Dr. Ariane Fintot]

But until then, remember, we love hearing from you, so if you would like to write to us, you can do [e-mail] Dress history.com is also where of course you can register for our tours, our trips, our new class, anything else that we have up our finely tailored sleeves.

[April Callahan]

That includes April's twice weekly in person fashion history tours of the Metropolitan Museum of Art as well as our brand new dress the School of Fashion live online course, the 1950s Golden Age Haute Couture which is now open for registration and we do have gift cards available for both April's tours and the class. So just send us an [e-mail] and also send us an email if you want to get on the first to know lists for our new York City Day Tours coming your way in April 2025 and our Paris Fashion History Tours coming your way in June. Registration for both of these tours will open in January and we do expect them to sell out, so send us an email to get on those lists.

[Dr. Ariane Fintot]

Thank you as always for your continued huge support. Dressed will be coming back your way for Season 8 in early February. The History of Fashion is a production of Dressed.

[Cassidy Zachary]

Media work takes up most of your time. That's why you should use stamps.com to save time with your mailing and shipping. Stamps.com will simplify your postage needs and add valuable time back into your workday so you have flexibility to focus on more important things. Stamps.com can handle your mailing and shipping needs with rates up to 88% off. UPS and USPS send invoices, checks, certified mail, packages and anything else you need to keep your business running. With stamps.com if you sell online, connecting with every major marketplace and shopping cart is easy. Plus, you can schedule package pickups through their dashboard and automatically see your cheapest and fastest shipping options from different carriers. With Stamps.com's Rate Advisor, add more flexibility to your workday. With Stamps.com go to Stamps.com program to sign up for a special offer. No contract. Cancel Anytime. That's stamps.com program.

[Barbara Berman]

Yeah, sure thing. Hey, you sold that car yet?

[Dr. Ariane Fintot]

Yeah, sold it to Carvana.

[Barbara Berman]

Oh, I thought you were selling to that guy.

[Kristen]

The guy who wanted to pay me.

[Dr. Ariane Fintot]

In foreign currency, no interest over 36 months?

[Unknown]

Yeah, no.

[Kristen]

Carvana gave me an offer in minutes.

[Dr. Ariane Fintot]

Picked it up and paid me on the spot. It was so convenient.

[Barbara Berman]

Just like that. Yep. No hassle.

[Unknown]

None.

[Barbara Berman]

That is super convenient.

[Dr. Ariane Fintot]

Sell your car to Carvana and swap. Hassle for convenience. Pick up these may apply.