Pockets! Power to the People!

The lovely Helen Smith discusses women's fashion and why she hates the handbag.

I never realized how much I hated carrying a purse until this week when a service person ripped off some money out of my wallet — about 200 bucks. ... The question was, what could I do to prevent it from happening again? The answer? Quit carrying a damn purse around, especially a Coach bag. It might as well have a big label attached to it: Take Me Now.

She goes on to describe what is like trying to live as a free woman and how it is fraught with its own problems. How do those guys do it?

It takes conscious planning and it also helps that mens clothes are designed around having useful pockets. Women’s clothes aren’t, probably because women carry purses. It also lets them make women’s clothes more form fitting and curve hugging than men's because they don’t have to plan for anything actually going in their pockets. Going against the flow must be tough. Many of my wife's pants don't have any pockets.

Here is my usual loadout:

• Right front pants - keys
• Left front pants - coin purse
• Right rear pants - Comb and maybe a few tissues
• Left rear pants - trifold wallet
• Breast pocket - business and security IDs

The pants pockets have been set up that way since before college. All the shirts I wear to work have a breast pocket to hold my security ID. All my work khakis are pleated because it gives me more front pocket room (mostly for the keys). All my casual pants are looser fitting cargoes because it gives me more pockets and comfortable pocket room. Cell phone, multitool, pens, pencils, flashlight, etc. went from backpacks in college to the current briefcase and car console system. If I felt like I needed to carry a phone all the time (or if I ever start carrying a gun regularly) I'll probably holster them on a good belt.

And on a different but related note, women's clothes sizing makes no sense. Women's clothes seem to come in 2 body types: petite and regular. The sum total of all variation within those categories is given by a single number. What a stupid system. It's like the designers saw all the possible body variations, created a category for short girls, and then just gave up.