Spider Hunt :: To Pocket or Not to Pocket

If it wasn’t bad enough that there’s all these old pockets in every direction – now clothes designers are finding sneaky new ways to get more pockets into our lives. So if you thought cargo pants would be the last word in supernumerary cloth involutions, think again! Apparently our love affair with gadgets has spurred an explosion of pocket-oriented wear… whipped on by Apple’s encouragement of anyone who can come up with a novel place to store their iPod. (NO, not there, that’s already been thought of!)

So what happened to convergence, I want to know?! Don’t our phones do it all for us. Surely pockets should be superseded and gradually, like the arm of the State in communist theory, withering away?

Unusually, I seem to be wrong! Smart young designers are putting all their brain power and all their talent into designing perfect pockets.

Levi are gearing up to launch the RedWire DLX jean, which will boast a pocket with a built-in iPod docking station. A control panel will be sewn into the coin pocket, so that you can choose a song or crank up the volume without removing your iPod. Koyono, an Ohio-based manufacturer, offers a jacket that is partially lined with conductive fabrics and five pockets sized to fit everything from your nano to your notebook. SCOTTeVEST (SeV) designs clothing that's so geeky that it's worn by the Secret Service. SeV really takes the pocket fetish just about as far as it can be taken: their clothing is described as combining aspects of apparel, luggage and technology. So complex are their clothes that they even have a video explaining how to use and access their raison d’etre. They take their pockets so seriously that they employ engineers to design the placement and construction of them. Up to 52 in a single garment!

But don’t they understand? The more pockets there are in the world, the more places there are to look for Inky… do they WANT to make my life miserable?

The only answer is to outlaw pockets! Everyone from now on should wear pyjamas! That’ll stop them risking life and limbs by flaunting Inky-attracting orifices. And I’ve found the perfect source…

Australian artist Julie Sheils usually stencils pithy statements on furniture abandoned on the street as well as photographing the subtle traces of city life. As she explains it, mid-stencil on an abandoned mattress, Julie became transfixed by the beauty oif the mattress ticking. She started collecting mattresses and stripping them of their covers. These were then transformed into pyjamas, redolent with the stains, spills and smells which are the heritage of their former use… and ultimately into an exhibition 'Afterlife' at Melbourne fortyfivedownstairs (Flinders Lane, Melb. Tuesday August 29 – Saturday September 16). If in the area get down there asap… with pyjama possibilities as pocketless as these, they’ll be walking out the door.

Haute Pockets: The Business of Stashing Stuff in Style By Suzanne D'Amato >>
SCOTTeVEST (SeV) >>