her pockets

project overview

the brief: design an index, with its own system of categorization, told in three chapters. her pockets indexes the history of the female pocket, a small space of independence. the three chapters became the categories: pocket abundance, when hidden tie-on pouches held everything a woman needed; pocket poverty, when they gave way to the dainty handheld purse; and pocket revenge, when suffrage, trousers and the tailored suit put pockets all over women's clothing. read in order, the index turns utility into a story of power, and the missing pocket into a design choice that kept women's hands clumsily full, clutching a purse.