Alert: Sartorial Assault On Fountan Pen Shirt Pockets

[T4TEXAS]

This fall I noticed that Brooks Brothers has taken the breast pockets off their dress shirts. Also an online seller, Tie Bar, has shirts with no pockets.

 

Is this even more widespread?

[inkstainedruth]

And here I thought it bad enough when Levi's stopped making women's jeans with front pockets big enough to put ANYTHING much in except for change.... Man, I miss my women's cut 501s.

I suppose you could contact the company and complain, but I don't know how much good it would do.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[LizEF]

And here I thought it bad enough when Levi's stopped making women's jeans with front pockets big enough to put ANYTHING much in except for change.... Man, I miss my women's cut 501s.

 

Amen, sister!! Wrangler are the only women's jeans I can find made out of actual denim and with decent size front pockets.

[pajaro]

Ralph Lauren beat them to it years ago. I always look for shirt pockets. There are people of my acquaintance, though, who are bitterly against shirt pockets, and they will argue viciously against them, making it really personal. Life is too short to have one's underwear on so tightly.

[Bo Bo Olson]

Lands End...for us normal folks. They will even sew pen pockets into the pocket...if you want.

(Jeans cut to 1/2 inch of how long you want it...for no extra.) Can't tell if they use Chinese slave labor like Levis.

 

Call Brooks brothers now...and order all the remaining shirts in stock with a pocket....well those that fit you.

Somewhere on the net is a company that will put a shirt on it's pocket.

[BillH]

My wife usually sticks her pens into the scrunchy or clipped bun on the back of her head. Rarely loses one and has only come home with a blue patch once. She works in the greenhouse/nursery business though... not sure that style would fly in a more conventional workplace And all of my shirts are old enough to have good pen pockets. Lord help me if when I finally wear them out.

Edited December 2, 2016 by BillH

[Ghost Plane]

I can't complain about Lauren jeans. They're one of the few that make jeans long enough to fit a six foot woman.

 

Penvelope 6 in a Frye campus or messenger bag gives me room to tuck in a couple of notebooks & my 11" Airbook.

[T4TEXAS]

I did complain to Brooks Brothers when I received their breathless email informing me of this fashion forwatd improvement. My complaint was replied to and duly noted. Now shopping elsewhere for fahion backward shirt pockets.

Edited December 3, 2016 by T4TEXAS

[Runnin_Ute]

I have had shirts like that in the past. The very distant past. (70's?) I guess I won't be dropping my cash on dress shirts at Brooks Brothers. I will stick with Van Heusen, Arrow and other less "uppity" brands.

[Sasha Royale]

Inquire whether a dry cleaners will sew breast pockets on your dress shirt. One pocket might be expensive, but pockets on a half dozen shirts might be reasonably priced. Amateur seamstress ?

[jar]

Yup. I refuse to even buy T-Shirts that do not have a breast pocket.

[praxim]

Life is too short to have one's underwear on so tightly.

 

[Arkanabar]

As or more annoying are breast pockets that are well under 4" deep -- far too shallow to hold even a Pilot Prera, let alone a Parker "51".

[Florida Blue]

The new OCBD (Oxford cloth button down) shirts at Brooks Brothers caused a serious amount of consternation among the Trad/Ivy Style community of dressers a while back. One of the biggest concerns was the lack of breast pocket. I haven't bought any of the new Oxford cloth shirts yet, but I may one day. There seems to be a big supply of the older ones still left on their website. Lands' End Hyde Park is a more affordable option with a breast pocket and there is J. Press or Mercer if you are looking at the high end (the later two are USA-made).

 

I usually wear a sports jacket 4-5 days a week to work, and I will carry my pens in a leather pen pouch in the breast pocket of my jacket, but occasionally I will use my shirt pocket.

Edited December 3, 2016 by Florida Blue

[PS104]

I don't buy shirts without pockets.

Good point re the depth of the pockets shrinking. Sounds like the manufacturers are trying to cut costs by using less fabric and calling it fashionable.

​Why should I increase the cost of a shirt by having a tailor sew on a pocket.

I'll wear my old-fashioned shirts proudly until there are more holes than fabric. And maybe even then still wear them.

Kudos for Lands End. It's the only place I buy pants from as I can get an inseam of less than 30".

[Newjelan]

As someone who doesn't remove the stitching used to seal pockets when purchasing jackets/skirts/trousers, I love this "pocket anger". Please keep it up!

[inkstainedruth]

I don't buy shirts without pockets.

Good point re the depth of the pockets shrinking. Sounds like the manufacturers are trying to cut costs by using less fabric and calling it fashionable.

And I'll bet that they haven't decreased the prices.

It's even worse for women's clothing. Stuff used to be in SIZES. Now it's all S-M-L-XL because they don't have to have patterns drafted for as many sizes.

At least mens's dress shirts are generally measured by both chest and neck size. Well, standard sizes anyway -- God help you if you need big/tall sizes because those stores don't differentiate between "big" or "tall" (they seem to assume that if you're shopping there you must be big AND tall; my husband had found a line of shirts that fit and didn't have the shoulder seam halfway to his biceps and then the store merged with another chain and stopped carrying that brand. He ordered some shirts and they sent him the other store's shirts, which of course is why we had stopped GOING to the second chain -- he has a big neck (judo lessons when he was a kid, and JV wrestling in high school). Now he has a bunch of button-down, short-sleeved Oxford cloth shirts made for him by a friend before she finished her Education degree (I special-ordered a 20 yard roll of fabric). She used a shirt that fit him pretty well, and then customized it to be a bit longer.

And those shirts have breast pockets, BTW.... Even though he doesn't use fountain pens, he still needs to CARRY pens. inkstainedruth

I met a woman once who designed a line of clothing using herself as the basis for the patterns, instead of "scaled up" misses size pattern drafts. (She was a guest speaker at a women's entrepreneur class I took a number of years ago -- the closest I will probably ever get to going to grad school). She said "I'll bet you can't guess I'm a size 22...." Never heard whether she ever managed to get the line picked up by any major department stores. I wanted to ask her if she would consider doing an equivalent for men's big sizes (my husband is what might be consider "portly" -- overweight, but only 5'7" -- and with something like a 19" neck...).

Ruth Morrisson aka

[Sandy1]

Hi,

 

While i do not follow men's fashion, I am accustomed to seeing men's shirts without pockets in a more 'formal' situation.

​(My blouses are without pockets, but in the field, even wearing a mannish shirt, I carry my pen in a wee flashlight holder on my waist belt; or if wearing PPE, in a pen slot on the upper Left arm my shirt.)

 

Let me speculate that men's shirts without pockets reflect the trend of being without a writing implement, rather that now the smartphone stuffed in the back pocket of trousers has become more predominant.

 

From this lady's standpoint, I would rather have gents' shirt pockets overloaded than their trousers have pockets.

 

And then there's kilts...

 

Bye,

S1

Edited December 3, 2016 by Sandy1

[kestrel]

Hi,

 

And then there's kilts...

 

Bye,

S1

Here we go again.

[Water Ouzel]

This fall I noticed that Brooks Brothers has taken the breast pockets off their dress shirts. Also an online seller, Tie Bar, has shirts with no pockets.

 

Is this even more widespread?

 

It's a regrettable fashion that's come back around again. And again. ...

 

I didn't like it the last two times (70s and some other time), and they're no better this time.

 

This too shall pass. Probably.