Do You Carry Your Pen In Your Shirt Pocket?

[jamesliu2006]

When ever I go out, I always carriy a small sized business bag with me.

It is easy and convenient, I put every thing inside, cell phone, note book,keys...as well as my Sailor!

 

 

[HT in NYC]

When wearing a dress shirt I try not to carry pens in my shirt pocket - I think it's bulky and distorts the lines of the shirt. I may have a pen in the pocket of a casual short sleeve shirt.

 

I will usually carry a pen in the inside jacket pocket, if wearing one, or in a pen case in my bag.

 

The only people I saw carrying pens in their jacket breast pocket are Italians and Spaniards, and some times Eastern Europeans.

 

I am Israeli, been living in the US (California and Texas) since 1996 with a stint in Europe in between.

[AVITWeb]

Always in a shirt pocket or in my portable case.

[jamesliu2006]

In order not to have my precious pens be crowded together, so I use a 3-pen or 6-pen wrap to take care of these pens!

 

As to my personal experience, I like the fabric made wraps most. They are exquisite with elegant cotton. Finished beautifully with thick liners to get more protection.

[Bo Bo Olson]

A proper shirt has at least one pocket, better shirts also have an adjacent pen slot.

 

Maybe if you're a lumberjack and the shirt is in flannel.......

 

...otherwise, no, proper shirts have no pockets, and certainly not a pen slot......

 

 

No proper pair of pants has a belt loops either....they are tailored for one are they not?

 

That or one has some braces under one's vest....

[poxy51]

I have always had dress/casual shirts with a pocket, and always have had a pen in them. Cannot remember ever being scoffed about in school. Then again, maybe thats why I never had any friends. I thought it was the lack of deodorant thing, hmmm now you have me thinking.

[Bo Bo Olson]

Who needs to be friends with kids who can't afford shirt pockets...why some of them can't even afford buttons.

[georgeb]

How about nudists? Where do they carry their pens?

[Markk]

I tend not to carry FP's or BP's in the pocket unless it's covered by a jacket or a white coat. I feel it makes you look a little funny (unless you're at work or elsewhere where it's expected that you will need a writing instrument). The usual place is a dual pen soft case in the pants or coat pocket. I tend not to clip the pens on the inside pocket of a suit jacket because I hate bending the clips more than what is usually required for a shirt.

[Robert Hughes]

Sometimes I carry a pen in my suit jacket pocket, and occasionally I carry a pen in my shirt pocket. But nowadays I usually leave pens sitting flat on my desk, otherwise they tend to start dry.

[Possum Hill]

When wearing a dress shirt I try not to carry pens in my shirt pocket - I think it's bulky and distorts the lines of the shirt. I may have a pen in the pocket of a casual short sleeve shirt.

 

...

I distort the lines of a shirt. I carry pens to distract people.

[Bo Bo Olson]

I'm in the enviable position not to have to worry about what other people think, especially those with influence on promotion or raises, being retired.

 

 

Whispering behind cupped hands, black ball him from the club...he carries a fountain pen in his shirt pocket....black ball him from the club, he has a shirt with a pocket.

Absolutely no class...why he even carries stuff, too low down to have a secretary to carry a brief case for him. Black Ball him.

 

 

Very old fashioned I am....being so misinformed to think how well one worked had something to do with success....of course where I worked last, even the big boss ran around with the cheap company ball point in his pocket, like everyone else.

 

Gee he didn't even wear a tie, same uniform shirt as the other 300 of us.......unless the big big (German) boss came, then he put on a company tie. When the owner (Swedish) 3rd richest man in the world came...the boss of course didn't wear a tie...

 

I'd forgotten how regimented and uniformed some must be....when the bosses also read 'dress for success' and being so insecure take it serious.

 

Why they say, you Can Not wear a diamond in a ring. not even a single 1/3 carat diamond solitaire in white gold.

You could wear a sapphire, emerald or ruby in such a ring; but not a diamond.

The things you can get people to believe in, ... for money.

Edited June 22, 2011 by Bo Bo Olson

[beak]

My view reflects most of the others; shirt pockets exist because jackets are no longer compulsory in all circumstances. If you have no jacket, why on earth not carry a pen in the shirt!

 

Most of the men I work with never wear a jacket at work - people tend to dress up to see us, not the other way round, and we wear what we like. I can recal only a handful of instances of a man wearing a suit to work in the last fifteen years. Those who choose to wear jackets occasionally will feel free to take them off at any time.

 

Funny how each of us may have some hangovers of 'manners' that cling to us, even if invisible to those around. For instance, you would never catch me wearing anything with writing or pictures on it, nobody else seems to mind at all. I would never light a cigar with the band still on it, and so on. This is just my narrative reflecting the way I was brought up; we all have one. Some have as their peccadillo a pen in a shirt pocket, so be it, but the textbook 'manners' reason for this is long gone, IMO, and invisible to most.

[Maethelwine]

I nearly always have a pen in my shirt pocket, sometimes two, along with a small memo pad with a tiny pencil in the spine. And while my job may make that less odd than it would seem elsewhere, it's never occurred to me to google its fashion implications.

 

I've never used a pocket protector, but if I'd been of working age at the height of their popularity, I'd definitely have had a couple on hand. Not because I have problems with leaks, but because they're so damned cool, brothers and sisters.

[Possum Hill]

Real gentleman's shirts do certainly not have pockets, and on shirts that do, the pockets are for purely decorative purposes.

 

Pen in pen pocket on the left of suit jacket where it belongs.

 

I am a few decades younger than 62, and even I know and practice this...

The relatively trivial question of how to carry pens seems to come up every now and then, but it seems we never discuss the more important question of whether "real gentlemen" are good for anything, and why we would want to imitate their style.

[wykpenguin]

My shirts don't have pockets, so they go around clipped to the pants pocket or the collar instead.

[DrPJM1]

I nearly always have a pen in my shirt pocket, sometimes two, along with a small memo pad with a tiny pencil in the spine. And while my job may make that less odd than it would seem elsewhere, it's never occurred to me to google its fashion implications.

 

I've never used a pocket protector, but if I'd been of working age at the height of their popularity, I'd definitely have had a couple on hand. Not because I have problems with leaks, but because they're so damned cool, brothers and sisters.

 

Having had the wonderful experience of the dreaded InkBomb, sometimes I cut a very small ziploc to fit inside my shirt pocket and remaining invisible to others...my secret pocket protector.

[acolythe]

Carry them in my shirt pocket.

 

They are going to mock you for carrying a MB or Delta or WM???

Racking my brains Waht is a WM?

[acolythe]

I nearly always have a pen in my shirt pocket, sometimes two, along with a small memo pad with a tiny pencil in the spine. And while my job may make that less odd than it would seem elsewhere, it's never occurred to me to google its fashion implications.

 

I've never used a pocket protector, but if I'd been of working age at the height of their popularity, I'd definitely have had a couple on hand. Not because I have problems with leaks, but because they're so damned cool, brothers and sisters.

 

Having had the wonderful experience of the dreaded InkBomb, sometimes I cut a very small ziploc to fit inside my shirt pocket and remaining invisible to others...my secret pocket protector.

Pedro Brilliant

b

[acolythe]

Hello All,

 

I've never been one for carrying a pen in a shirt pocket and in fact was alway told that 'proper shirts' didn't have a pocket. Growing up, if you ever had a pen clipped to your shirt pocket, you'd be mocked for weeks. Now older and greyer, I tried it the other day and though I didn't have any comments around the office or town, I never felt comfortable and now have just been leaving the pen on my desk. It's funny how little things from your childhood, affect you as an adult.

 

What do the other males on the forum do, clip the pen to their shirt pockets, trouser pocket, leave it on the desk, etc?

 

I'd be interested in what the general practice is.

 

I'm almost thinking about trying to find the lightest jacket I can for the summer, just to solve this. A bag is not an option.

New FAlcon... Where did you grow up? Like Old Griz, only in the past 10 years or so have I seen shirts sans pockets and then I try to avoid buying same becasue there is no rom for a pen.