Can Pockets Ever Replace Handbags?

Lately we’ve come across a few articles in the fashion press enthusing about a new trend. “Pockets are the new Handbag,” they proclaim. “The fashion for pockets is fast replacing handbags. The It bag is out!”

As handbag lovers we clutch our favorite bag closer to our side and swear that never will we be parted from it, no matter what the latest trend.

But is this really a major trend or just a short-lived high street fad? One of those ephemeral and quirky ideas that get shouted about in the press a lot, but are never really adopted by the seriously chic? And, however popular pockets have become as a design feature, can they ever replace a handbag and hold the multitude of essentials that we carry with us every day?

It is true that pockets have sprung up all over the place in the last few years. Many designers, from Versace to Diane von Furstenberg have adopted them in their designs, even on evening wear, and Gap has been at the forefront of the pocket revolution on the high street. Pockets as a design feature add a casual note to a design – they speak of practicality and a free and easy lifestyle.

But are they really intended to be functional? Some of them are: there are clothing companies that have made a big thing of designing pockets especially to fit the latest technology, pockets to fit iPods in particular, and Levi Strauss have even launched a jean design that incorporates a built in iPod docking station. But these tend to be at the casual end of the fashion scene. As far as top designers and women’s evening wear are concerned, most pockets are intended more as a decorative feature than as a functional container for a woman’s worldly goods.

The line is still all important. An elegant silhouette is completely ruined by bulging pockets. At most you could carry a lip gloss or a single credit card in a hip pocket, so where do you then carry all your other essentials? We are back to our trusted handbags again.

There is no sign that the fashion for handbags has diminished in any way since the pocket revival has hit the scene. Celebrities are still devoted to them and most women feel exposed and under-dressed going out without their handbag.

The handbag gives us a feeling of security. You know you have everything with you to deal with any contingency: make-up, keys, purse, bottle of water, tissues, headache pills, phone, iPod, pen, notebook, reading material. What amount of pockets could possibly have room for all this? And what would you end up looking like, even if you could fit it all in? There are very few women who would feel good with lumpy bulges in their hip pockets.

Without a handbag to keep all your things together in one place it is also much easier to lose things. You take off your jacket to check it in at a restaurant and suddenly no longer have your cellphone close at hand or have forgotten that your wallet was in its pocket.

Besides these functional considerations, your handbag gives a defining note to your style, finishing off your outfit and complementing your personality. Without that element a woman feels incomplete and unfinished, missing an important item of elegance. It just doesn’t feel right dressing up elegantly for an evening out and then going out with any bag at all. You are also more likely to receive sympathetic glances from people, who will ask if you have been mugged or have just forgotten your bag in the car

So this fashion for pockets may be a blessing for those few women who already prefer to go out without a handbag (check if this could be you in our bag personality quiz!), but for most of us handbag devotees it will not affect our handbag habits at all. We will still carry most of our important personal items in our handbags and maybe just use our extra pockets to keep a tissue or lip gloss handy and now and again tuck a hand in a pocket for a nonchalant, casual pose.

Never fear – our handbags are here to stay!