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When I was a teenager in the 70s, girls' jeans had the small watch pocket too... except my mom said it was an emergency phone call stash pocket. So we always had a dime or quarter stadhed there just in case we needed to call home for any reason.

My partner came in while I was watching. I told him, "don't put loose matches and dynamite caps in your pocket, nor live alligators." He said "I do what I want!"

I now understand why checking what's in somebody's pockets is brought up so much in detective stories of the era

The marsupial evolution continues with cargo pants

8:00 Okay, so that's silly. Not your MAIN hankerchief, but your SPARE one! When you need to use it , you use your main, and then, when you have a moment to futs around in private some time later, you swap it out with the spare one so you have a clean hankerchief ready to go. If you really do it right, you have one coattail pocket for clean hankies and the other for the dirties. So you are the perfect gentelman, with a squeaky clean hanky, stored in a much more accesable pocket at all times. 🎩

You made me remember when I was a child being tucked into bed and my father, an actual absent-minded professor , would come to kiss me goodnight. He always had a crazy number of pens and reading glasses in his shirt breast pocket and they would all tumble onto my face when he bent down! Hadn’t thought of that in decades…😂

he died from drowning.... did he not know how to swim? he had ten pounds of stuff in his pockets...

I found a 1990's tuxedo jacket which had woven labels indicating which pockets were for the phone, check book, and wallet.

My ten-year-old recently stuck an entire rice krispie square in her sweater pocket when she was on her way out to something, then showed me proudly--she had solved the problem of carrying her snack with her. Said snack was homemade and had no wrapper and she was surprised to find out that yes, it was going to stick to the inside of the pocket. I think we've all shoved something not ideal into a pocket at one time or another and lived to regret it.

A while back a formal regency frock coat (and the rest of the outfit) with all of the lovely gold bullion embroidery was found and the story around it was that it belonged to Sir Edmund Barton, who was the first Prime Minister here in Australia. The story wasn't beleived until they went through the pockets and found an invitation with Sir Edmund's name on it AND the menu of what had been served in the pocket in the coat's tails.

Did I pause the video to check my men's 1907 tail coat for tail pockets? Yes I did. Did I find them? Yes! I never even thought to check the tails for pockets!! I have had that coat for years too! What a find! Lol thanks for the information Nicole you are awesome!

If I wanted to play a prank, I'd put the Victorian version of bubble wrap in the butt flap pockets

10/10 silliness. Imagining these people just running away out of sheer embarrassment is the funniest thing

I have hens, and , yeah, I just stuff the eggs into my jacket pockets. And yes, I often forget they are there, and then they break, and I don't even notice that until they seep all the way through and start dripping on the floor. Hey, it happens. We've all been there. But I found a brilliant solution. I now hang my jacket on a doorknob so it hangs down quite low. That way, my keen-nosed dachshund alerts me to any eggs left in the pockets. Although, she has learned how to very gently remove the eggs, carry them to the bedroom, make a nest for them in the blankets, prop them up to just the right angle, gently chew out a hole in the shell, and then eat them at her leisure.

Great video! Can’t say that I am surprised at the variety. On a trip to Germany last year, I took a vest that just happened to have a concealed carry pocket which I had no use for, but thought that it would be good for carrying my passport, a small wallet, etc. Imagine my delight when I found that it would hold not only those items but also a lipgloss, a handkerchief, a pair of gloves, a travel brochure, and two brötchen, meat, and cheese sandwiches wrapped in paper.😂 The construction really does do a good job of concealing lumpy objects.

As someone who wears 1820s and 1910s menswear everyday, tailcoat pockets are great for gloves! I also put my fan in them sometimes, which I’ve actually only sat on directly once but didn’t break it because I very quickly noticed I was almost sitting on a stick, usually it sits at either side. But yes, I have a dedicated pocket for each item I need everyday. Not particularly historical but some could be. Granted these change based on what I’m wearing and what I need that day. I have like 5 cloths for cleaning my glasses that I cycle through each week because I forget them in my waistcoats. Left trouser pocket- phone Right trouser pocket- face mask, keys Back trouser or inner tailcoat pocket- wallet Pocket watch pocket- ….pocket watch Right waistcoat pocket- cloth for eyeglasses, possibly quizzing glass Left waistcoat pocket- hair pins or change Waistcoat pocket or chest coat pocket- mints, possibly pencils or papers that have been given to me Left coat pocket- gloves Right tailcoat pocket- fan Outer suit jacket pocket- handkerchief, possibly sunglasses

This reminds me of the 1954 movie Sabrina. The character David puts champagne glasses into his back pant pockets then forgets about it and sits down leading to them breaking and getting injured.

My husband has a modern Barbour wax jacket that has a poacher’s pocket in the back bottom panel. It’s lined with wipeable nylon so you can stow dead game in it!

I had a teacher in high school who habitually played with a Zippo lighter in his trouser pocket; he did in fact ignite the pocket at least once.

Had an ancestor who was a horseback-riding circuit preacher. Was described as keeping bible/s in his coattails. Thought maybe it was hyperbole/coloratura, but after seeing your pockety marvels, now I'm thinking not! (Which also makes at least *some* sense in terms of keeping them safe/close/portable, but flipped out of the way/not sitting on them whilst atop a horse.)

In the military one is not aloud to stand with ones hands in the pockets when on duty. Not surprised that they were done away with for a time, as many have lamented "why do they have pockets if we are not aloud to use them?"

When I was a teenager, I used to wear military cargo pants a lot, and I kept all kinds of useful stuff in the leg pockets, such as: some painkillers, small nail clippers, a pen or pencil, a mini notepad or sticky notes, a metal lozenge tin that held plasters and a tiny tube of disinfectant, hair ties, a sewing needle, and at least one die in case I wanted to get a randomly generated answer to something. This was just before smartphones became common, so these days I do at least some of those things in my phone. Which I still carry in my pocket… I’ve heard of old-timey poor people who stuffed their pockets and coat/jacket linings full of old newspapers or dry autumn leaves to make them warmer, but I don’t know if it was ever common or socially accepted. One thing I’ve never understood is why so many boys and men put their wallet in their back pocket, and end up sitting on it. It’s always been really uncomfortable to me, I’ve never gotten into the habit.

About the only thing I can think that tail pockets would be useful for is flat, lightweight, non-breakable things that you don't need easy/quick access to. Most likely made of paper or cloth. I can see where they got the idea to put handkerchiefs in there, though it's a REALLY odd place to keep one. Maybe some documents or mail. That would look so funny to see some dude pulling papers out of those pockets!

The two stories of victorian men being embarrassed both involve them trying to literally run away and that's so funny to me. Industrial era England was just a slapstick comedy.

I did enjoy this being old enough to have started boarding school in UK whilst my parents were in Africa. No one but prefects could wear trousers so we had corduroy shorts of which the pockets were sewed up,we were told to keep our handchief in the sleeve of our jumper. While at prep school times were changing & tall boys were allowed trousers & most boys unpicked the stitching & stuffed their pockets with just about anything - my youngest brother was wriggling around during Sunday morning church - only to drop 3 baby rabbits on the floor,the service was stopped while they were retrieved & let loose in the church yard,were he'd found them earlier. Moving on to public school,we had blazers,waistcoats& trousers, with a straw boater. On Sunday we wore tail coats, detachable collars on starched white shirts,if you were senior enough you might be allowed stripes.The tails came with multiple pockets as did trousers & as one git older you started your collection of various objects specifically made for pockets,a silver flask was a great favourite, they even sold them in the school store as seniors were allowed a flask of brandy or whisky. So prefects had canes with a screw top a glass bottle like a test tube inside as another place to keep booze. Though smoking was band for all but prefects,cigarette holders and lighters were very usual, especially during holidays & definitely after school were there were many London Balls,your first was at13/4 for which most had velvet suits,which changed to black or white tie from 16 onwards. A great manynof us were wearing our grandfather or fathers black tie,until we'd "stopped" growing at which point of to the tailor. I found a trunk in the attic, filled with wonderful Victorian/Edwardian clothes, beautiful smoking jackets,I dark velvets & silk corduroy even a fantastic gaufraged(? ) velvet evening coat.!I'm afraid I wore all of them to death,though I did have many copied by a tailor in Eastend & if you had a contact in Hong Kong or India you'd have wonderful shirts suits etc ,made at a fraction of the price in London or Paris. I'm only 61 ,but,school & society norms were still 50 years behind. I & various friends were invited to tea with one or both people responsible for the Debutante Season,if you past muster you were then " on the list" - designated a Deb's Delight - which efment you were asked to drinks parties, dinners & Balls. Along with Henley(rowing),Royal Ascot(Horses) & also various weekends in the country for various parties. It was an excellent way to save money,eat,drink & party for free, for sometimes 4/5 years. At all this events etc,pockets were vital for multiple reasons we all had a small pocket sewn into the waist band of our trousers, braces with buttons were the only way to go in the evening, though for daytime belts with pockets were were we kept money for emergencies. I was modeling from 15 having been head hunted on Kings Road,off which my parents had a house & I remember my first Halston show and his early simple suits etc,wereca revelation, as were parties at his amazing home. He added hidden pockets for drugs & soon " stash pockets" were in everything. I had been at prep school with Katherine Hammnett's younger brother, & love her clothes after years of buttons, velcro was a revelation, though often I'd take her trousers & jackets to have discreet pockets added. And then Paul Smith brought back excellent tailoring & Joseph just beautiful clothes. I would travel for shoots or runway & also was a hair model for Vidal Sassoon. Many times I would be wearing privately clothes from the 1850s-1920s mixed with more modern pieces. I had a white suit in cotton, I'd had made/copied in 6/7 different colours on of my friends in NYC was Kieth Harings benefactor & one weekend out in the Hamptons he used my white suit & new white convers as a canvas,which in hindsight,I wish I'd just put it all in the bank,but,I wore them out. Such a sweet man, he decorated many of our tee-shirts,shoes. Halston saw an Edwardian chocolate coloured velvet smoking jacket with black watersilk lapels,piping with frogging fittings & spent a hour turning it inside out . Paul Smith made me three suits,I'm still wearing them. As am I wearing my early Armani,both would add extra pockets for me. Thank you so much for bringing back so many happy memories, I've just sent an early tux & pants to cleaner for my godson to wear to a party in Madrid.he will also have one of my silver flasks & so it evolves. Very best wishes to you&yours.

I wear 1910s 3 piece suits every day and ocasionally 1890s frock coats too. Trousers: keys in my trouser pocket, cash in my watch pocket. Waistcoat: Spectacles in Spectacle tin, Spectacle handkerchief, pocket watch, fountain pen, sunglasses (pince nez), ID and buissnes cards. Jacket: Cellphone, pocketbook, tabbaco, linen handkerchief, hair comb, photograph of my boe, decorative silk handkerchief, wallet, other misc. Overcoat: gloves, reading book, small clothing brush, calendar/diary book, flask. If I-m wearing a frock or tailcoat I usually use the back pocket for gloves (They were often refered to as glove pockets for a reason ). The benifits of having so many pockets is that each will only have one or two items in theme and wont bulk and ruin the drape of the garment. Also if you always use the same pockets for the same things you dont get lost, however i often forget something in a pocket of a garment i put away so I either have to go trough all of my pockets or I end up finding it a year later.

Certainly worth the wait!! I’m sure we would all LOVE to see you reconstruct an antique tailcoat, if men’s white tie is interesting to you!

At my Master’s graduation ceremony we all wore academic Masters robes, which have these absurd medieval sleeves, very long and pointy. And they’re basically giant pockets (the rest of the robe does not have pockets). Most people put their phones and a snack in their sleeves, and a few people tried to put water bottles, but the dragging was quite obvious!

Tailcoat wearer here. My understanding (and I believe there's at least one or two 19th century menswear manuals that cover this) is that the tails should be pulled up and around when you sit down so that they will lay to the outside of your thighs/hips, or even on your thigh if they are long enough. I don't know enough about the construction of the seats in theaters in the 19th century to know if they fold up. If so, there could be a gap through which the tails would drop, though that does run the risk of letting them drag on the floor. I will also note that the pockets in the tails of tailcoats go back to at least the 18th century. Tailoring manuals of that era account for them. I believe they are descended from riding coats, so the tails would've hung to either side of the saddle, the same way that split back coats do. One handed down bit of lore via my British military reenactor friends is that those pockets are good for holding flasks. Also also 1. If you go to the menswear section of Nordstrom's or the like, many of pockets on their suits are sewn shut with very light thread. This includes the lower outside pockets of the jacket and all the vest pockets. Pockets in the trousers, especially ones using the side seam as an opening point, are the most likely to gap, even with nothing in them, if the wearer is even a tiny bit pudgier than the trousers are cut. From a fashion standpoint, I understand why those pockets might also be sewn shut. Also also 2. I think I saw evidences of a buttonhole for the inside jacket pocket you showed. I used to have a sports jacket that had a strap with a buttonhole, which went to the button on the outside of the pocket. I imagine that this kind of pickpocket deterrence has been around since at least the start of the 19th century.

I just sewed a travel/flying coat with at lot of pockets to avoid the handbag (in order to have the "personal item" for clothes) - I guess I just made a vintage mens coat 😂😂😂 By the way - I had a scoolfriend who brought a tame mouse to scool in the chestpocket...

Here in NZ around 1970, I bought a three-piece suit in dark blue wool with a light blue pin-stripe, single-breasted, singlr vent jacket, and narrowish cuffless trousers. It had: - Trousers - 2 front pockets, 2 back pockets, 1 fob pocket Waistcoat - 2 lower front pockets Jacket - 1 breast pocket, 2 lower front pockets, 2 inner breast pockets *Total: - Twelve pockets.* I got married in it, and wore it for my 25th wedding anniversary photo, but can't do up the pants now. It is still like new.

I have an Italian policeman's coat (double breasted with tails) and there's pockets in the tails!

Last time i bought a winter coat i was strapped for time but it was becoming winter in western Canada so i stopped in a hardware store and bought one in the mens sport and work department. That coat has 11 pockets! I couldn't believe it! 11 pockets! Plus it was really warm with fingerless gloves to keep the snow from going up your sleeves, plus hooks for tickets and stuff.

It sounds like maybe tailcoat pockets were used as a huge pocket for things you weren't going to need frequent access to, but just carry between two locations - the bottle and foraging spoils (eggs) both fit that criteria but since the wearers then ended up sitting down at their destination rather than taking them out, they make a mess of it. Great video!

There’s a Sherlock Holmes story where Holmes stuffs all his safe-breaking and bulky burglary tools in his pockets. I thought this was odd when I read it, but now it seems as if that would have been a reasonable thing to expect to be able to do at the time!

Now the 'person has a million weapons concealed on their body'-trope makes so much more sense haha

Pockets required for contemporary gentlemen (or me at least)-- Inner jacket pockets for: 1. Cellphone 2. Wallet (for cash, cards, tkts) Front trouser pockets for: 3. Hankie (or placed in side coat pocket in winter) 4. Pepper spray (placed in the other side coat pocket in winter) Anything else (or days when a jacket isn't being worn): crossbody shoulder bag (pepper spray placed in front, outside pocket when carrying it, wallet and phone inside)

In the early 1900s, there was an English vaudeville performer billed as “The Human Filing Cabinet.” He’d go on stage, and tell the audience to request anything printed or written on paper. He’d produce whatever was mentioned- “A train ticket to Cardiff”- “A membership card for the Liverpool Pigeon Fanciers Association”- from one of his many pockets. There’s a chapter about him in Ricky Jay’s book “Learned Pigs and Fireproof Women.”

This is hilarious 😂😂😂 I love the fact that not even them knew what they had in their pockets.

In the world of men's pants designed for law enforcement and the military, we still have a lot of pockets. The ones I wear the most technically have 20 pockets, but upon a first look, you wouldn't think they had more than 6. There are a couple of pockets that I rarely use but are good to have when needed. Having an abundance of pockets is paramount when you need to have anything you might need on your person. Bags are far too easily lost or stolen to be wholly relied upon.

pocket omelettes - a common Homestead problem today.

In some antique clothes I've found in estate sales, the morning and frock coats typically had a pair of gloves or extra handkerchiefs in the tails! It's a shame that men these days typically only have 3 pockets. Any one of my outfits typically has 16: Trousers: 1 at each thigh (2) 1 in the waistband (3) 2 on the seat (5) Waistcoat: 4 outside (9) 1 inside (10) Jacket: 1 breast pocket (11) 2 at the hips (13) 1 ticket pocket (14) 2 (or more) inside the jacket (16) In my pockets I keep my monocle (or monocle case), a pocket knife, my pocket watch and keys, my phone, my wallet, a cloth (for wiping my monocle, phone or watch), a handkerchief in my breast pocket, a small face towel in my jacket pocket, sometimes a pen, key or other accessory in the hip pocket, electric or hand fan, and the others are open for other things I may carry or pick up. They're very useful, I don't know how men get on without them!!

Those pocket tales were epic haha

Snakes do like pockets! Sleeves, too, are appealing to smallish serpents. One of my son’s snakes - not the venomous ones he acquired later! - would regularly go on a tour of all the available pockets and sleeves of anyone who brought it out to play. Our own (10ft) boa had grown out of pocket-and-sleeve tours by the time she was a year old.

Omg, I had to pause at the part where you talk about matches in the pocket starting a fire because I have a hilarious anecdote. Shortly after my parents married, one of my mom’s sisters came to stay. My dad had gone to the basement to get some extra chairs and as he carried them up the stairs, they rubbed against my the packet of matches in his pants pocket. They ignited, and my dad started jumping around, screaming and yelling. My mom thought he was trying to be funny and was trying to get up to stop acting up and embarrassing her. It took a few minutes for her to realize what was going on.

I think mittens or warmer gloves would be a sensible thing to put in the tail pocket. They're soft, you can wash them, they don't break, they're fairly flat, you don't need them in an emergency, and they're good to have in case you're outside for longer than you thought. That or spare handkerchiefs, in case your main one gets too gross.

Wonderful video! There was a type of miniature violin called a Pochette or Taschengeige which dancing masters apparently carried in their back coat pockets

The watch pocket was where I kept emergency pay phone money as a teenager in the '70s. I had a pair of engineer's boots ( also in the '70s) that had small pockets on the inside. Some cloth hats have a small pocket in the inside, usually with a button or snap to keep whatever you had in it secure.

I wear cargo pants for work and I hang them on a hook at the door when I get home (unless they need washing, in which case I empty the pockets) but I have a specific pocket loadout... the work keyring is clipped to a belt loop with a carabiner, the thigh pocket on the left has my utility knife, a screwdriver and extra driver bits, the hip pocket has the jackknife with the pocket clip and I used to carry a small LED flashlinght but it kept wearing through my pocket... The right hip pocket has latex gloves, and a pen and penlight with pocket clips, the right thigh pocket has sharpie, spiral notebook and ballpoint pen, paint pen, ear pods and phone. Just that saves a whole lot of walking back to the van to get a tool when I just need to screw in a screw or cut something, I also have a belt pouch for stuff I need outside the house in general, which has ID. driver's license, credit and bank cards, whatever cash I might have on hand, mask, rescue inhaler and emergency meds, ball point pen and a few receipts, that's literally all I carry as a purse these days and since it's strapped around my waist as soon as I leave the house, I never have to worry about forgetting it somewhere as used to happen all the dang time when I had to remember to grab my purse that I'd put down somewhere... in high school because I took shop class and didn't trust the other jerks in class to leave my purse alone while I was under a car somewhere, I wore a denim jacket that I cut into a utility vest where I'd modified the pockets to hold things I needed so I didn't need a purse, that thing came with inner pockets you could put a full cassette walkman with earphones in (yay, 80s)... And my driver's license and cash lived in a breast pocket, spare menstrual supplies in the other. Some of my cargo pants have that vestigal watch pocket which works for my jackknife, I know in high school the people wearing jeans used them for cigarette lighters. I never use the back pants pockets for anything (actually a few pairs of my cargo pants don't even have them) , a friend of mine has nerve damage in his hips from sitting on his wallet on one side for twenty years and I was never happy sitting on anything in those pockets...

well, it reassures me that being so stupid as to put dessert in your pocket has historical precedent. Just yesterday, a friend gave me a little cream pastry for my birthday. It was in a paper bag, and so I thought it would not hurt to insert it in my coat's pocket to bring it home. Unfortunately, along the way, the paper bag broke and I ended up with a pocket full of whipped cream. moral of the story: don't put pies in your pockets.

You might not know what to put in one's pockets ... but you've helped us all know what should NOT be put into one's pockets. Good job!!

My go to jacket for day to day wear is a French chore coat style overshirt. It has two huge patch pockets on the front that can hold a truly prodigious amount of stuff. Headphones, water bottle, fidget cube, sunglasses, cap, it never ceases to amaze me.

This is most entertaining! I spent a couple of hours this afternoon repairing holes in three pockets of a pair of my husband's trousers. I swear he carries stanley knives in them! In reality he carries keys, wallet, change, a hanky, goodness knows what else. He has leather belt sheaths for phone and leatherman. He is a 65 year old boy scout, I love it!

This was absolutely hilarious and fun to learn about the magical work of pockets! Ny favorite part is all the old papers talking about relatable problems. I didn't realize how witty and silly some of these old articles are. I love your videos! This was definitely in my top 10 you've ever created! 👏 👖

I never imagined that a 20 minute documentary on men's pockets could be so engaging…😀

Regarding hands in pockets, it is a key way of taking the weight of your arms (not insubstantial) off of what is, arguably, one of the poorest and least structurally sound excuses for a "joint" in the human body - namely, your shoulders. For many folks (especially anyone like myself with more than the normal amount of joint mobility, but really anyone who's been upright for more than a few hours), pockets allow you to rest the weight of the arm on the hip instead, relieving chronically and often painfully overstretched muscles, nerves and tendons in the shoulder, upper back, neck and clavicular area. This is why it is so instinctual to do this and why, in the absence of pants or other garment pockets, people will hook their thumbs or hands on a belt or waistband instead. Or in the absence of any such assistance, cross our arms over our chest (as we have no doubt been doing since before clothing existed to assist us.)

Hah! I saw your title and flashed on to those mornings in the coffee shop when I have pockets in my pants, my jacket and my raincoat. So where the @#%%&!! Is my wallet?!

The remake of Sabrina! David winds up incapacitated from sitting on the champagne flutes in his tails!

Love this video…and I love how you’ve decorated your June’s Journey manor!

Such great fun! Wonderful topic - I really enjoyed this video!

Now do you understand why things "just go into the inventory"

Now all that anima, manga/manhwa and cartoons scenes where a guy gets a contract/sword/food/gun etc. out of nowhere makes sense, so much sense

Thank you so much for sharing this information. I love pockets and hiding things in them. My grandmother always says pockets are power and now I have to show her this, I think it would make her laugh

2:42 "You've got to pick a pocket or 15!"

what a great video! reminds me of the movie sabrina, where one of the characters tries to put champagne glasses in either his tail pockets or his back pants pockets (not sure), and ends up sitting on them

Geez, I love this channel! Everything I love (indepth knowledge, fun, stories, a great entertainer) and of course a generous "shout out" to a related video! The reference (June's Journey, another nifty location) shows the "generosity of spirit" of our beloved narrator. Indeed, a "Tough Act to Follow"! Meet you again at this site. Best wishes to all out there in UTube Land! ❤❤

Thank you for this evening´s entertainment. The description of the tailcoat pockets alone was fully worth it😅

This is one of my favorite videos you've ever done!

Loved learning this, and all the story comments are great too.

All I could think about the whole time I was watching this was Gollum. "What's in its pockets precious!"

your videos are always interesting, historically, but this was hilarious as well. People setting themselves on fire, forgetting alligators in their pocket, putting peanuts in your tails lol.

This vid made me wish for a gag in a period drama with mens pockets as the premise, it would be gold

Thanks for this video. It reminded me of some books my parents have with copies of old „funny and moral flying pages“ (not the best translation, I know). The pokets in the tails are featured quite often. Most of the time wine bottles are stored in them. In one story the husband wants to bring his wife something from the Buffet he is invited to. In the end he ruins the Food, his handkerchief and his coat, and his wife is angry. In at least two stories the house key is in the tail pocket. I remember the one picture in which the wife stopped her husband from going to the pub in slaming the door in time. The tail with the key got caught in the door, and the husband has to beg in front of the door.

Utterly charming! I love your historical videos!

Regarding food in coat pockets: This was before the victorian era by a bit, but the first Emperor of Brazil was famous for carrying roasted chicken thighs in his coat pockets, to take out and eat at random times.

This was lovely!! Funny and so informative. And original! The first men’s pocket video I’ve seen ❤❤

Love your hair and your videos. Very interesting and informative. Thank you.

This is invaluable for the study I'm doing for my game. Thank you so much!

The story about the matches catching fire in a gentleman's pocket made me laugh, and reminded me of a story about my uncle who experienced the same thing during the 1950s. He enjoyed jive dancing, and was partway through a particularly vigorous dance when someone tapped him on the shoulder and said "Rodney, your jacket is on fire!" then promptly doused him with a pint of beer. I'm sure he remembered to take the matches out of his pocket before dancing next time. Or switched to safety ones. 😆

You always seem to tell me about things that I didn’t know that I needed to know about. Thanks ❤❤❤

Love your videos! Keep it up

This was such a fun video ❤ Thank you bringing to out attention the shenanigans of victorian people, their pocketses and forgotten eggs 😅

Some of the pockets were to add weight into, like the tail pockets, using dense cloth to keep them hanging in style or to keep the clothing hung correctly and not flapping in mild breezes. You most certainly aren't supposed to sit on the tails you're supposed to reach back and cross them but they're also supposed to hang off the back of buckboards and the like. I've seen tail pockets that had a pair of "useless" buttons to the sides inside at the top.

Very interesting!Thanks!

My own embarrassing pocket story is when I was working in a lab during my chemistry studies, doing an organic chemistry course. One chemical I was working with was benzaldehyde, which is not particularly dangerous and smells very, very strongly of bitter almonds (it's what they use to flavor food, in small doses). I had some leftover, it made some nice crystals and I loved the smell so I decided to take it with me - something we were definitely not allowed to do. I slipped the glass bottle into my lab coat pocket, intending to smuggle it out of the lab covertly. Obviously there's a good reason why students aren't allowed to take lab chemicals home, but I thought myself smarter and would have never taken an actually dangerous chemical like eg sodium or bromine. A few minutes later, stuck my hand into the pocket only to notice wetness and that my plastic fountain pen had started to "melt". What happened is that the bottle had a plastic cap that was supposed to have a rubber seal, but the old recycled bottles they gave to us students were often missing the rubber seal, which I hadn't noticed, so now the chemical was leaking out of the bottle that had tipped over in the big pocket. Oops. Benzaldehyde is not easy to remove, think of it more like oil than like water. And even traces of it smell strongly like almonds. First I just tried to conceal my error and limit the mess, but then my hands started to hurt/itch - benzaldehyde is a skin irritant. Nothing terrible happened, I washed my hands many times and my stuff smelled like almonds for weeks. At that point I was sorely sick of the smell and no longer felt like having concentrated bitter almond flavoring in my home.

My grandmother was a school teacher in the 1920s. She told the story of paddling a boy for misbehavior, only to have the matches he had hidden in his back pocket ignite!

What a fun video! 15 to 30 pockets?!? That’s far out. So many funny stories. When I was young, my mom said she learned quickly to check my pockets before laundry after opening the washing machine to put fabric softener in the wash and finding a bunch of worms floating in the water. She said I was devastated at the loss of my friends as I called them. I apparently always had worms and frogs in my pockets, lol.

i own a tailcoat with tail pockets! it's a more casual tailcoat, with flap-top top-access pockets that don't extend the whole tail-length. i use them for random papers, face masks, handkerchiefs, seed packets, gloves and mitts... anything relatively flat and soft. they do end up looking silly when i put anything bulky in them, and obviously feel even more weird then, but i enjoy them. i often keep a small notebook in one, which i do tend to take out by default when i sit.

The mere concept of too many pockets is fantastical to the afab mind

Reminds me of the EDC videos my husband watches. You've created a new KZfaq niche, "historic Every Day Cary" videos! Thank you for all your hard work, always exceptional.

I loved hearing you recanting funny & embarrassing stories from history. More please!

Hysterically funny! I laughed until I cried almost all thru this one. Thank you, Nicole!

What an oddly fascinating subject I never once considered before. Solid video!

I have my great grandfather's tailcoat. Imagine my surprise as a teenager when I discovered a pocket in the tails. I thought it was brilliant. My great grandfather stored his gloves in it. There was still a pair of fine white leather gloves in there.

The story that I read about tail pockets is that they were a military style. Supposedly, cavalry troops would stick things in their tail pockets because they were more easily accessible while in the saddle than other coat or trouser pockets. Infantry were said to put small weights in their tail pockets while doing parade formations to keep the coat falling cleanly, and would often hide a flask their while on the march.

Tail pockets are perfect for gloves. I know this from years of playing brass instruments where the standard concert attire included a tailcoat. The gloves you generally wear while playing are thin enough that you can easily forget that they're in the pockets, and you generally dont take them off for long until after you stand up.

It's not common in a jacket today but a pocket at the bottom and back of a jacket is actually quite a comfortable place to carry items. Much more comfortable than front pockets. Consider that backpacks are designed for the weight to be felt around there.

Hi! Historian and reenactor here. The “tail pockets” 7:38 are actually extremely common waay before the Victorian era. I actually have them in my 1806 Spanish Napoleonic Wars era uniform. Many “habit” style coats, like those used by Napoleon’s armies from the late 1700’s up to the 19th Century had them. In my experience, I actually find them useful for two things. First stuff that you don’t want to loose, and second stuff that you don’t want to loose but also you don’t really need to use that much anyways. One thing I actually have there is my “registry”, a small parchment of paper with my made up soldier name and other hard to remember data, plus some postcards to give to attendees during reenactments. I think that it would made sense for, say, a messenger in the Napoleonic Wars to use it to carry dispatch letters, messages and notes. Maybe personal letters or documents. The type of stuff that you don’t really need to reach for very often during the day but you also don’t want to loose. Also, many uniforms of the time of the Napoleonic Wars, even before, had similar faux pockets in the tails, normally an aesthetic choice and also used to include additional regimental markings. Although I have seen many officer coats that did have pockets in them for, again, orders and dispatches. I guess maybe this is one of those “vestigial” military uniform characteristics maybe.

I have a 1930's waistcoat that has a polishing rag lining one of the pockets so that it shines your watch every time you pull it in or out of your pocket, it also has a dedicated button-like hole specifically for attaching your watch chain.