While this article isn’t strictly about men wearing gender-non-conforming clothing, it is most certainly a topic that is discussed quite a bit. One of the major things you have to get used to when first wearing skirts, pants or dresses from the women’s department, is the lack of pockets. It requires men, who are used to men’s clothing that has large, useful pockets, to come up with a different way to carry their things such as a bag like a backpack or purse, a jacket with pockets, or some other means.
I find it interesting that this is becoming a big enough topic to reach traditional mainstream media like the BBC. Hopefully, women’s clothing will also start to have useful pockets more frequently!
https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20250909-how-womens-pockets-became-so-controversial
Yes, pockets are important, also on dresses and skirts! While I really like wearing dresses as a man and while I have a few dresses without pockets (which I like for other reasons), 90% of the dresses I own and 100% of the skirts have pockets. So it’s possible to find some with pockets. Unfortunately most of the pockets on dresses are smaller than what I was used to with men’s trousers, so I am constantly carrying a handbag around with me. Still, with most dresses I can wear at least my keys, handkerchief and smartphone with me on my body.
Pockets on skirts or dresses don’t matter a whit to me because I keep everything in a handbag when I’m out and about in womenswear.
Well, I also need a handbag because even skirts or dresses with pockets usually have too few or too small pockets for everything I need. And I profit from carrying a handbag with me for putting things there which I did not always have with me when walking around in trousers before, like a pocket umbrella or a little bottle of water.
But I find it very convenient to have at least these few items with me in my body clothing: a handkerchief (important for my allergy in summer or when having a cold), my keys (otherwise I forget them too easily when leaving the appartment e.g. for getting a parcel at the door) and my smartphone.
When walking around outside, yes, I usually have my handbag with me (still I can grab things faster from pockets than from the handbag). But when moving around in my own appartment, I don’t want to carry around the handbag all the time. So without pockets I am always looking where I left my smartphone etc.
I just recently bought a skirt from Albion Fit, a women’s fashion line based in Utah, that was called a Mini Cargo Skirt. It has side pockets that are as big as a cargo pants pocket and a small pocket on top of that. It even has belt loops. It’s turning into one of my favorites. I also notice that they have a number of skirts that have side pockets too.
https://albionfit.com/products/mini-cargo-skirt-cobalt?variant=43823657943220
There exist skirts and even dresses with comfortably large pockets. Just a few examples I got:
https://euro.saintandsofia.com/products/orla-zip-up-sleeveless-dress-black-floral
dress with two side pockets which are quite large
https://www.haruco-vert.com/product/disir-sleeveless-navy-unisex-dress/
dress with two really large side pockets (and this dress is sold as “unisex” with both female and male models on the web site)
And I got a denim pinafore dress from Pull&Bear (which unfortunately is not available on their web site any more) with two rather small side pockets, but in addition one central front pocket and two quite large back pockets.
Just as a few examples that at least some dresses with decent pockets exist.
I wouldn’t expect pockets to be so important thing to women given all the bags full of stars they carry usually. Still, I fully understand the point, although I really use pockets now to hide my hands when it’s colder – too often got things slipping out of my hand or expecting there things that I put somewhere else. Anyway, it seems like again some “male” element of fashion will become standard in female ones sooner or later. Will it make guys wearing trousers or shorts ‘gay’ because of the pockets being too similar to ones in female garments?
Pockets are very important to me for keys, smartphone, and tissues.
I don’t usually wear skirts without pockets. But men’s trousers usually don’t have pockets big enough for a smartphone either. In those cases, I like to use a fanny pack.