What Is Wednesday #24

What is Wednesday.

WIW#24 - slanted pocket

This weekly What is Wednesday post is aimed at answering some of the more basic and critical aspects of tailoring and the terminology we use to describe them. It stems from realizing that I’m constantly throwing out different terms with my clients and quite often they’re unsure as to what I exactly mean.  The goal of this section then is to alleviate this terminology gap and provide you with some know-how to talk tailoring with a little more ease.

What is…a slanted pocket?

Last week the discussion was about the different styles of pockets; this week is all about the different angles for those pockets.  In the three examples used last week all of them had straight pockets – that is a pocket that sat perpendicular to the center front of the jacket.  This by far represents the vast majority of suit jackets and sportscoats.

WIW#24 - slanted pocket II

The good news is that slanted pockets are very easy to understand.  As the name implies and you can see in the image above it simply refers to a pocket that is on an angle; for the most part the angle is downwards from the center of the jacket towards the hip.  The degree of the angle can be very subtle – 15 degrees or so – or it can be quite aggressive getting close to 40 degrees in certain cases.  This style is often referred to as a hacking pocket; a name that comes to us from the country pursuit of horseback riding as “to hack” is to ride a horse for light exercise.  Why the connotation to horse riding?  Because gentleman back in the day always rode horses in a jacket; as such it was easier to get your hand in the pocket when riding if the pocket was on an angle as opposed to being straight across.

As for today – it simply comes down personal taste and nothing else.  Some people hold the view that the slanted pocket makes the torso appear slimmer when cut in conjunction with a nipped waist.  To others it represents a way to subtly differentiate the jacket from the majority of straight pockets we usually see.  While others yet might feel it’s a touch rake’ish for their liking.  As I said it’s all about personal taste and what looks good to your personal eye.

As always I’d love to hear your opinions on this or any sartorial subject for that matter.  Better yet book a free appointment and we can banter in person and see if we might be a good fit to work together.

Take care – Michael

info@martinfishertailors.com

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