Braving the Urban Frontier with Cargo Pockets

A garment without pockets would be more useful as a dust rag. Pockets are power, which is why women's clothes frequently have less pockets than men's. The more pockets you have, the more self-sufficient and unencumbered you can be, leaving handbags, clutch purses, and all other totes behind. Happily, there is no need to toss out your pocketless clothes or bypass pocketless garments on a thrift store rack if you're handy with a needle.

5 pockets from one cannibalized pair of cargo shorts

The cargo shorts craze has created a glut of second-hand cargo shorts at most thrift stores, and they usually go for just a few bucks each. Manufacturers have been wildly inventive when it comes to configuring pockets to fulfill every sort of survivalist, lost-in-the-wilderness fantasy, and you may score up to five or six pockets from a single pair of shorts. Once you've harvested the pockets you may hem them, dye them, or leave them raw and untouched, and stitch them onto any item of clothing sorely lacking in pockets.

Above is a used Eskandar sweater vest with a lovely drape, rendered absolutely useless due to lack of pockets. Here, the added cargo pocket edges were left raw and secured with a blanket stitch.

Blanket-stitched raw edges

Accessorized with bamboo fabric scarf

In the second example below, both the thrift store garment and the pockets were dyed and then stitched together.

With pockets like these, one could go away for the weekend without bringing a suitcase.

A third pocket adds visual interest and added functionality to the back of the garment.

Ready for any scenario

The final example involves a thrift store Bryn Walker t-shirt that is long and asymmetrical. Not only did it lack pockets, it was so long that it would prevent access to any pockets you might have in your pants. Once again, cargo pockets solve the problem.

asymmetrical pockets for an asymmetrical t-shirt

pocket with hemmed edges