A Letter From a Reader: Six Things A Pocket Has To Do (Wendy)
A Week Of School Holidays With Olive Taught Me What A Pocket Is For
Olive held my left hand for seven days straight. By the Tuesday I had missed two calls, fed the ducks a whole loaf by accident and started checking pockets the way I used to check returned books.
I am 64, and every October school holidays our granddaughter Olive comes down from Auckland on her own for a week. She is seven, and she holds hands. Crossing Cameron Road, at the Historic Village, along the Strand, in the queue for an ice cream. So for one week a year I have one hand, and the other is usually holding something sticky.
On the Tuesday it all came apart at McLaren Falls. Olive on my left, a bag of bread for the ducks in my right, and my phone ringing in my handbag, which had slid down to my elbow. It was Anna, checking we were both still alive. By the time I had put the bread on the grass and dug out the phone, the ducks had the whole loaf and Anna had rung off.
The dress I had on that day had pockets, or so the label said. Two little slits in the side seam that would take a folded tissue and nothing else. Graeme, who was holding nothing at all, offered me the little bag he clips round his waist for fishing. I gave him a look he has known for forty years.
That night, after Olive was asleep, I made a list. Thirty years at the library teaches you to check things twice. Six things a pocket has to do before I will call it a pocket. Then I went looking, and found a page at The Mount Coastal Boutique called Dresses With Pockets. Twelve dresses, and the page said every one of them had real pockets. I have four of them now, and every one has been tested against the list.
The four I own, from the boutique's own page. Green, blue, teal and pink, and every one has pockets.
The six things
- Is it a real pocket?Before I paid, I wrote to the boutique with a plain question. Are the pockets real, or are they slits? A woman called Susan wrote back the same day. Real, on both sides, on every dress on that page. On the Kwani: two deep side pockets sewn into the seam. I turned them inside out on the kitchen bench to be sure.
- Will my phone stand up in it?A pocket that only takes a phone lying sideways is a pocket that drops it in the car park at New World. I want the phone upright, the car keys beside it, and nothing poking out of the top. On the Cassandra: phone, reading glasses and keys in the one pocket, and the skirt still sits flat.
- Does it stay put when I sit down?Glasses slide out of a shallow pocket the moment you sit in a car. I drove over the hill to Rotorua to see my sister Christine with my reading glasses in the Skyler pocket, and they were still there when I got out at her gate. On the Skyler: the pockets sit in the side seam of a loose skirt that swings when you walk.
- Does it disappear when it is empty?On a cheap dress an empty pocket sticks out like two little saddlebags. On a good one it lies flat in the seam and the skirt falls straight. On the Mana: the pocket sits low in among the flowers, and you would not know it was there until your hand goes in.
- Do both hands come free?This was the test that started it. Anna brought Olive down again for Labour Weekend, and on the Sunday we went back to McLaren Falls. I wore the Skyler in ocean blue. Olive on my left, a fresh loaf in my right, phone in the pocket. It rang. It was Graeme, lost in the car park. I let go of nothing, answered with my thumb and told him to follow the ducks. The handbag stayed at home that day. It has stayed at home most days since.
- Does it still look like a dress?A pocket dress can look like an apron, or like something for weeding the garden. The four I have look like dresses I would wear to lunch in town, and I have. Anna borrowed the Cassandra for a lunch that weekend, drove home to Auckland and ordered her own.
Side by side, honestly
| The old dresses | These |
|---|---|
| Two slits at the side that held a tissue | Real pockets on both sides, on every dress on the page |
| Phone in the handbag, call missed | Phone in the pocket, answered with a thumb |
| A whole loaf to the ducks by accident | Olive in one hand, the bread in the other |
| Stuck out when empty | Lies flat in the side seam |
| Looked like something for the garden | Looks like a dress for lunch |
The four I have, and where I would start
The Skyler is the one I reach for first. A soft V neck, sleeves to the elbow, a loose skirt with some swing in it, and a leopard print that sounds alarming and is not. It comes in five colours, scarlet red, ocean blue, blush pink, lavender and sandy beige. Mine is the ocean blue. It starts at a medium and goes to a 3XL. $83.95.
The Kwani is the everyday one. Knee length, short sleeves, 100% cotton that breathes on a muggy afternoon, in beige, black, orange and green. Mine is the green. S to 5XL, $96.95.
The Cassandra looks like a top and a skirt, but it is one dress that goes over your head in about four seconds. Black, blue or green. It is the one Anna took. $101.95.
The Mana is the pretty one, a floral with a V neck, in blue, green or pink. Mine is the pink, and it went to a christening in Katikati. $103.95.
The Skyler on the boutique's own page. That hand is in the pocket, which is test number five.
About the price
The twelve run from $73.95 to $111.95 at the moment. The last dress with pockets I looked at in a shop on Devonport Road was $179, and its pockets were the tissue kind. Delivery is free with NZ Post, and if you take two dresses the stack discount comes off in the cart, 15% for two and up to 30% when you take more. That is how the Mana came home with the Cassandra.
The honest bit
Delivery is usually seven to ten working days with NZ Post tracking. Mine took nine. The sizes are not the same on every dress. The Kwani and the Charmaine go up to a 24, and the Skyler starts at a medium, so check the size first. If it is wrong, you have thirty days to change your mind, and if you write before it is sent, Susan will swap the size or the colour, no fuss.
What I would tell you if we were friends
Put your hand in the pocket before you put your money down. Or ask by email and see who answers.
Every one of the twelve has them. Start with the colour you have not worn for ten years. Graeme still offers me his fishing bag now and then. I tell him I have pockets.
— Wendy
Dresses With Pockets
- Twelve dresses, every one with real pockets on both sides
- Leopard prints, florals and plain colours, in ocean blue, orange, green, blush pink, scarlet red and more
- Free NZ Post delivery, thirty days to change your mind
Stack and save: buy 2 save 15%, buy more save up to 30% extra.
See all twelve dresses with pockets