Pockets, from the side that sews them shut
Suit pockets: the three families, and the thread nobody explains
A new jacket arrives with its pockets sewn shut, its flaps tacked down, and a line of loose thread running under the pocket line. Pockets are the only part of a suit that is delivered deliberately unusable, and almost nobody is told why. Some customers think it is a fault. Some think it is a rule and leave them shut for years. Some cut them open at the kitchen table with whatever is in the drawer and go straight through the pocket bag. All three of those are the shop's problem, not the customer's, because all three happen after the jacket leaves you. So: the three pocket families, what each one is for, what we actually run, and exactly what to do at delivery.
The three lower pocket families
| Jetted | Flap | Patch | |
|---|---|---|---|
| What it is | A slit finished with two narrow lips of cloth and no flap. Also called a besom pocket. The cleanest possible opening. | A jetted pocket with a rectangle of cloth hanging over it. The default on almost every business suit ever made. | A pocket applied to the outside of the jacket rather than cut into it, so it sits proud of the cloth. |
| How formal it reads | The most formal of the three. Dinner jackets are jetted, and that is not an accident: nothing interrupts the line. | The middle, and the safe answer. Correct on a business suit, correct on a sports jacket, correct on almost everything. | The least formal by a distance. Patch belongs on a jacket worn without a tie, and it does not become formal by being made in a formal cloth. |
| What we run | Straight jetted and slanted jetted, both live, plus straight jetted with a ticket pocket. | Straight flap and slanted flap, both live, plus straight flap with a ticket pocket. | Patch lower pockets, and separately a patch chest pocket, both live. Also an option for no lower pockets at all. |
| Where it goes wrong | A man who loads his pockets will stretch a jetted opening out of shape, and there is no flap to hide it. | Flaps tucked in on one side and out on the other, which is the single most common thing wrong with an otherwise good photograph. | Ordered on a formal navy suit because the customer liked how it looked in a photograph of a linen jacket. It will not read the same way. |
| What I would not do | I would not put jetted pockets on the suit of a man who carries a phone and a wallet in his jacket. Give him flaps. | I would not order slanted pockets with a ticket pocket. That combination is not live on our sheet, so do not promise it. | I would not sell patch pockets as an upgrade. They are a register, not a level. Sell them to the man who wants that register. |
Option availability above is from our own order system, checked this week. The ticket pocket is live only in combination with straight pockets, which is a constraint rather than a preference.
Every pocket on the order sheet
Four garments, and each one has its own pocket line on the order. This is the vocabulary that keeps an order from being interpreted downstream.
- Jetted, or besom
- Two narrow lips of cloth finishing a slit, no flap. The formal option, and the one that shows a bad job most clearly, because there is nothing covering the opening. If you want to judge a maker quickly, look at a jetted pocket on a striped cloth and see whether the stripes still line up across it.
- Flap
- A jetted pocket with a covering flap. The default. Worth knowing that the flap is a separate piece: it can be tucked inside, which turns the pocket visually into a jetted one, and that is a legitimate thing to do for a formal evening rather than a mistake.
- Patch
- Applied to the outside rather than cut in. Casual by construction, not by cloth. A patch pocket on a navy worsted is a deliberately relaxed jacket, which is either exactly what the customer wanted or a conversation nobody had.
- Ticket pocket
- A third, smaller pocket above the right hip pocket, historically for a train ticket. On our sheet it is live with straight flap and straight jetted pockets only. It reads as English and slightly sporting, and it visually shortens the torso, which matters on a short man more than most style writing admits.
- Chest pocket: welt and barchetta
- The breast pocket. A standard welt is straight. A barchetta is curved like the hull of a little boat, which is what the word means, and it is the Neapolitan version. Both are live, along with a patch chest pocket and the option of none at all.
- Basting, and pockets sewn shut
- The loose thread under the pocket and the stitches holding the pocket closed are temporary. They exist so the jacket keeps its shape while it is pressed, packed and shipped. They are meant to be removed, they are not a fault, and they are also not a rule to be obeyed forever.
- Pen pocket and inside pockets
- The inside pockets, including a pen pocket, are part of how the jacket is built rather than an open menu. On our sheet the standard pen pocket is the live setting and there is no active option to leave it out, so it is worth telling a customer who asks rather than promising to remove it.
The questions customers actually ask in the shop
What is the line of thread under the pocket on a new jacket?
Basting. A temporary stitch that holds the pocket and the flap flat while the jacket is pressed, hung, boxed and shipped. It comes out. Take a seam ripper or small scissors, lift the thread away from the cloth, and cut the thread rather than sawing at it against the fabric. Do this in the shop, before the customer sees it, because a customer who does it at home with kitchen scissors sometimes cuts the jacket instead.
Should I open the sewn shut pockets?
Yes, and it is the shop's job rather than the customer's. We sew them shut on purpose and I would not ship them any other way: an open pocket collapses and creases in transit, and a jacket that has been folded with open pockets arrives looking tired. But shut pockets that stay shut are a jacket with three decorative slits, which is not what anybody bought. Open them at delivery, carefully, from the inside.
Do the flaps go in or out?
Out, normally, and in for a formal evening or when the customer simply prefers the cleaner line. The only actual rule is consistency: both flaps in, or both flaps out. One of each is the most common visible error on an otherwise well made suit, and it is the thing to check in the mirror before the customer leaves the shop.
Can I have a ticket pocket with slanted pockets?
Not on our sheet. The ticket pocket is live with straight flap and straight jetted pockets. Slanted flap with ticket and slanted jetted with ticket are both switched off, so if a customer wants both, the honest answer is that he chooses one. I would rather you hear that here than after he has chosen.
Are patch pockets a downgrade?
No, but they are also not an upgrade, and I would push back on anybody selling them as one. They are a register. Patch says the jacket is meant to be worn without a tie, and it says that regardless of how serious the cloth is. Sell them to a man who wants a relaxed jacket, and steer away from them on a suit whose job is a board meeting.
What pockets do the trousers have?
Four live front shapes: straight, curved, slant side and the slanted Western. Five live back arrangements, from none through right jetted or double piped to two of either. A watch pocket is optional. Flap and patch back pockets are not live, which occasionally surprises a customer who has seen them elsewhere.
And the shirt?
Nine live pocket options: rounded, pointed, squared and mitred, each with or without a flap, plus no pocket at all. No pocket is the dressier answer and the one I would default to on a shirt that will be worn with a tie.
What should the order actually say?
The lower pocket style, whether there is a ticket pocket, the chest pocket, and for trousers the front shape, the back arrangement and the watch pocket. Six lines, and every one of them has a live default, which means an order that leaves them blank will still be made, just not necessarily the way the customer imagined. Blank fields are where quiet disappointments come from.
Open the pockets before he takes it home
If you are taking delivery of an order this week, cut the basting and open the pockets in the shop. If you are writing a new order and want the current live option list rather than a catalogue from two seasons ago, ask us and we will send what is actually switched on.