More about POCKETS of POWER

POCKETS of POWER is a show specially made for Glastonbury Festival based on research led by Dr Kat Jungnickel.

It's about history of women inventors who hacked at clothing - adding a PLETHORA OF POCKETS into their patents - as acts of resistance and rebellion to the restrictions around them. It's basically about how women have attempted to change the world stitch by stitch.

Over 50 individual garments from historic patents have been reconstructed by Dr Jungnickel's research team and this collection along with the many remarkable stories behind them have been produced into a dynamic interactive show by award-winning feminist theatre company Scary Little Girls .

The show features convertible, multiple and hidden POCKET filled historic costumes, live music, bespoke magic tricks, a specially commissioned puppet, games, giveaways and more!

POCKETS of POWER is being performed throughout the festival with both daytime and evening performances at the Circus and Theatre field.

Find out MORE about show times & venues.

POCKETS of POWER comes from the European Research Council funded project POLITICS of PATENTS (or POP for short) led by Dr Kat Jungnickel and hosted at Goldsmiths, University of London.

POP explores 200 years of patented clothing inventions from 1820 to current times to reveal a hidden history of how women invented and used radical forms of clothing to resist, re-make and re-imagine the worlds around them.

Using an approach called speculative sewing, Dr Jungnickel and her team of sewing social scientists have reconstructed a collection of over 50 remarkable convertible, multiple and concealed POCKET filled historic costumes from clothing patents.

The research reveals how inventors radically reworked women’s ordinary POCKETS to suit their needs – to resist and respond to social, political, and physical restrictions – stretching the pocket far beyond its familiar conventional edges in surprising, exciting and inspiring ways.

The POCKETS of POWER collection of historic hand-made costumes feature a PLETHORA of POCKETS in everything from socks and stockings, to bags, bustles, bloomers and belts and even hats have secret hidden compartments.

Scary Little Girls brings these remarkable costumes and stories life in comedy, spoken word, songs, sketches, puppetry, and audience games, showing how women throughout history radically reinvented the worlds of clothing invention and design to solve problems and smash stereotypes.

Dr Kat Jungnickel leads the Politics of Patents project funded by an ERC grant and hosted at Goldsmiths, University of London

Scary Little Girls - is an award winning feminist theatre company founded by Rebecca Morden.

Dr Naomi Paxton - is a performer, researcher and suffrage historian. She performs comedy, cabaret, magic and variety shows as her character Ada Campe.

Sarah Annakin - is an actress, singer and VO artist.

Don One - is a London based Drag King.

KoKo Brown - is a multidisciplinary artist who blends theatre, spoken word and live vocal looping in all her work.

Nadia Shash - is a multidisciplinary artist adept with physical performance, puppetry and multi-role work.

Velma von Bon Bon - is a Liverpool based comedic burlesque performer and puppet maker.

The POP project aims to bring to life, in archival research, stories and costumes, lesser-known and forgotten attempts by inventors to radically resist or re-imagine ways of being in the world via something as extra-ordinary as clothing.

In the POPLab, we follow the step-by-step instructions provided by inventors to reconstruct their inventions and reflect on what we learn from making and wearing the clothes of others.

Using SPECULATIVE SEWING methods we stitch together patent data, related archival research, fabric as well as mistakes, mess and tangents into what we call three dimensional arguments that can be investigated from multiple perspectives.

Researching and reconstructing a collection of historical wearable technologies from 1820 to 2020 enables POP to travel into the past and reflect on the present and invite audience to join them.

POCKETS have proved perplexingly problematic for people throughout time and catalysed a remarkable volume of inventive energy.

There are tens of thousands of pocket inventions in the patent archives!

POCKETS of POWER is not just about pockets, but about the remarkable inventors of extra-ordinary pockets over the last century who have creatively used and mis-used pockets as acts of resistance and rebellion against restrictions to their rights and freedoms.

Pockets, and moreover their absence (even in contemporary women’s clothes), have attracted the attention of many feminist scholars and annoyed many a clothes wearer over the years. They are fascinating practical and socio-political objects. Because women have long been regarded AS property, pockets provide a radical way for them to have, own and carry property.

The POP dataset shows how inventors have really expanded the ordinary pocket to suit women's needs – to resist and respond to social, political and physical restrictions - stretching it far beyond its familiar conventional edges

Women have put pockets on socks and stockings, in petticoats and inside skirts, on bloomers and corsets, in sleeves , scarves, gloves, hats, cuffs, belts, bustles, and even whole garments can be converted into a giant pockets or series of pockets.

While men’s pockets tend to be in conventional places, on chest and hips, and on show, women’s can be literally everywhere….. and they’re mostly secret, concealed, multiple or masquerading as something else.

CHATELAINES are chain or a belt worn around at the waist by women of all classes - from farm hands to factory workers and from artists to aristocracy - for centuries.

They are essentially tool belts that hold a series of essential and decorative items suspended by chains or hooks.

CHATELAINES show women’s roles and responsibilities. We view them as symbols of women’s skills and labour. They equip them to do all kinds of activities.

Chatelaines carry all kinds of things important to women – sewing, knitting, pens, money, watches, books, keys, purses etc (in many ways it is the opposite of secret – everything on show, externalised, clinking and clanging). They renders visible the vast breadth of women’s work.

We focus on inventions for CHATELAINES that signal women’s work in public, on the outside of their clothes. These devices were not only practical and functional -but also political in how they made claims for women’s skills, abilities and expertise (in contexts when they were more likely not be given a uniform).

While POCKETS are mostly hidden to keep something safe and private, many CHATELAINE pockets and pouches are on show to claim expert roles and express responsibility and expertise.

POP on Instagram

POP website

POP writings
Jungnickel, K. 2023. Convertible, Multiple and Hidden: The inventive lives of women’s sport and activewear 1890-1940 in Sociological Review.