Bride and bridesmaids praised for ‘magnificent’ dresses designed with pockets

A photo of Eve Paterson and her bridesmaids has gone viral on Twitter

Sabrina Barr
Friday 25 January 2019 20:05 GMT
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Eve Paterson with her bridesmaids on her wedding day
Eve Paterson with her bridesmaids on her wedding day

A bride and her bridesmaids have been praised online for all wearing dresses designed with pockets to the wedding.

Charity worker Eve Paterson wanted all her bridesmaids to feel comfortable when she tied the knot with her partner, Angus Paterson, last month.

So she decided ensure their dresses would come with pockets, something often omitted from women's clothing.

"My bridesmaids are all beautifully different shapes, so we decided to go with a brand where they could each pick a dress that they felt amazing in, and where we could add pockets as well," Mrs Paterson told The Independent. "You'd never expect to hire suits for guys and then 'add pockets' as an extra, so the idea that women have to do it is insane."

The bride opted to wear a wedding dress designed by David's Bridal, having been sold by the fact the bateau neckline gown already came with pockets.

Her bridesmaids all wore forest green dresses of different styles from KF Bridal. Each dress came with a small extra charge for the addition of pockets.

"When you have them custom made-to-measure, it only cost £5 extra to add pockets, so really it just felt like a no-brainer!" said bridesmaid Nell Goddard.

Following the ceremony, Ms Goddard shared a photo of Mrs Paterson and her bridesmaids on Twitter, all standing in powerful poses in the church.

"My friend got married last month and her dress and the bridesmaids' dresses ALL HAD POCKETS," she tweeted. "And yes, we did use them for storing snacks, thank you for asking."

The tweet has since garnered an incredible online response, amassing more than 11,000 likes.

Many people have been praising Mrs Paterson and her bridesmaids for demonstrating there's no reason why it should be automatically assumed for women's dresses to be designed without pockets.

"Divine! You all look magnificent and adequately equipped for whatever the day may throw at you!" one person wrote.

"Pockets make for a pretty badass wedding party photo. I love it!" another person commented.

Eve and Angus Paterson on their wedding day (Photography by Toby Mitchell of Oak & Blossom)

The pockets in Mrs Paterson's dress had a bit of fabric from her mother's wedding dress sewn into them when alterations to the gown were being made.

"It was my 'something old' that I could feel throughout the day," she said,

She added that the online reaction to the photo demonstrated the high demand for more women's clothing to be designed with pockets.

"The response to the tweet, from such a diverse range of people across the Twittersphere, has proved that this is a real issue, and it goes beyond weddings," she said. "Women's clothing simply doesn't empower women as much as it should.

"Pockets are such a tiny issue in comparison to the oppression of women globally, but I think it plays into a much deeper misconception that women should look good rather than be practically equipped - but why should we have to choose?"

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In August 2018, a study conducted by The Pudding website discovered that women's pockets are on average significantly smaller than men's.

The researchers found that pockets in women's jeans are approximately 48 per cent small and 6.5 per cent narrower than those in men's jeans.

The team analysed the pocket sizes of 80 jeans from 20 major fashion retailers, including Calvin Klein, Ralph Lauren and Levi's.

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