Pocket, But Not

Pocket, But Not explores how an everyday object can be reimagined to open up broader conversations about the relationships between clothing, the body and function. Inspired by the history of women’s pockets, Boyu Yan’s jewellery collection, Pocket Me!, questions the assumption that pockets must be attached to garments. By returning the women’s pocket to the body in the form of jewellery, Yan proposes an alternative mode of wear in which the pocket exists independently of dress and is reintroduced as an object in its own right.

Constructed from chainmail, the collection reinterprets contemporary pocket forms as brooches and rings. Rather than recreating a functional pocket, Yan’s works explore how jewellery can occupy the space between clothing and adornment, reconsidering the relationships between utility, ornament, and the body.

Pockets that are undersized, decorative, or entirely absent have become a familiar feature of contemporary womenswear. This condition raises broader questions about the relationship between aesthetics and functionality, and about how seemingly ordinary design decisions quietly shape everyday experience. In doing so, Pocket, But Not presents the pocket not simply as a practical feature of a garment, but as an object through which histories of design, use, and relationships to the body are brought into view.