It still doesn't answer the question: if women complain so much about a lack of pockets [0], why don't they buy clothes with pockets? This article by HSW [1] suggests it's a "male dominated fashion industry." That doesn't sound right to me, being a free market. I suspect it's just that women don't actually buy pants with big pockets because they don't like the way they look.
I usually do. Problem is, to do that at all, I usually have to buy men's clothing. I buy men's jeans by default, because they have pockets and the fit and comfort aren't my biggest concerns for rugged practical wear. If I want to indulge in feminine fashion or, gods forbid, look professional, I quickly find that I'm out of options. Most pants that do have pockets, they're barely large enough for my phone to fit halfway in them (and I'm using a G7, not a phablet or something). Many just don't, or even worse, they're sewn on decoratively without actually being open and able to hold anything. Some skirts and dresses, sure, they don't really make sense, but why in the world would decorative non-functional pockets be a staple of so many pairs of women's pants if we didn't like how they look?
If all women did that, women clothing as they are now would not sell and designers would figure out that women want (real) pockets and begin to design women clothing with them.
GP's point is that women don't do that and in fact do prioritize fashion over function.
> why in the world would decorative non-functional pockets be a staple of so many pairs of women's pants if we didn't like how they look?
Because functional pockets require the pants to be loose fitting, which is not as attractive as more form fitting pants (based on what women and men in society have collectively decided through their actions).
As far as my girlfriend is concerned: Because as soon as a piece is remotely nice its pockets are decorative jokes. If there were clothes that were both stylish and had decent pockets she'd buy them at once, but there are almost none. There seems to be no good reason for that to be so, extending the joke pockets usually doesn't cause the piece to look bad or lose function (if not stuffed to the brink and excluding those items where that can't realistically work).
Maybe pockets are one of those things that everyone says they’d like, but really that preference is subordinate to so many other considerations, that it doesn’t materially affect the success of the product. Couple that with simply costing a tiny bit more or just being different than the status quo, and it ends up a nonstarter, because why bother with something that won’t make the product more successful?
[0] https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/pockets-articles-of-i... [1] https://lifestyle.howstuffworks.com/style/fashion/trends-loo...