Your Jacket Is Not a Briefcase: Keeping Your Stuff Organized On The Go

When it comes to formal wear, gentlemen have it pretty easy in a lot of ways compared to the ladies. With overcoats, suits, trousers, dinner jackets, and sport coats, pockets never run in short supply. The same thing cannot be said, however, about dresses, evening gowns, and skirts. As far as utility goes, men's formal wear wins that contest by a wide margin. But just because you might have so many pockets at your disposal, doesn't mean that you should use all of them at the same time. 

It is a bit unfortunate that women's formal wear has the opposite problem, as the biggest complaint by far when it comes to women's formal attire is the short supply—or in many cases the complete absence—of pockets, and it's not just dresses, either. Even business suits designed for women may not have pockets, and if they do, the pockets are oftentimes quite small and functionally useless for most applications. While purses and handbags can come to the rescue, lugging around an extra piece of equipment to store all of your belongings isn't always convenient. Men can even get away with this by utilizing a briefcase or laptop bag for all that extra stuff during a typical day at the office, but not so much for those evening outings. 

Since men's formal wear usually comes equipped with plenty of pocket space, it's tempting to use all of it to your advantage. But this comes with problems, too, as overloading your garments with your personal effects can cause not only discomfort but also visible anomalies in your jackets and trousers due to your wallets, keys, and phones forming bumps and creases from the inside out. Whether you opt for a tightly tailored Italian-style suit or the more comfortable classic fit of an American-style one, formal wear should bring out the best in your personal style, not function as a substitute for a briefcase or backpack. So what's the best way to balance style with utility when everyone is expected to carry more on their person than they ever have? Wallets can be clunky. Cell phones have become larger, not smaller in size. Keys can even shred the fabric of your formal wear over time. In this piece, we'll give you plenty of tips and tricks to keep your personal effects organized, minimized, and compartmentalized, so you can showcase your own brand of personal style without sacrificing the built-in utility of your formal attire. 

--Frigid Weather? Use It To Your Advantage-- 

There's not much of anything exciting to be said about shoveling snow and putting chains on your tires, but one of the few perks of winter weather is that you'll have more at your disposal when it comes to fine-tuning your formal attire, both in style and functionality. Colder temperatures yield more options like additional layers and overcoats, the latter of which come with deeper, more functional pocket space. As the thickness of an overcoat tends to be heavier than what you would find on a suit jacket or sport coat, your personal effects won't be as visible, if at all, through the outer layer of the coat. You'll be able to carry more on your person without sacrificing comfort or style to do so, so long as you're reasonable about it. Since many overcoats come with generous inside pockets, this allows you to keep those pockets on your jacket and trousers clear from anything that might cause discomfort or visible lumps in your ensemble. Unless you're attempting to lug around a dictionary or a tape recorder from the 1980s, your wallet and other personal items will likely go unnoticed in the roomier pockets of an overcoat. 

Just make sure to bear in mind that your overcoat is not a briefcase, nor is any of your outerwear a suitable substitute for one. But if you find yourself carrying around quite a few things in your pockets normally, an overcoat does have the ability to lighten your load a little bit that you would otherwise carry in your trouser or suit jacket pockets. The greater depth of overcoat compartments also makes it less likely that you'll lose anything, since your personal effects won't be prone to falling out when you're sitting down. 

--Do I Really Need All This Stuff?-- 

While using the pocket space of an overcoat has its benefits, this really only works when the weather is cold enough to justify wearing an overcoat. At all other times of the year when the temperatures outside are more agreeable, an overcoat won't get you too far, and you might get some strange looks while you're at it. If you're not too keen on carrying an extra bag or briefcase, you're going to be limited by the pocket space available to you, so use it wisely. 

As time goes on, all of us tend to accumulate more stuff, whether you're talking about furniture, clothes, and yes, even the random assorted cards and papers that end up in your wallet. What was once a comfortable and sleek billfold might now be a bulky hunk of cracked leather that can barely be inched into your trouser pocket. When it comes to formal events, you'll be better off if you can get away with carrying less. 

Business cards, credit cards, various forms of identification, cash, receipts, and punch-card coupons for your favorite lunch spots will all add bulk to your wallet over time, sometimes without you even realizing it. While some gentlemen ditch their wallets altogether and opt for carrying their important items loose in their pockets, this isn't always the best idea since those items are more likely to fall out, especially if they're in your pants pockets. Losing your important credit cards is always a hassle, and replacing your driver's license can sometimes take weeks. In lieu of having everything loose in your pockets, there are better ways to manage the bulkiness. 

You would be surprised how quickly a wallet is able to revert back to its original shape when you take everything out of it. Simply by decluttering your billfold, you'll be able to better manage the available space to only take what you need with you when you venture out for the evening. By keeping your wallet as slim as possible, you won't have to worry about inadvertently bulking up your pocket space to the point where all that extra density is visible from the outside of your suit or trouser pockets. All those non-essential items in your wallet are better left at home, as your formal ensemble will look sleeker as a result. Keeping your wallet lighter is also beneficial for the longevity of your formal wear. By using less of your pocket space available, you'll generate less friction on the fabric and the seams over time. 

--Use Alternatives-- 

There are times when clearing out your wallet simply doesn't go far enough. Depending on your wallet's design, the shell of it might just be too big for certain formal garments. With more tapered styles like British and Italian suits, even the slimmest wallets can be noticed through the outer fabric. While some gentlemen insist on the virtues of carrying your credit cards, ID cards, and other essentials loose in your pockets, you run the risk of having them all fall out and getting lost. But carrying them in a wallet, even when you try to slim it down as much as possible, comes with its own set of problems, too, as this is limited by the dimensions of the wallet itself. Thankfully, there are other options, with varying degrees of improvisation and ingenuity. 

While money clips aren't quite as popular as they used to be, they can do wonders for keeping the pleats in your trousers looking the way they should. A money clip functions in the same way as a wallet does, only without the extra compartments and outer shell. Since it merely clips your cards, cash, and whatever else you want to carry together, it will stay unnoticed in your pockets so long as you keep those items in the money clip to a minimum. Because of their smaller size, money clips tend to force you to carry less with you from the start, which is of course advantageous when you're donning any sort of formal attire. If you compare a wallet to, say, a walk-in closet, a money clip is more like a dresser drawer. You'll be able to take what you need with you, and nothing you don't. 

As a matter of personal preference, however, not everyone is going to be on board with swapping out a wallet for a money clip. The biggest disadvantage of a money clip is that if you're set on carrying cash, it's going to be visible whenever you take it out of your pocket. Thankfully there are a couple solutions to this problem. 

Although smoking is less fashionable than it used to be, an old cigarette case can be repurposed as a wallet very easily. In general they will be thinner than a wallet, more durable with a hard outer shell, and be able to accommodate your cards on one side and your cash on the other without any bulk. You might even be able to fit one or two keys in there without having to take an entire lanyard or keychain with you. As an added bonus, the contents inside will be completely concealed from any prying eyes. Business card holders can also be reused for this purpose, but this tends to work best if you don't plan on carrying any cash. Whether you opt for a cigarette case or a business card holder, both should easily fit into your jacket or pants pockets without being noticed or causing any discomfort. 

--Cell Phones-- 

While some gentlemen find it liberating to leave their cell phones at home for a night out, this isn't always the most practical thing to do. Since so much of the modern world is connected through these devices now, for some it's a bit daunting to even consider the idea of leaving home without it. Thankfully, most phones are thin enough to fit into the inside pockets of your jacket without being visible from the outside, but the phone's case might not be. If you can see your phone through your jacket when it's buttoned, you should consider removing it from its case to take away that extra layer of bulk that can tarnish the look of an otherwise dapper and distinguished formal ensemble. 

In short, when you head out to your next formal event, you're better off taking only the items you need without lugging everything you think you might need with you. Your custom suits will not only last longer but also look better and sleeker as a result.