The Mysterious D-Pocket: Myths and Legends

The most amazing jackets I have seen over the years have a d shaped pocket on the front. This pocket configuration almost never shoes up on European jackets. I makes me wonder who came up with this design feature first? It shows up on the earliest jackets of the 30s. I asked the founder of a motorcycle jacket company about the "d pocket" and he referred to a jacket that he produced in the forties as having a curved patch pocket with a zipper, lol. Legend and common terms for this pocket often refer to it as a map pocket or a gun pocket. It often looks to have the perfect shape to hold a pistol, with a surface pocket to hold ammo. Others use map pocket implying that navigational papers might be stored there. The canvass jacket in the pictures is an actual WW 2 Japanese flight jacket with what was referred to as a "map" pocket. Patch pockets typically appeared on early jackets as a simple external pouch or wallet like device. Perhaps unique to North America the instinct to attach an external money pouch translated into the simple d pocket. What ever its origins, it is one of the coolest features of the North American Leather Jackets!