Reintroduced into the dress code of Henry VIII’s court to cover the embarrassing gap between modishly shortened doublets and gentlemen’s nether hose, the codpiece (Pass notes, 15 December) re-emerged as a must-have fashion item for the chap about town. The sumptuary laws, which dictated what styles, fabrics, colours and sizes of every item of clothing were permitted for which rank of society, resulted in their size and splendour being ever enlarged to emphasise status. In Much Ado About Nothing, Shakespeare refers to “the deformed thief [of] fashion”, which made men appear “like the shaven Hercules … his codpiece seems as massy as his club”. Sadly for lovers of innuendo, by the demise of Elizabeth I, codpieces had been replaced by the less elaborate feature that became the modern fly.
Austen Lynch
Garstang, Lancashire
