Renaissance High Fashion — The CodpieceDuring the 1500’s men’s fashion certainly t

Renaissance High Fashion — The CodpieceDuring the 1500’s men’s fashion certainly took a turn towards the weird.  By the late middle ages and early Renaissance period the typical outfit for an upper class gentleman was a doublet combined with tight hose or leggings worn over a layer of linen.  However by the early 1500’s fashion dictated that male hemlines rise, leaving his genitals only to be covered by a thin layer of linen.  The solution of this embarrassing problem was to cover the groin with a large piece of padded cloth to better hide a man’s gibblets.  However by the mid 1500’s the styles of codpieces shifted to emphasize the size of a man’s exposed manhood rather than conceal.  Codpieces were made in a wide variety of sizes, shapes, and decorations to further accentuate its wearers manhood.  Men of the age were literally in a chauvinistic contest of male genitalia exhibitionism as kings, emperors, and nobles wore larger and gaudier codpieces to show off their large pieces. On occasions even suits of jousting armor were made with large, conspicuous steel pieces.  Fortunately by the late 1500’s codpiece mania began to wane so that by the 1600’s the codpiece was dropped from men’s fashion altogether. -- source link

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