A codpiece is a covering flap or pouch that attaches to the front of the crotch of men's trousers, enclosing the genital area. It may be held closed by string ties, buttons, folds, or other methods. It was an important fashion item of European clothing during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. In the modern era, clothing devices with similar functions as codpieces are worn in some styles of underwear, in the leather subculture, and in performance costumes, such as for rock music and metal musicians. A similar device with rigid construction, an athletic cup, is used as protective underwear for male athletes.
In European fashion
From the ancient world there are extant depictions of articles of clothing designed to cover just the male genitalia; for example, archaeological recovery at MinoanKnossos on Crete has yielded figurines, some of whom wear only a garment covering the male genitalia. However, the codpiece, per se, appeared in everyday European fashion for men only many centuries later, associated with hose and trousers. by Titian in 1533 wearing a codpiece with short doublet, Museo del Prado. In fourteenth century European fashions, men's hose were two separate legs worn over linen drawers, leaving a man's genitals covered only by a layer of the linen drawers. As the century wore on and men's hemline fashion rose, the hose became longer and joined at the centre back, there rising to the waist, but remaining open at the centre front. Further shortening of the cote or doublet fashion resulted in more prominence of the genitals, so the codpiece began life as a triangular piece of fabric covering the gap to disguise that. Most of what is known about the cut, fit, and materials used for Renaissance codpieces is through portraits, clothing inventories, receipts for payments and tailor cutting guides. , Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan , Metropolitan Museum of Art As time passed, codpieces became shaped and padded to emphasize rather than to conceal, mostly the penis. It even became fashionable to design the codpiece to hold the penis in a position that insinuated that it was erect constantly. Such excessive codpieces became an object of derision showered on outlandish fashions. The Renaissance author, François Rabelais, refers satirically to a book entitled On the Dignity of Codpieces, in the foreword to his 1532 book, The Histories of Gargantua and Pantagruel. This fashion reached its peak of size and decoration in the 1540s before falling out of use by the 1590s. Suits of armor of the sixteenth century followed civilian fashion, and for a time, codpieces were a prominent addition to the best full suits. A few examples of full suits of armor with codpieces are on display in museums today. The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City has one. The Higgins Armory in Worcester, Massachusetts also had an example on display until its close. The armor of Henry VIII displayed in the Tower of London has a codpiece as well. Examples of metal parts of such armor, seen here, are depicted by Wendelin Boeheim in his 1890 publication on the history of weapons, Handbuch der Waffenkunde, which was published in Leipzig, Germany.
Derivatives in contemporary costumes
Subcultural attire
A jock strap is another protective article of clothing that resembles a codpiece. Imitations of them made of leather may be worn in leather subcultural attire to cover and confine the genitals of a man, sometimes while wearing leather chaps. Rather than accentuating the male genitalia through exaggeration of the size of the wearer's penis and testicles, attention may be drawn to the genital area through decorative adornment such as metallic studs in such articles of clothing.
This type of clothing crossed over from the leather subculture to become an established part of heavy metal fashion performance costume when Rob Halford, of the bandJudas Priest, began wearing clothing adopted from the gay biker and leather subculture while promoting the Killing Machine album in 1978. Heavy metal singer King Diamond has been known to wear a similar article of clothing as part of his performance outfits. Black metal musician and Satanist Infernus wore this type of clothing as part of his attire during the Ad Majorem Sathanas Gloriam era of Gorgoroth. GWAR frontman Oderus Urungus also wore something he called The Cuttlefish of Cthulhu, that resembles the crossover article.
Derivatives occasionally make an appearance on the haute couture catwalk. Jean Paul Gaultier, Thom Brown and Versace are designers who have used similar designs to explore themes of masculinity and sexuality.
