Codpiece

     As requested by my friend Kristin Larkins, this post is simply about the codpiece.  I'm quite confident that without much explanation, you can imagine exactly what a codpiece is.  Some things never change and the codpiece is an example of this.

     Back in the 15th century, men wore doublets which were kind of like nightshirts that modern women wear except the men wore these all the time.  Doublets hit right above the thigh.  Needless to say they were pretty short so men wore hose underneath their doublets.  Similar to modern day tights, hose laced around the lower hem of the doublet to stay in place.  A pouch of fabric called the codpiece was sewn into the garment to um you know, hold the stuff in place.  Sometimes these codpieces were more prominent than others.  Like I said, some things never change!  For those curious souls, below is a picture titled "Portrait of Lodovico Capponi" by Angolo Bronzino.