Napoleon kept his privates well hidden, but had he lived in an earlier century he might have donned a brightly colored codpiece, says a new book examining the evolution of male crotch fashion from the Renaissance to today’s zipped-up age.
Codpiece: A History of Clothing and Morals looks at what may be one of the most neglected corners of fashion history — how male genitals started protruding from men’s garments in the 1500s and why they receded over the following centuries.
French author Colette Gouvion uses paintings and photographs to illustrate the book that aims to tell how flies reveal the changing social mores of the West.
Its front cover sports a photo of jazzman Chet Baker zipping up his jeans alongside a 1534 painting of a Spanish nobleman.
That distinguished gentleman wears a dark jacket from which emerges a large codpiece that makes it seem he has an erection. While this may shock the modern viewer, Gouvion says it was a common sight at that time.
“It was an emblem of virility,” she said, noting that before the Renaissance, European men had mostly worn long robes that covered the waist area.
The protective metal codpieces of soldiers were noticed by non-fighting males who found them sexy and had civilian versions made that became more and more extravagant, to the horror of the religious orders.
“Sometimes they had little pockets in them that were used for holding handkerchiefs and other objects, sometimes even fruit which they would keep warm there before offering them to the ladies,” Gouvion said.
However, by the end of the 16th century the sterner morals of both the Reformation and the Counter-Reformation brought an end to such sexual exhibitionism.
Over the next couple of centuries men’s genitals were discreetly covered, but virility or power was often expressed by carrying a walking stick or wearing a top hat. Codpieces gave way to flies: buttons or other fastenings, and later zips. In French the word “braguette” — the title of Gouvion’s book, which she says is the only one on the subject — means both codpiece and flies.
In the 1812 portrait of Napoleon Bonaparte that Gouvion reproduces, the French emperor, his right hand stuck inside his waistcoat, wears a pair of white trousers that are loose around the crotch.
But the painter — and the subject — have nevertheless sought to convey virility by making the contour of the left-hanging genitals slightly visible. Such practices, said Gouvion, were another sneaky way of expressing manhood.
Nineteenth-century sartorial prudishness was pure hypocrisy, she said, as this was an era when sex was rarely talked about in public, but it was also “the greatest era of prostitution, when brothels became social institutions.”
It was only with the rapid rise in popularity of tight jeans in the 20th century that the male crotch regained a hint of the exuberance of the Renaissance.
“You had an outcry from the right-thinking folks who denounced them as indecent ... and you even had some people warning that they would prevent procreation by making men sterile,” Gouvion said.
However, the modern era is still quite prudish, she notes, with certain rock stars, particularly heavy metal bands, members of the leather subculture and bullfighters the only ones left likely to wear real codpieces.
“Today power is in the head, in intelligence, in money. You no longer have to show that you have a powerful member,” she said.
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese