‘Codpiece envy’: fashion reinvents 16th century accessory
Renaissance revival focuses attention on Tudor-style ‘power dressing’
Fashion has embraced the codpiece again, centuries after it fell out of style.
Gucci’s Alessandro Michele revived the accessory for his spring/summer 2019 show: rendered in leather and snakeskin, worn harness-like and evoking Robert Mapplethorpe; in shiny diamante, hanging like a glitter ball; and framed like a seashell clutching the symbolic pearl.