Padding

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This article is about clothing. For the cryptographic use of the term, see Padding (cryptography).

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Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (May 2007)

In fashion, padding is material sometimes added to clothes. It is often done in an attempt to enhance appearance by 'improving' a physical feature, often a sexually significant one. Thus, there is padding for:

Breasts (sometimes called falsies)
The male crotch (usually called a codpiece)
Height (usually in shoes and often called elevator shoes)
Width of shoulders (in coats and other garments for men, and sometimes for women)

Advantages

Some padding is added to emphasize particular physical features that are usually not present. Women, for instance, rarely have prominent shoulders, but for some years shoulder pads have been added to dresses (blouses, etc). The effect was unnatural for women, but gave them a more masculine outline which was sometimes thought to be of benefit in business situations.

Padding in undergarments is also used by some crossdressers. This may include a form of padding in the shape of male genitals worn in the underwear of a female who is passing as a male, or Hip and buttock padding worn by a male who is passing as a female.

Padding is also added to clothing for insulation or cushioning reasons. Thus, many coats and outergarments (especially those for outdoor use in cold climates) are padded with such materials as felt or down or feathers or artificial insulations. Cushioning padding is included in some sporting goods, especially those intended for use in combat sports (eg, fencing, some martial arts, etc). Garments intended for actual use in combat were once commonly padded (e.g., by the ancient Greeks under armor, or by the Japanese until the mid-19th century), but have largely been replaced by light armor made of, for instance, Kevlar. If included in a vest, such armor makes a bullet-proof vest.

Paradoxically, padding can also be part of punitive apparatus, notably

to prevent the punishee getting injured on the front side from scaving against the wood or metal while squirming from the pain purposefully inflicted on the backside
sometimes on a punishee who is wholly or partially undressed for strokes administered on the bare skin, especially severe caning, to avoid accidental damage when the wrong part of the body (e.g. the reins) is hit instead of the target (usually the buttocks or back).