I was fascinated by Mrs. L.B.'s letter in 'Accord' Vol. 2 No.4, and especially by her description of the costume discipline to which she subjected her young brother as a boy. I am sure that her training kept him well-behaved and submissive. I came across a similar case myself about 15 years ago, where the principal instrument of control was not a frock or petticoats, but a pinafore. I met a lady who had moved into a flat in the same house as myself, and I learnt she was a widow, with one son, Nigel, at the time. He seemed a normal, friendly boy whenever I met him on the stairs in his school uniform, but when I was invited for coffee by his mother one evening I was intrigued to discover that Nigel's home attire was very different.

That evening he was dressed in a white silk blouse, which fastened at the back and had a lacy collar and lace at the cuffs of his long sleeves, and a pair of brief blue velvet shorts buttoning at the sides. He wore white knee-length stockings and blue strap shoes with low heels. Over these clothes he had on a smart pinafore of starched white linen, quite full-skirted and fastening at the back with three sets of tapes.

Nigel blushed hotly when he was introduced to me, but I noticed that he was careful not to crease his pinny when sitting down, and it was clear that he was entirely accustomed to his costume. I leant from his mother that he had to change into blouse, shorts and pinny as soon as he returned home from school, and that he wore these clothes all the time at weekends.

His mother told me that Nigel had been undergoing costume discipline for about two years. He had become very unruly and ill-mannered, and as she had no husband to control him she had hit upon this method of keeping him in order. The results had been remarkable, and, like Mrs. L.B., she had found that once Nigel was in a pinafore he became submissive, obedient and well-behaved.

Of course he had at first resisted his discipline and would beg not to be dressed up, but his mother was quite firm and, again like Mrs. L.B.'s brother, his opposition had gradually diminished until he had come to accept to accept his costume, and probably would have felt unhappy without it.

So far as I know Nigel never wore a frock or petticoats, but one evening when I  visited their flat I found he was wearing long nylon stockings in place of his usual white knee-length socks. His mother told me that by mistake all his socks were dirty, so as an experiment she had put him into a suspender belt and a pair of her nylons. She was delighted with the result, and Nigel certainly looked very attractive, for he had nice legs, and from then on he always wore nylons on special occasions. At these times his pinny was even more elaborate than usual---a very pretty garment of alternate panels  of white silk and lace, and he also wore white kid gloves. I saw him several times in this party attire, though he was naturally shy and confused if strangers were present who might tease him about his pinny, no 12-year-old boy could have been more nicely-mannered or better behaved.

After some months Nigel and his mother moved away, and I lost touch with them, so I do not know how long Nigel's pinafore discipline lasted, or what became of him. But I feel sure that this early training would have prepared him perfectly to become an ideal husband for someone of Mrs. L.B.'s inclinations, and I would be very interested to hear of any other readers who have known of males subjected to pinafore or petticoat discipline.

Jill, London, S.W.