Phil Factor (4/26/2016)

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@Eric,

The rise of rhyming slang was in response to the increasing enforcement of London's censorship laws. Originally, it was only used by a small number of cockney gangs and as a coded speech amongst actors, but was adopted by the popular music halls where entire sketches and songs were done in them to avoid the lord chancellor taking away their license. Any officer of the law would be baffled by all the laughter, cheers and whistles that accompanied the bizarre recitatives. The rhyming slang was generally chosen for its ironic element.

It is still useful for the Englishman travelling abroad to speak it so as to avoid accidentally causing any offence to the locals.

I can find no explanation for calling a suit a 'whistle' (whistle and flute) but it happened. I suspect that it applied to a 'loud' suit (bright colours or flashy tailoring)