Swimming Costumes; A History of Ridiculous Design
Swimwear has a history peppered with outlandish mistakes. It's hard to find an area of fashion where the costume design has been so absolutely unsuited to the purpose intended.
In antiquity they had the right idea. Bathing was segregated and nude; akin to a group bath. There was a brief dip into swimwear: a wall mosaic from the 4th Century shows girls dressed in "bikinis". The look didn't last.
In the dark and middle ages nobody bathed at all. There are certainly no records of any special swimming costumes worn for bathing, and in Europe, "bath houses" went out with the Romans.
Swimming reappeared as a sport in the 19th Century. Men wore long, fitted woolen one piece suits, looking a bit like long underwear and no doubt itchy, but reasonably practical to swim in. This look lasted a century, getting shorter and a bit more colourful by the 1920s.
The girls finally got into the water for fun in Victorian times. This was an age when modesty and decorum took precedence over practicality. Ladies wore cumbersome and dangerously heavy bathing gowns, the strict morality of the time ensuring flesh was covered, curves were obscured and the thick, black, woolen garment was not see-though when wet. Lead weights in the hem of the gown stopped the dress floating up in the water.
Recreational swimming gained popularity when the railroads started transporting families to the coast. "Bathing machines" meant girls and women could change and submerge in the sea without the titillating exposure of nude skin. The dress evolved into a two piece suit; a long sleeved gown to the knees, plus long pantaloons.
About the author: Cristina Sanders is managing director of swimwear brand Lion in the Sun. Now based in her native New Zealand after 20 years in the UK, Cristina has run the manufacturing, wholesale and retail side of her business for the last 10 years, gaining extensive knowledge of the swimwear industry on both sides of the world and acquiring experience in the dynamic world of small business ownership. Cristina lives and works in sunny Hawkes Bay in New Zealand, spending as many hours as possible on a beach researching and testing her swimwear. Her argument is that if you want to make brilliant swimwear, you need to see it in action, swimwear that looks good in a catalogue also has to fit, last and look good on the beach to keep the customers coming back for more. http://www.lioninthesun.com/
Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/fashion-articles/swimming-costumes-a-history-of-ridiculous-design-940961.html
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