Swimmin<T Costume 



Bathing costume did not evoixe gracefully into the 

 swim suit, nor was there an abrupt replacement of 

 one garment for the other. Instead, a garb designed 

 for swimming emerged in the 19th century as tenta- 

 tively and as poorly received as had the suggestion 

 that women should be active in the water. The grow- 

 ing popularity of swimming and the changing status 

 of women eventually made it possiijle for the swim- 

 ming suit to replace the bathing suit in the 1920s. By 

 the 1930s, however, this trend was accelerated by a 

 growing advertising and ready-to-wear clothing 

 industry. Thus a history of the swimming costume 

 tends to divide itself into two sections; early swimming 

 suits and the influence of the swim suit industry. 



EARLY SWIMMING SUITS 



The earliest reference to swimming costume I have 

 found was in 1869. At this date swimming in the 

 United States was considered a masculine skill, 

 exercise, and recreation; only men were provided 

 with a real opportimity to swim at popular watering 

 places As described pre\iously, Harpn's Bazar 

 reported that American women in general rejected 

 the European bathing suit made with long trousers 

 and a skirtless waist. Nevertheless, this costume was 

 ". . . worn by expert swimmers, who do not wish to 

 be enciuubered with bulky clothing." ^^ 



In the 1870s the rare descriptions of this more 

 fimctional garment — called '"swimming suit" e\en 

 at this early date — were limited to a sentence or two 

 buried within long columns of fine print describing 

 popular bathing apparel. One mentions a "... 

 single knitted worsted garment, fitting the figure, with 

 waist and trousers in one."^' Another was made with- 

 out sleexes as "one garment, the blouse and trousers 

 being ctit all in one, like the sleeping garments worn 

 by small children." ■^" These more practical bifurcated 

 garments probably derived from the European suit 

 of the 1860s that had been rejected by the majority of 

 American women. For example, an English soiu'ce 

 reported that in 1866 the following garment was 

 worn; "'. . . Swinuning Costiune, a body and 



trousers cut in one, secures perfect liberty of action 

 and does not expose the figure." ^' 



The descriptions of American swimming suits, 

 howe\er brief, offered e\"idence that the pastime was 

 growing in popularity with women. Generally 

 speaking, 19th century women's magazines were mere 

 disseminators of fine and decorous ideas and prac- 

 tices for well-mannered ladies; their editors were not 

 innovators. With such an editorial policy it is under- 

 standable that these magazines would itot, as a rule, 

 publicize trends of popular origin imtil they were 

 fairly well established. The skirtless swimming suit of 

 the 1870s was no doubt more common in the United 

 States than its meager description in Harper's Bazar 

 would seem to indicate. 



As long as feminine swimming was not generally 

 accepted, however, efforts to de\elop practical swim- 

 ming suits remained isolated owing to the lack of 

 communication between manufacturer and consumer 

 and to traditional attitudes. Feminine interest in 

 swimming and physical actixities threatened belief 

 in the '"weaker-sex" that contributed to maintaining 

 the traditional masculine and feminine roles; efforts 

 to develop functional swimming dress also attacked 

 established standards of feminine modesty. These 

 challenges to the status quo were met with the weapon 

 of the complacent majority — silence. Consequently, 

 from the third quarter of the 19th century, when we 

 find the first reference to a specialized garment for 

 swimming in the United States, writings on swimming 

 costume appeared infrequently until the 1920s. 



In 1886 two "ladies' bathing jerseys" and two bath- 

 ing suits of the traditional type appeared in the First 

 Illustrated Catalogue of Knitted Bathing Suits of J. J. 

 Pfister Company in San Francisco. The captions 

 over the illustrations leave no c[uestion that the 

 briefer bathing jerseys were intended for swimming 

 while the others were for bathing. These jerseys — 

 form-fitting tunics that were mid-thigh in length — 

 were made with high necks and cap sleeves. Under- 

 neath this garment women wore trunks that extended 

 to the knee and stockings; there was also the alternate 

 choice of tights, a combination of trtmks and stock- 

 ings. To complete the outfit the feminine reader was 

 encouraged to buy a knitted skull cap. 



Apparenth- these bathing jerseys were successful; 

 three, instead of two. jerseys appeared in the same 



*'' ""New York Fashions," Harper's Bazar (July H), 1869), vol. 

 2, no. 28, p. 435. 

 <" Ibid. (July 13, 1872), vol. 5. no. 28. p. 4;V_). 

 ■■" Ibid. (July 2,i, 1874), vol. 7, no. 31). p. 475. 



■'■' As quoted in C. VVillett CuNNrNGTON, English Women's 

 Clol/iing in tlie 19 ih Century (New York: Thomas Yoseloff, 1958), 

 p. 225. 



24 



BULLETIN 250; CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE MUSEUM OF HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY 



