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 Every year, swimwear is getting an inch closer to ‘not being
there'. A couple of centuries ago, champions of public morals were probably clamoring
the loss of virtue in sight of modest bathing suits that actually looked like
clothes, and not threads. However, this is to be expected: fashion evolves by
its own rules, and what is now considered the norm, a century ago would have
caused an outrage. Especially when it comes to bathing suit which over the
years has undergone multiple transformations - probably more than any other
article of clothing.
The Late Offspring of Fashion
The swimsuit has a very interesting story. As a particular
article of clothing, it did not appear until the early twentieth century;
consider it part of our legacy to future generations as its first cycle of
returning to its original form nears the completion of its cycle.
In classical antiquity swimming and bathing was most often
done nude. In some settings coverings were used. Murals at Pompeii show women
wearing two-piece suits covering the areas around their breasts and hips. After
this, the notion of special water apparel seems to have been lost for
centuries.
In the 18th century women wore ‘bathing gowns' in the water;
these were long dresses of fabrics that would not become transparent when wet,
with weights sewed into the hems so that they would not rise up in the water.
From Modesty to Frivolity
The evolution of swimwear in the 20th century became the
course of discarding the uncomfortable corset and the work eroticizing the body
was done by exposing more and more skin.
At the turn of the 20th century, female swimmers went to
extraordinary lengths to conceal themselves at the beach. They wore voluminous
bathing costumes and even made use of a peculiar Victorian contraption called
the bathing machine, essentially a small wooden or canvas hut on wheels. The
bather entered the machine fully dressed and donned her swimming clothes
inside. Then, horses (or occasionally humans) pulled the cart into the surf.
The bather would disembark on the seaside, where she could take a dip without
being observed from the shore. Suntans were considered a sign of low class, so
many women covered their heads and faces.
In 1907, Australian Annette Kellerman caused quite a stir,
when she was arrested in the United States for indecent exposure, as her formfitting
one-piece swimsuit showed arms, legs and the neck. Kellerman changed the suit
to have long arms and legs, and a collar, still keeping the close fit revealing
the shapes underneath.
In 1913, inspired by the introduction of female athletes
into Olympic swimming events, the designer Carl Jantzen made the first
functional two-piece swimwear, a close-fitting one-piece with shorts on the
bottom and short sleeves on top. The swimsuit apron, a popular design for early
swimwear, disappeared by 1918, leaving a tunic covering the shorts.
Though matching stockings were still worn, bare legs were
exposed from the bottom of the trunks to the top of the shorts. With the advent
of new materials like lastex and nylon, by 1934 the swimsuit started hugging
the body and was constructed to allow shoulder straps to be lowered for tanning.
The Less, the Better
In 1946, French car engineer Louis Reard who was running his
mother's lingerie boutique and designed a prototype for a new kind of beach
costume. It comprised two pieces, the bottom large enough to cover its wearer's
navel. He sliced the top off the bottoms and advertised it as ‘smaller than the
smallest swimsuit'. The idea struck him when he saw women rolling up their
beachwear to get a better tan. Reard named it after Bikini Atoll in the
Pacific, the site of the Operation Crossroads nuclear weapon test on July 1,
1946. The reasoning for the name was that the burst of excitement created by it
would be like a nuclear device. French newspaper Le Figaro wrote, ‘People were
craving the simple pleasures of the sea and the sun. For women, wearing a
bikini signaled a kind of second liberation. There was really nothing sexual
about this. It was instead a celebration of freedom and a return to the joys in
life.'
Today and Tomorrow
Today, bikini coexist along with far less revealing one- and
two-piece swimwear. The choice of the
swimsuit is always a very personal and quite difficult choice. There are those
who are inspired by trends, those who wants only a specific model or color and
those who trust only the first-sight.
The swimsuits are fundamental clothing and the summer 2010 offers
many opportunities. The novelty of this year in the beachwear department seems
to be the trikini, which is a mix between the bikini and the one-piece, joined
by a piece of cloth in the front. In France this model has already drawn the
crowds, on the beaches they have been sold like hot cakes and surely also in
Italy will see a lot of them. After many years of shy appearances on beaches
and on the catwalks, but in the end always overshadowed by the most popular
bikini, this should be the year of the turning point and mark the arrival en
masse of the trikini on beaches. But the trikini is suggested just for who
really has a perfect body or almost, for who has the flat belly, or who has
narrow shoulder and wide hips, which are thus minimized.
Also with regard to the slip, there are infinite variations
from the traditional one to the tanga, passing by the loincloth, culottes and
slip with side ties. Depending on how you choose the piece below, you can get a
different result on your body. In the culottes is advised to who has a very
thin body, because it shortens the length of the leg and makes seem wider, side
laces, instead, seize and make the figure look more lean and higher.
As for colors and patterns, the choice is obviously very
broad. An always fashionable color is white, a very glam and sophisticated
color, but only as long as you are well tanned.
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