In yesterday's post we went back from stretch bathing suits to thick and itchy woolen swimwear. Let's follow this Summer thread with a new post that starts in a seaside resort, Brighton.
One of the first item visitors see when they enter the fashion gallery at the Brighton Museum and Art Gallery is indeed a garment donated by Brighton-based Norman Cook alias Fatboy Slim.
The DJ has more or less been wearing this style of Hawaiian shirt since he first released his track "Santa Cruz" on Brighton-based record label Skint in 1995, and the garment has therefore become part of his trademark style.
The most interesting thing about the shirt is the fact that it wasn't created by a famous designer or a fashion brand, this is indeed just an ordinary multi-coloured shirt in printed cotton, and it is therefore a piece that invites visitors and fashionistas to consider how ordinary garments can contribute to create a person's iconic style (in a nutshell, you don't necessarily need that lavish $19,000 pink fox fur coat by Gucci to become someone special, but you can come up with your own look spending less on clothes while focusing on how to nurture your talent...).
What's on display next to the shirt? A 1920s bathing costume worn by Yetta Salaver, a resident of Hove. In 1852 the French introduced the short skirted dress worn over bloomers that became the standard bathing costume in England and France for the remainder of the 19th century. In the early 1920 women wore either one-piece bathing costumes or tunic and bloomers and this is a perfect and rather well-kept example of the former in a bright shade of cherry red. Have a lovely lazy Summer Sunday!
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