In yesterday's post, we looked at a vintage photoshoot from the mid-'50s that featured some rather peculiar bikinis. Today, let's travel further back in time while staying on the same topic, as we explore a feature published in Life magazine in its July 9, 1945, issue.
The cover model, 20-year-old Paddy Ellerton, sported a striped panung bathing suit with trunks that buttoned up the sides and the magazine included an article that traced the evolution of bathing suits from 1905 to 1945.
According to the feature, a woman's bathing suit in 1905 required ten yards of fabric, whereas by 1945, only one yard was used. This statistic illustrated how bathing suits evolved over time, with more skin being exposed as the decades went by.
A significant figure in this evolution was Annette Kellerman, the first famous female swimmer, who, in 1910, discarded the ruffles and heavy corseted dresses typically worn as swimwear and opted for a sleek, one-piece suit. Following Kellerman, the Sennett Bathing Beauties - a group of women performing in bathing costumes in silent film shorts produced by Mack Sennett (View this photo) - along with the Atlantic City bathing girls, further popularized daring swimwear.
In 1926, Gertrude Ederle swam the English Channel in a brassiere and shorts, a practical choice that encouraged other women, even those less athletic, to adopt bolder styles.
From that point onward, bathing suit manufacturers continued to trim away fabric year after year. Life chronicled these changes in a photoshoot showcasing swimsuits from 1917 to 1945. The article noted how far bathing suits had come but confidently claimed they "cannot go any further." Yet, as time has proven, they certainly did - something we also remembered in the recent Peggy Moffitt obituary.
The images in Life are charming and inspiring (even if today's beachgoers wouldn't opt for black tights…): the feature highlights everything from tight-fitted knit suits to latex bathing suits, belted designs, creations adorned with fancy frills or Jantzen's early swimwear styles. Notably, it includes the infamous 1933 maillot that caused such a stir when displayed in a New York storefront window that police had to manage the crowds since it was skintight and daringly low-cut in the back.
Although this Life feature provides a limited overview (and as we've discussed in another post, versions of two-piece swimwear date back to Roman times…), it remains a delightful read.
Fashion design students, now it's your turn: try and expand this survey by covering swimwear from 1945 to 2025 with drawings, sketches, illustrations and photographs.
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