Swim wear. Betty was conservative to the point of reactionary-ism concerning fashion (See yesterday's fabric roundup). Occasional mini skirts (I can only recall the one where the Dutch fink asks our Ara
minta if she really has the figure to pull off that length and she freezes him with a glacial stare), occasional trousers and tiny bodices (for married ladies)...Otherwise heroines were sporting the same sensible "Doctor's wife" outfits (knee length skirt, silk blouse, charming up-do, court shoes with coordinating leather handbag) into the 21st century.And then her heroines hit the beach. This conventional-leaning lady, born in 1910 and hitting her swim wear stri
de during the swell of the Great Depression (what do they call it in GB?--the Late Unpleasantness?) was wearing what? I'm thinking she wasn't doing much bikini sporting (see right for standard 30s swim gear). But nearly every heroine who swims does so in a bikini. (Was there a 70s bikini conspiracy I'm not aware of?)Anyway, I'm (because I was on a swim team probably, among other reasons) a strictly functional swim suit gal. One piece, not too terribly low cut as I usually have a few kids to teach and keep from drowning and since I'm bent over double as I stand in the shallows I want to leave a little mystery to the toddlers bobbing along the surface...
So, my question is: What was your most successful bathing suit and are you horrified now that you ever wore such a thing? (Bonus points if you made it yourself.)
Oh goody, I get bonus points! I shall call this comment "A Tale of Two Swimsuits".
ReplyDeleteSwimsuit #1
When I was about 11 years old (before puberty hit, and trust me, this is important)Mom made matching 2 piece(!)swimsuits for Betty Marcy and I. The fabric could best be described as flowered denim. It wasn't actually denim, but it had strong similarities to lightweight denim. The only stretch in these swimsuits was the elastic around the waist and legs. The top fastened in the back with buttons. Yes, buttons (imagine a bra with buttons...yeah). The tops had a cute little skirt thing with a ruffled border that was split up the back. Two problems. One, no stretch...and the onset of puberty was imminent. Two, buttons. With puberty starting to kick in we had to move the buttons...finally resorting to safety pins (which brings me to an incident at the Willamelane pool, a diving board and a missing safety pin...).
Swimsuit #2
I made a swimsuit the summer of my junior year in high school. It was a plain, dark brown lycra one-piece. The front was a cross over - it was a very flattering style (deep neckline, but no cleavage). The only problem was that my sewing skills failed me when it came to applying the elastic to the leg openings. I finally just gave up and didn't put any in. That was fine...It was the summer of 1976 - I did all my swimming outdoors at rivers and lakes, so I just wore a very short pair of cut-offs to hide the lack of elastic.
I have a very dim memory of a white piqué bathing suit from my teens.
ReplyDeleteBut my favorite bathing suit sadly was never worn. White large-scale floral print on periwinkle blue ground, then trimmed in white. It was on sale but in a size I rather optimistically thought I was heading towards. Never made it, alas, and eventually all the elastic rotted out. (I must have packed & moved that suit four times over about 20 years before I finally tossed it.)
Oh, my bad. I forgot to mention that I had sewn the white piqué bathing suit. Let's just say it is not easy to make a bathing suit. And that white piqué is not a good fabric to use for such a project.
ReplyDeleteMy most memorable bathing suit did not belong to me but to my mother. My mom was a very, very slim woman--not an ounce of nice, buoyant fat on her frame. She needed to learn to swim, as we lived on the beach (in Hawaii!). This was late 1950's--there were actually very stylish one piece suits on the market that had discrete 'flotation panels' sewn into the lining of the suit!!! I am so not making this up. Well, the suit kept her from panicking in the water, but she never learned to actually swim.
ReplyDeleteMy best suit was the orange bikini that I wore on my honeymoon, 1972. I kept it for years, until (as happened to Betty Magdalen)the elastic rotted. But the memory lingers on.
Barb
Flotation panels--brilliant but I see your point. Why learn to swim if the suit's doing it for you?
ReplyDeleteI don't think my figure would be improved with flotation panels--no matter how discretely sewn in. ;0)
Happily, I float. My DH sinks. One of the few times where I'm happy I'm -- larger. ("Outsized" as Benedict van Manfeld says to Cassandra Darling.
ReplyDeleteI have one kid who's a sinker. He didn't learn to swim until he was about 12...after his scout leader had to jump into the pool (fully dressed, ruined his cell-phone) and drag the kid out. You'd think he would have been smart enough to tell someone he couldn't swim. Dumbest smart person I know.
ReplyDeleteMe personally, I'm extrememly bouyant.
That reminds me of the line in Gentleman Prefer Blondes. The U.S. Olympic team watch Marilyn Monroe and Jane Russell slink by and one says to the other, "If the ship sinks, which one would you save first?" Answer: "Those girls couldn't sink."
ReplyDeleteI have fond memories of my last swimteam swimsuit. It sucked me in and went up to there and down to there and hid anything that might have resembled unflattering. If mystery is the spice of life... that bathingsuit was very spicy leaving everything to the imagination.
ReplyDeleteI can't swim :(
ReplyDeleteRebekah: ??You can't swim?? What ever happened to "full disclosure"?
ReplyDelete