The History of the Swimsuit
The swimsuit is an essential item of clothing if you find yourself on a beach or at the pool. A garment that allows you to swim freely and comfortably without exposing yourself and staying highly fashionable. In an age where bikinis are the norm, we have forgotten about the past of the swimsuit, shrouded in misogyny, sexism and a deep fear of nudity. As we descend deeper into the Summer months, let’s take a look at the history of the swimsuit.
This may shock you, but humans haven’t always been disgusted by the naked form in public. In fact, this is a rather new concept. In classical civilisation, swimming was mostly done in the nude and those who visited Roman bathhouses were incredibly comfortable being nude among friends and strangers alike. It is interesting to note that there are Roman murals which depict women playing sport while wearing two-piece clothing that covers the breasts and genitals, bearing a striking resemblance to the bikini. But there does not seem to be any evidence of these being used for swimming, and all classical artwork of swimmers portrays swimmers in the nude.
Roman mosaic showing girls in ‘bikinis’. Photo: Jos Dielis
Many ancient civilisations, like the Romans and Greeks, did not shy away from nudity, after all it is the most natural state a being can possess. However, as time progressed views on nudity and swimming changed and by the Renaissance swimming was strongly discouraged. There is evidence to suggest that until around the 1670s it was still common practice for females to bathe nude in the spas and that after this time women began to bathe clothed. English writer Celia Fiennes (1662-1741), gives an insightful description of bathing costumes of 1687:
“The Ladyes go into the bath with garments made of a fine yellow canvas, which is stiff and made large with great sleeves like a parson’s gown; the water fills it up so that it is borne off that your shape is not seen, it does not cling close as other lining, which lookes sadly in the poorer sort that go in their own lining. The Gentlemen have drawers and wasitcoates of the same sort of canvas, this is the best lining, for the bath water will change any other yellow.”
By the 18th century, swimming was seen to signal doubtful morality and was only acceptable if used to benefit one’s health. If one did find themselves bathing in the sea, you would wear a bathing gown. A loose-fitting, ankle-length, full-sleeve chemise gown made of wool or flannel, ensuring decency was never threatened. Men were able to get away with wearing far less if they went swimming - not really a surprise. Although the bathing gown was seen as standard, up until 1860 there were no laws in the UK against nude swimming, and each town and county could make their own laws regarding this. When these laws came into practice many men protested as they wanted to remain in the nude. It was at this point the modern swimsuit came into being.
1858 women’s bathing suit
In Western culture in the Victorian era, nudity was seen as abhorrent and people took great effort to cover themselves and ensure their modesty, and so, as mentioned above, the swimsuit was invented in the mid-1800s. The 19th century saw great development in transport and the railway systems and so wealthier Victorians could travel more easily to the beaches for recreation. These swimsuits do not resemble anything we would wear to swim in today, with women wearing belted dresses over long bloomers. They were generally made from thick and heavy flannel fabrics, and it doesn’t take a genius to realise how dangerous this was. Drowning has been one of the most common causes of death throughout history due to fabrics used in clothing. If you find yourself in a mass of water, wearing incredibly thick fabrics which absorb that water, you are going to find it incredibly hard to emerge from that water safely. Oh, and to add insult to injury, some would also sew weights into the bottoms of their dresses for additional modesty.
Women in bathing suit emerging from a bathing machine, 1893.
To further aid decency, some beaches had bathing machines. These were small, wheeled bathing stations where one could change in complete privacy and some even wheeled into the shallow waters so one could enter the water without being seen by others. As the century progressed, sleeves on these swimsuits began to disappear in France and the bottoms became shorter, reaching only the knees. How racy? In America, beauty pageants, with women competing in swimsuits, started to gain popularity in the 1880s, but these events were not seen as respectable.
Annette Kellerman, circa 1900.
In the early 20th century women’s swimwear slowly became less restrictive with women gradually beginning to expose their arms and rising hemlines. Annette Kellerman was a synchronised swimmer from Australia, and when she visited the USA in 1907 she caused quite the furore. For doing what you ask? Weaning a swimsuit that showed her arms, legs and her neck, a style almost identical to swimwear worn by men at the time. After being arrested for public indecency, Kellerman changed her ‘provocative’ swimsuit to have long arms, legs and a collar, but still keeping a close fit to the body. Soon after she marketed a new line of one-piece swimsuits which would come to be known as “the Annette Kellerman”. These one-piece suits became socially accepted in parts of Europe around 1910. Men’s swimming was part of the Olympics for years, but women’s competition was only introduced in 1912, with competitors from 17 countries taking part. Half of the women taking part wore suits similar to the design of Kellerman’s one-piece swimsuit. The rise of Hollywood and the silent film helped catapult the swimsuit into the common domain, with films such as The Water Nymph(1912) showing star Mabel Normand in revealing swimwear. Seriously, look what happened to Mabel!
The 1920s saw people shift from wanting to swim to wanting to sunbathe, and so swimwear started to become more decorative than functional. Rayon began to be used in the manufacture of tight-fitting swimsuits, along with jersey and silk, but these all proved to be problematic when wet as fabrics like rayon lose most of their strength when wet, leading to breakages and tears in the fabric. By the 1930s, views about nudity were beginning to slowly change, and men began to go shirtless when swimming, with barechestedness being the norm in male swimming by the end of the 1940s, including in competitive swimming sports. For women, things changed too. Necklines began to plunge and sleeves all but disappeared, and with the development of latex and nylon, swimsuits were more form-fitting than ever.
Women in bathing suits 1923
With war ravaging the world in the 1940s, fabrics became rationed, with the United States War Production Board issuing a 10% reduction in the amount of fabric used in women’s swimwear. And so, two-piece swimsuits that exposed the midriff were born. This new swimsuit was called the bikini, named after the Bikini Atoll, a test site for nuclear weapons. Of course, many opposed the new bikini, citing it as morally indecent, but their popularity never stopped increasing. Especially with stars like Brigitte Bardot wearing them in films such as Manina, the Girl in the Bikini (1952).
As the 20th century advanced, swimwear became more revealing and fabric technologies meant practical swimwear was more effective in sports. In 1956, Speedo became the first company to fully introduce nylon, and by the 1970s Speedo added elastane to their swimsuits to help improve durability. At the 1972 Olympics, 21 out of 22 records were broken by swimmers wearing nylon or elastane suits. The series Baywatch (1989-2001) was home to the iconic red one-piece, making swimsuits like these fly off the shelves. In 2020, as long as you’re not naked, pretty much anything goes if you’re at the beach or by the pool, with some companies like Fashion Nova and Pretty Little Thing basically selling strings as bikinis.
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