Jun 16, 2011
Early swimsuits for women, 1864
The early 1860s saw some of the first dedicated bathing costumes for women. This fashion plate from 1864 shows a variety of styles all made of warm wool flannel. The Romantic era notion of delicate women catching a chill and dying, especially when wet, was still very prevalent.
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Well, so much for this being a family-friendly blog. Have you no shame?
Looking for the Speedo label… but can’t quite see it.
What a bunch of floozies.
Hey Honey! Why don’t you swim out aways and I’ll take your picture from the beach?
I wonder if they took the hats off before they got in the water?
Their waists are very tiny – surely they didn’t wear their corsets while swimming? Wool flannel would have gotten very heavy when wet. Wonder if there are records of how many women drowned encumbered by their swimwear?
wool flannel is what i use to make my children’s diaper covers because it is extremely absorbent. hooray for modesty, but could they of picked a better fabric?
Wool retains much of its insulating power, even when wet. They chose it, apparently, so the water-soaked women wouldn’t die of chill.
However, they found that trying to swim in a hundred pound bathing suit was also detrimental to one’s health.
I love old swimming costumes. There are place you can buy them from now (both custom sized and not), but generally their fabric isn’t ideal for chlorine water :(
I believe these should more properly be called bathing costumes. I’m pretty sure swimming wasn’t done in these.
My X3 watch report is gonna be off the charts on this one.
“Delicate?” Funny how men call women that, yet they would NEVER survive giving birth, let alone having monthly periods!
Wool flannel is water repellant- it does not absorb and hold water like a cotton or other available material would. I have swum in my reproduction 1860s bathing costume, and the wool remains very light.
From original images (as opposed to these- high fashion images out of a magazine), no women did not usually wear corsets into the water, or hats. Some wore oiled silk caps to keep their hair dry/tidy, similar to bathing caps commonly worn until the mid 20th ce.
Neither attractive nor functional- I’m really glad those went out of style before I was born. :P