By The Sea, By The Sea

My Aunt Gertrude had a beautiful smile and eyes.  Here she is enjoying a day at the beach in her fetching bathing outfit circa late teens early twenties. If you look especially closer you can see beach chairs and a pavilion in the background of the photograph. I think that this bathing suit was styled after the two piece dress worn pre 1920 style. Note the long skirt, stockings and bathing shoes. I wonder what my Aunt would of thought of today's swimming gear. I think she would have liked the styles and how they looked and felt. You can tell from the photographs that I have of her she took great pleasure and effort when coordinating her outfits.

Fashion history was shocked into the 20th century with some of the newer all revealing figure hugging swimsuits that revealed the body limbs more clearly than ever before.

Liberated from long skirts, young women of the twenties wore a figure hugging wool jersey sleeveless tank suit.

Left and right - bathing beauties in the 1920s and below in 1928

The swimming suit was ideal for the androgynous athletic figure that fashion suited best in the 20s.  It looked very similar to male swimming costumes of an earlier era. 

The swimsuit legs stopped at an unflattering point mid thigh and beneath the swimsuit legs were built-in modesty shorts. 

Swimsuits were often in dramatic abstract patterns or stripes and those with poorer figures covered them up with wraps.

Whilst the new bathing cap of the 1920s, ideally suited to bobbed hair was not unlike the cloche hat of the same era.

The photograph found below  is of a friend of my Aunt's probably taken the same day. The one to the right (middle) resembles my father's side relatives and is possibly of  his mother (left) And her sisters to the right. If you recognize any of the photographs please contact me by email or leaving a comment. The photograph found all the way to the right is of my Aunt with a 20's bathing suit possibly taken on a different day. You can see how the bathing suit is made of jersey fabric and shows off more of the figure.