"Beach Wrap" (Australian Home Journal 1926)

We have here summer fashions for January 1926. The frock and the “lady’s jumper” are delightful (of course) but I’m go to pay particular attention to the “beach wrap”.

The new beach wraps add muchly to the enjoyment of a summer holiday by the seaside. They may be made from cretonne or sponge cloth.
Our first design is one of the newest models, with a deep yoke and a gathered or bolster collar.

As its name implies, the beach wrap was designed to be worn at the beach, and its basic function was to be thrown over a wet bathing suit when emerging from the water. Originally it might have been intended to preserve modesty—but by the 1920s it had clearly become a garment to show off.

In December 1927 The Home: The Australian Journal of Quality announced:

Colour has come to the beaches, and if one can judge by the signs has certainly come to stay. Gone is the sombre black costume, gone the way of the neck-to-knee and all such… But does it stop there? No, no, my friends! Determined also to attract much attention capes and cloaks have also taken to themselves the gayest of summer hues. No longer are they strictly useful garments that one donned before and after the surf … now they are as important a part of the beach rigout as the costume itself. Shawls and capes of towelling weaves are printed in colourful designs and are lavishly fringed—coats and capes of rubber, striped in many colours, are refreshing novelties.

By this stage one can’t even say that beach wraps acted as practical sun protection since the 1920s was the decade that suntans and "sun baking" became fashionable!  However, by the end of the decade beach wraps were being displaced by “beach pyjamas” which became the most fashionable beachwear of the 1930s.  But that’s another story!

Vintage Swimwear Advertisements (1960s)

The heatwave continues!  It's far too hot to compose a blog post, so I think I'll go for a dip instead.  Hmmm.... what shall I wear?  Maybe these vintage ads will give me some ideas...

From Germany in 1963 we have this advertisement for Benger Ribana.  Well I've got to admit these swimsuits look cute!  However I'm not sure I'd want to sit on a metal beach-buggy on a scorching hot day...

How about these one-pieces from Jantzen (1963)?  Once again, the word that springs to mind is "cute".

Maglia in 1964 offers a choice of a bikini and a one-piece—both in Bri-Nylon!

Also in Bri-Nylon, this costume from 1969, with an up-to-the-minute daisy pattern!

Finally, two girls splashing happily in the sea in costumes made of diolen (1969).  A quick google tells me that diolen has some of the properties of kelvar, but I don't think these swimsuits are bulletproof!

And... oh look!  I think I just wrote a blog entry after all!

Wartime Fashions in Australian Home Journal Part II (1941)

1941.  World War II is in its second year, but it only seems to be peripheral in the Australian Home Journal's fashion pages.

 

March 1941

Continental Fashions
Most folk will be glad to know that continental fashions are now a thing of the past.  Both Britain and America are quite capable of designing their own fashions, and the resultant effect of a combined arrangement between British and American design-experts is delightfully satisfactory.

Golf Fashions
Do you golf?  For tennis, swimming and riding, we generally conform to standard apparel, and for golf it used to be 'the thing' to wear browns and fawns, but with the current trend for bright colours, our courses have become dotted with gay young things dashing across the fairways.  Formerly it was customary to wear 'jumpers and skirts' but nowadays a smartly tailored frock is quite in keeping.
Many players prefer frocks when golfing.  They believe dresses provide more freedom for movement.

April 1941

Victorian Dresses

Our London correspondent informs us that collapsible hoops have been seen in Bond Street shops.  They are intended for evening dresses and make the getting in-and-out of a car easy.

 

—

June 1941

The Frugal Stars!

If you think that all the film stars are carelessly extravagant, you are wildly mistaken says a correspondent.

Quite a number of them, especially the younger ones, are particularly thrifty and careful, even going to the extent of renovating their clothes.

Betty Furness is known as one of the best dressmakers in Hollywood.  She designs practically all her clothes and makes a great many of them.

Carole Landis is a knitting enthusiast.  And she has a pet economy in this direction.

When she has tired of a garment, she unravels it and knits it up into something quite different.

Lucille Ball has the bolero craze.  She has made half-a-dozen in different ones in various shades to wear with one dark frock—making a total of seven different ensembles.  She rummages the shops for the gayest and most unusual remnants.

Joan Fontaine has an affection for flower necklaces—real and artificial.

In the summer months she delights in stringing real flowers on cords and wearing them as necklace and bracelet with a plain black linen dress.

Thus does she give variation to her dresses. 

July 1941

Some Fashion Points
These are new fashion points England and America have in common: —Straight skirts; many narrow, but even those with boxy or unpressed pleats hang straight in repose. Jackets sometimes wrist-length; always fastened high.  Pockets galore; emphasised by fur, by embroidery, by buttons.  Beads, beads, beads; and jewel embroidery; and gold thread; and sequins.  The family jewels in the bank vaults will never be missed.

September 1941

Saluting Symbols
Why not be all military and dashing?  Take all salutes with a service symbol worn on your lapel, pocket or sleeve.  The V for Victory now takes first place; it looks unusual and smart if worked on top of left sleeve or lapel.

November 1941

That Shirt Dress
The shirt dress is always popular.  It really has become the foundation of every good wardrobe—a capital good fail-me-never dress that can be used for many occasions.  It is equally useful for work as for sport.  For business this type of dress looks neat and trim, and for daily duties, indoor or local shopping it is ideal.

The Useful Cotton
If you are wise you will give cotton your whole-hearted attention this year.  It's going to help you over many a dress difficulty, financially as well as fashionably.  Higher and higher soars the price of woollens, scarcer and scarcer do they become.  Women are still discriminating enough to want something pleasing when they pay high prices.  Cotton prices have gone up, of course, but they are still within the limits of the average purse.  Besides cotton fabrics have so many advantages over silk and wool.  They are hardy, they wash easily and well, they keep their colour and their shape.  And they are cheap!

 So in summary: fashion marches on, in spite of the war.  Military insignia make cool dress ornaments, some materials have become expensive (gone to to make uniforms, perhaps?) and Hollywood stars set an example of thrift.  I find it amusing however, if not entirely believable, imagining women wearing hooped evening dresses in the middle of the London Blitz!

To the Beach in Butterick Patterns (1930s)

It's January, and here in Australia it's unrelentingly hot.  What better way, then, of kicking off the New Year than by going to the beach.  Luckily for me Butterick produced some patterns for the most up-to-the-minute beachwear—1930s style!

Butterick Fashion News, July 1930 (front cover)

To begin at the beginning of the decade: the July 1930 issue of Butterick Fashion News showed a pattern for a "costume consisting of shirt and shorts for beach wear, tennis, camping or exercise; or shirt and long trousers for beach wear, boating or yachting."  In the 1930s the beach was one of the few public places where women could wear trousers.

Butterick Fashion News, July 1930 (back cover)

On the back of the same issue are two swimsuits.  Pattern no. 3187 (at left) is for a "one-piece swimming suit and separate shorts".  Pattern 6822 (at right) is for a bathing suit "having a slip-over blouse and trunks or shorts."

 

Butterick Fashion Magazine, Summer 1935

"If it's swimming you go in for, get a new bathing suit.  A faded last year's suit will be a blot on a landscape where all the color is clear and bright.  The new suits are made of every sort of material."

Suggestions included rubber (!), a knitted swimsuit and, of course, one sewn from a Butterick pattern.

And from Butterick Fashion Magazine of summer 1935 we have these three patterns: from left to right a button back swimming suit, an outfit of slacks, halter top and "bell-hop" jacket (suitable for sailing) and a halter top and shorts.

  

Butterick Fashion Magazine, Spring 1939

 From Butterick Fashion Magazine from Spring 1939 we have:  

"How to be the only pebble on the beach—a  becoming coat with a corselet belt and huge cape collar... The bra top on the middle figure has little sleeves and ties in front... The shorts have patch pockets and cuffs.