"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!