Le Miroir des Modes was a French magazine promoting Butterick patterns. Most of the illustrations were lifted straight out of Butterick's American publications, The Delineator and Butterick Quarterly.
The 1920s was the decade when women were supposed to have shaken off the shackles of Victorian prudery, but the models in this illustration look almost as covered-up as their nineteenth century predecessors. Bathing costumes here consist of thigh-length tunics (some daringly bare-armed!) and trunks hovering just above or a little below the knee. Most of the models are wearing some kind of bathing cap or hat, all wear some kind of footwear, and all but one sport stockings (mostly rolled down below the knees).
These outfits look more decorative than practical. One could imagine the wearers taking a quick dip in the sea—if they didn't mind wetting their dainty ruffles and ribbons. Anything more athletic would be out, and I suspect the main function of these costumes was to look pretty on the beach!
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