Bathing suit
Bathing suit composed of a tunic with belt, jersey one-piece, socks and shoes, circa 1910-20, Camilla Colombo Collection.
Sailor hat with shaped crown in beige linen decorated with blue ribbon.
Fashion
Women and swimming
The one-piece wool jersey swimming costume was already popular by 1910, but if in the 1910s it was still often worn for modesty under a woven tunic and completed with opaque stockings or even canvas boots, by the 1920s it was finally in full view. The swimming costume also became the subject of artistic and stylistic experimentation. In France, the artist Sonia Delaunay explored the principles of simultaneous art applying bold colours and motifs to knits. In the United States, Fred Cole made his fashion debut with risqué designs that appealed to glamorous bathers, while Carl Jantzen industrially produced a ribbed stretch knit that was more adapted to femminine curves than ordinary knits.