What do we wear when we go to the beach or the swimming pool? Most people will wear swimsuits or thin clothes that are comfortable under water. Then, has anybody wondered how swimsuits are made? Swimsuits are stretchy and durable. They also dry quickly and people of all ages and with any body shape can wear it. It is made to help people move and glide their body easily in water with less resistance. While I was thinking about swimsuits, I wondered what people in the past wore when they were in water. So, in this article, I will be explaining the history of swimsuits.

In the early 1800s, swimsuits in the form we know them as weren’t made. Women wore swimsuits called bathing gowns that didn’t show much skin. It was more like a bathing suit than a swimsuit. They were mostly made out of wool or linen. They were very long to cover the whole body and featured long sleeves and fell to the woman’s ankles. Sometimes weights were sewn to the fabric so the skirt wouldn’t float up when submerged in water. At this time, people were very conservative. Women’s purity and innocence was considered very important. A woman wasn’t allowed to speak to a man unless another married woman was present in the room as a chaperon. So most women's clothes usually didn’t show much skin. Some women wore bathing slippers that protected feet in the water. Sometimes, they are decorated with ribbon and laces.

The popular swimming suit in the 1900s featured the sailor style, which had black-and-white striped taffeta with collar, black silk stockings, and black leather sandals. As swimming became a sport in the 20th century, more people visited beaches, lakes, and swimming pools to learn swimming. This caused the bathing suit to become a swimming suit naturally. Bathing suits were too long and had too much volume which was very uncomfortable in water. Annette Kellerman, an Australian swimmer, participated in female swimming and used more comfortable and practical swimsuits. In 1907, she was arrested at the beach in Boston, Massechussetts because of the exposure in her swimsuit. She was only wearing a tight-fitting one-piece pantsuit that covered half of her legs and exposed part of her arms, neck and legs. She is known as the first woman to wear this style of one-piece swimsuit. As the year passed, swimsuits became shorter and were made in comfortable and light fabrics. The colors became brighter and were accessorized. Even though people became less conservative, women still had to be careful with their clothes. In some states in the United States, police officers measured the length of the swimsuit. If the woman was showing too much skin, she might be arrested and put into jail.

Until the 1940s, women’s swimwear were usually one-piece swimwears with different neck and back styles. In July 1946, French designer Louis Reard created a daring two-piece swimsuit which is known as bikini. These styles became popular in the United States during World War II. The material of the swimsuit kept changing in the 50s. Nylon and elastic were used to make the swimsuit more stretchy and help them dry quickly. And as years passed, swimsuits became the form we know these days.

Next is the history of competitive swimsuits. Swimming has been part of the Olympic Games since the first 1896 Summer Olympics. At first, men and women were allowed to wear swimsuits that covered the whole body from hips to shoulders that were made out of wool. In the 1932 Olympics, 16 year old Australian swimmer Clare Dennis wore Speedo racerback winning 200m breaststroke as first place with a new Olympic record, but she caused controversy for exposing her shoulders. After 4 years, the swimsuit companies had a new idea that less is more. They started to make men and women’s competitive swimsuits with less materials to reduce resistance and increase efficiency. Men started to swim bare-chested, only wearing bottoms, and women wore similar swimsuits to the ones we wear today in training with thin straps and tight fabric on the body. These days, men are allowed to wear swimsuits that reach only to the knee. Women are also allowed to wear swimsuits that reach only to the knee, doesn’t cover the neck, and doesn’t reach over the shoulder. But of course, a bikini is not allowed.

This was the history of swimsuits that we usually wear when we swim and athletes wear for competition. I think it’s very interesting that swimsuits have changed in many forms and that women in the past were very brave to change the idea of swimsuits to go against society's fixed mindset.

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