History of the Modern Bathing Suit

“In any era, fashion is a reflection of the time and what is going on in the culture politically, socially and economically.”1 The 1920’s witnessed a variety of dramatic changes for women; these changes, such as shorter dresses and stronger attitudes occurred primarily after World War I in spite of the prolonged development of women 's’ rights through 1914 and 1920. With their new hair, fashion styles, and attitudes, women had started what became known as the “Flapper Era”.

Before the 1920’s, women’s attire was considered fairly modern. Women would have worn clothing with more of a silhouette than clothing that was loose and flowy. The length of their dresses never revealed more of their leg than just their ankle. Women received bad reputations when showing their knees or even their calfs. Women in the 1920’s also had a different ideal figure than most women do today. The body types women wanted to achieve also transformed into a more feminine look. This look consisted of low bust lines, higher hems lines, and showing off more curves than ever before. These women became unapologetically fearless.

In John Updike’s short story “A&P,” the main character, Sammy, is in a conflict against society that will determine whether he becomes an independent or a conformist. When Sammy sees a group of three girls in swimsuits enter, he is surprised by their boldness to willingly dress in such a fashion; however, he is not opposed to it. Contrastingly, those around him, mostly middle aged housewives, seem to be quite miffed and taken aback. Updike writes, “You could see them, when Queenie’s white shoulders dawned on them, kind of jerk, or hop, or hiccup, but their eyes snapped back to their own baskets and on they pushed… But there was no doubt, this jiggled them” (164-65). Furthermore, this represents the generational divide and external conflict that Sammy is involved in. While both Sammy and Queenie see nothing wrong with wearing a swimsuit in public, people did not typically wear

Everybody nowadays wear what they like to wear in public. They do not care about how other people think of their dress. Besides, it is people’s rights to dress themselves freely. However, in the story A&P, written by John Updike, people tend to be more conservative about dressing. The story happens in 1961 in a small town of northern Boston. At that time, people value conformity as their social norm. Main character Sammy works in A&P, and he despises people who act the same. One day, three girls come to the store, and they get insulted by manager Lengel because they just wear bathing suits. Sammy quits the job in A&P because he tries to defend for the girls. In fact, he is motivated by the girls to go against the social norm. After he witnesses

How adolescence behaved during the 1920’s altered the future generations to come in many different ways. One of these ways includes how they dressed themselves. Before the 1920’s girls wore dresses normally past their knees, but during this era they began to wear shorter clothing items above their knees. Very similar nowadays, girls are wearing

In the beginning of the story, John Updike used the three girls’ swimsuits to symbolize their disregard for social norms. The base of the entire story is about the girls being dressed indecently in a grocery store. These girls are in their teen to young adult years, so they all must be aware that it is not acceptable to wear bikinis into a grocery store. Therefore, the only other way to explain why they would be in just their swimsuits is that they don’t care that this isn't socially acceptable, and to disregard the universal rules for being a “normal person” sets you apart as an individual. Consequently, the swimsuits are the cause of the conflict for the girls. We know this from Lengel telling the girls, “‘I don't want to argue with you. After this come in here with your shoulders covered. It's our policy’" (Updike 4). As you can see, this quote tells us that the girls are not welcome in the store because of their attire, and Queenie’s reaction confirms the fact that they knew this wasn’t acceptable. The text tells us that, “Queenie blushes” (Updike 3) which shows that she knew that she wasn't supposed to be in a bikini, because blushing is a very natural reaction to being caught doing something you shouldn't. So if the girls knew they shouldn't be in bikinis, then the only way to explain why they would wear them is because they don't care. Another

Women in the 1930’s were expected to dress in a certain way and style. For females in the 1930’s it was unusual for them to be seen in any other piece of clothing besides a dress. “ You should be in a dress and camisole, young lady! You’ll grow up waiting

From the beginning of time to less than one hundred years ago, society forbade women to wear pants, because they did not want women to have freedom. Women were denied the right to earn a living, own property, and to vote; as well as denied the freedom to choose their style of

In the 1920s there were many events that happened but one of the main events was the 1920s bathing suit arrest. There were multiple arrest made for the look, but no names were giving. The rule for bathing suits back then was that swim suits had to cover everything if you were a woman, men however were not allowed to take off their shirts until 1993. The bathing suits for women were like dresses and stockings. The 1920s also had some gender roles which caused companies grew larger and wages increased and new things were able to be bought. ("Arrested for Bathing Suits").

Dress reform has played an integral part of the women’s movement, health reform and political agendas. This paper will explore the time period of 1850 to 1930 in the United States of America concerning dress reform for women. It is important to explore this topic because the eighty year span marks a time of rapid change for women concerning health, leisure, independence, political and gender constraints and liberties. A description of the social forces must be discussed in order to have a distinct grasp of the reform movement. Next, the problems caused by fashion will reveal why there was a strong reform movement for dress and

First of all, coats and outerwear was usually made from browns, dark blues, and usually covered in large buttons. Also, if a women had money she would wear wool or fur jackets. In the 1920s, women also wore different kinds of coats. For example, some coats were long that stretched below the knee and others were short coats that were mainly used for sport occasions. Cardigans were also in style at the time. They were typically made of wool and had a few buttons with or without pockets. Men wore fur coats for everything they went to, and they wore leather jackets when they wanted to go to a place where they could play sports for fun. For the women, under garments usually consisted of dresses and skirts. As said in retrowaste.com, “ dresses were thin, with loose silk, and had a thin belt around the waist. Some women liked to show leg and others didn’t, but designers catered to all different tastes.Women also had sport dresses that were more modern. “ Men wore suits into town and flannels when they were relaxing. In addition, when the men were at home they wore “smokey jackets” or lounge jackets. Once in awhile the men wore decorative shirts that were white or light

Today, even lifesavers wear long-sleeved tops or wetsuits and sun hats, as do children, as protection from the sun. In response to the beach experience, surfboard shorts, singlets, colourful shirts and thongs have been adopted as part of a national dress code by both males and females. The types of clothing that people wear reflect the diversity in Australian society just as much as the variation in climate. Whilst there are no laws or rules on clothing in public, you are expected to wear certain clothing for business situations and most organisations have dress standards

Two questions came about with these changes in clothing. The first being, why didn't these influences change women's costume in the same way as that of men? Taking the history of humanity as a whole, there can be little doubt that men have played a greater part in social life, and have been more easily influenced by social factors, than have women. It can be said that if social and political influences have been the chief factors in bringing about the greater uniformity of men's

Another area in which women made changes was with their appearance. Women used their attire and style to show an independence, a certain freedom in which they alone had control. Starting with the “Gibson Girl”, women dressed in long, slim dresses, freeing themselves of the poufy petticoats of yore. Women started wearing shorter dresses and shorter hairstyles, leading to “Flapper Jane”. “Women started wearing “less” clothing, shorter dresses, cutting off their hair, and just being more “sensual” than normal”, (Bliven, 1925).

Before the 1920’s, women’s attire was considered fairly modern. Women would have worn clothing with more of a silhouette than clothing that was loose and flowy. The length of their dresses never revealed more of their leg than just their ankle. Women received bad reputations when showing their knees or even their calfs. Women in the 1920’s also had a different ideal figure than most women do today. The body types women wanted to achieve also transformed into a more feminine look. This look consisted of low bust lines, higher hems lines, and showing off more curves than ever before. These women became unapologetically fearless.