From the early 18th century onwards, established spa towns like Bath and new seaside resorts including Scarborough and Brighton attracted growing numbers of prosperous tourists seeking both the health-giving properties of restorative waters and the social diversions beginning to open up in such fashionable locations. As transport improved and holidays extended to the working classes, public bathing became a form of mass entertainment. But what did earlier generations wear in the water and on the beach?

Georgian costumes
The costumes first worn in the sea at early coastal resorts closely resembled those used for the thermal baths at Bath – loose clothes that essentially derived from undergarments. Initially some men and boys bathed naked, as they had done for centuries when larking about in ponds and rivers, but most wore knee-length linen drawers; later, as more people flocked to take the waters the requirements of modesty increased, a jacket-like upper garment called a ‘waistcoat’ completing the suit. Similarly, women typically donned a long, loose-fitting shift featuring a high neck and full sleeves, the hems sometimes sewn with weights to avoid the embarrassment of floating dresses. Georgian and Regency bathing clothes were fashioned either from stout linen or, frequently, woollen flannel, recommended for extra warmth and protection in the chilly sea. Heads were usually covered, men wearing close-fitting caps like regular nightcaps and women linen caps similar to fashionable day mobcaps, sometimes adding straw hats and bonnets.

Victorian modes
During the 1800s women’s bathing attire was designed to appear more stylish and attractive. The earliest known fashion plates to show ladies’ bathing attire depict figures wearing heavy flannel or serge ‘paletot’ dresses with fitted bodices and full skirts, echoing the crinoline gown then in vogue: knee length, these bathing dresses were worn with long ‘Turkish’ pants resembling the trousers being advocated for daywear by dress reformers such as Amelia Bloomer. Mob-style caps protected the head from the cold, while flat cloth or straw sunhats shaded delicate white faces from the sun. Victorian swimwear changed slowly, although gradually garments reduced in bulk, bloomers rising to calf-length and sleeves perhaps retracting to a shoulder cap. Meanwhile male swimsuits were by now of leotard-like design with a chest section (for to bare the chest was considered unseemly), usually with sleeves and the legs reaching to around knee level. These close-fitting woollen costumes were more functional than earlier versions, better suited to the energetic male swimming becoming more common, whereas most ladies still bobbed around in the water in a more genteel fashion.

Edwardian innovations
Like ordinary clothing, the development of 20th century beachwear is one of progressive minimalism, comfort and practicality. By the early 1900s women’s cumbersome ensembles had slimmed down, the bloomers or drawers now ending around the knee and voluminous dresses evolving into shorter belted tunics with short or capped sleeves and jaunty sailor-style collars. These outfits were sometimes worn with bare calves and feet but were often teamed with modest black stockings and laced pumps, and topped with a cap or turban-like scarf. Change was in the air, however, following a general rise in athletic activities during the early 1900s, as girls and women increasingly joined men in the sport of swimming. Australian swimmer Annette Kellerman rebelled against rigid dress codes and reputedly devised the unitard – a radical combination-style one-piece bathing suit that initially featured long legs to the ankles, but provoked her arrest in Boston in 1907 when she wore a short-legged version. Although considered indecent at that time, the more streamlined, figure-hugging costumes that she championed were soon widely adopted, marking the beginning of modern swimwear.

Modern swimwear
Notions of modesty can be individual and highly subjective, and as more diverse forms of swimwear appeared, bathers could exercise more personal choice. During the 1910s and early 1920s some women preferred a traditional concealing two-piece bathing suit, although garments continued to grow briefer, the tunic neckline lowering, sleeves reducing to broad shoulder straps and hemlines rising, the drawers becoming thigh-length shorts.

Yet some still found these serge or woollen cloth layers a hindrance and, as reservations about revealing the body’s contours progressively relaxed after the First World War, the once-controversial all-in-one female ‘unitard’ – the costume with legs ending around mid-thigh – became more popular.

This mode, now sometimes called a maillot and similar to men’s swimwear, became especially close fitting when new stretchy cotton and woollen jersey fabrics began to be used during the 1920s. Modern costumes were often striped, or had coloured trims, while rubber bathing caps (ideal for newly bobbed hair) and rubber two-tone beach shoes also came into vogue.

From the late 1920s onwards, following trends set on the elite beaches of California and the French Riviera, a golden sun-kissed complexion became widely fashionable, now that sunburnt skin and freckles implied leisure rather than outdoor manual toil. Accordingly, swimwear was designed to reveal more flesh, female costumes now featuring low backs, cut-away sides, narrow shoulder straps or halter necklines and upper thigh-high legs, the hips covered by a fitted modesty skirt. Elasticated synthetic fabrics such as lastex began to be used, although stretchy jersey material was still common at this date.

Sleek, athletic costumes were well suited to the new interest in health and physical fitness, the 1930s witnessing the proliferation of public outdoor lidos. Respectable men’s costumes retained a sleeveless vest section until around mid-decade, but finally baring the chest became acceptable and male swimwear of the late 1930s and 1940s usually comprised a pair of short-legged trunks, with webbing waist belts for a tailored effect.

The official unveiling of the daring two-piece female bikini that bared the midriff (named after Bikini Atoll in the Pacific) came in 1946, although versions had been worn since c.1929. Many women found the skimpier post-war bikini too risqué, but the glamorous corseted swimsuits of the 1940s and 1950s, with or without straps, featuring shaped stomach panels, boning and bra cups were considered equally alluring.

Casual wear and beach accessories
Our Victorian and Edwardian ancestors often lounged on the sand or pebbles in their everyday clothes, sheltered by parasols, but the new interwar custom of relaxing on the beach (or at the lido) in bathing attire, instead of changing immediately before and after going in the water, required new covering garments. In the 1920s women wore a short, lightweight dress or longer towelling or waterproofed printed silk wrap over their swimsuit. During the 1930s beach pyjamas became fashionable – wide-legged trousers worn with backless sun-tops or sleeveless blouses. The first short sundresses also appeared, inspiring the strapless or halter-neck printed cotton sundresses and playsuits of the 1940s and 1950s. Shorts became acceptable casual wear for both men and women during the 1930s, being worn on the beach and for active outdoor pursuits like cycling, rambling and camping. Shorts and new short-sleeved, open-necked sports shirts that freed the limbs were especially liberating for men, satisfying some of the demands of the Men’s Dress Reform Party (1929-40). Cool, open sandals were also first widely worn by men and women in the 1930s.

Catching the rays
Once prolonged sunbathing sessions began to accompany swimming, a range of new accessories also developed. Dark sunglasses, described occasionally in travel writings from the early 1800s onwards as protection from glare and dust, came into general use during the 1930s, early shades usually being circular with steel or white plastic rims. Sunglasses grew more fashionable during the 1940s and 1950s, with wing-shaped lenses and brightly-coloured frames. Home-made nose shields were also a common sight – often a fold of newspaper secured under the nose-piece of the glasses. Suntan lotion was widely used by the 1940s, but more for its bronzing effect than as a sun screen. Early tanning products from Nivea, Elizabeth Arden and other manufacturers were essentially basting oils or creams: they persisted little changed until the late 1970s, when the dangers of overexposure to the sun’s harmful rays became fully understood and products with much higher sun protection factor (SPF) were first launched. {