Bathing suits on sale
One hundred years ago today … Anyone shopping for women’s bathing suits could find them on sale at the department stores Wannamaker’s, at Broadway and West 9th Street, and James McCreery’s, at 34th and 5th Avenue.
The Evening World, 14 July 1920, p. 13. Newspapers.com.
The Evening World, 14 July 1920, p. 5. Newspapers.com.
(We last featured Wannamaker’s for its washing machines and mentioned James McCreery’s in our July 1 post about fireworks.)
Men and boys’ bathing suits were advertised less frequently, but sales could be found, for example the one at Gimbel Brothers, at Broadway between 32nd and 33rd Street, the subsequent week.
The New York Tribune, 21 July 1920, p. 13. Newspapers.com.
In the picture above, the male swimmers are attired in “one-piece” bathing suits. In that summer of 1920, there was some debate in the air about whether a one-piece bathing suit was appropriate for women at public beaches.
The Evening World, 24 June 1920, p. 32. Newspapers.com.
For those who care about such matters (and we know you are out there): “bathing suit” was the more frequently used term, but “swimming suit" was also common. The two seem to have been used interchangeably, as they are in this Saks & Company advertisement.
The New York Tribune, 11 July 1920, p.11. Newspapers.com.
We last featured Saks, at Broadway and 34th Street, on January 15, when it was advertising fur coats.
According to Jeff Wiltse’s Contested Waters: A Social History of Swimming Pools in America, the 1920s touched off a boom in municipal swimming-pool building across the US. This will have to be a topic of another day’s post.
wRITTEN BY JONATHAN GOLDMAN, JULY 14, 2020.
TAGS: clothing, shopping, department stores, fashion, sports, swimming, summer