It might still be too chilly to dust off your swimsuit, but White River Valley Museum has its suits out on proud display – everything from baggy wool tunics to Princess Diana bikinis. The exhibit “Yellow Polka-dot Bikinis and Tummy Crunches” explores the evolution of women’s swimsuits from 1910 to the present and what those suits reveal about how women saw their bodies.
Inspired by the recent 100th anniversary of the world-famous Portland-based Jantzen swimsuit company, WRVM director Patricia Cosgrove decided to mount a decade-by-decade look at swimming fashion. Turns out Jantzen had both an archive and an official archivist who were delighted to supply 18 historical costumes, plus a range of vintage posters – and sponsor the show to boot. The museum already had a couple of 1915-era costumes, and with help from Green River Community College professor Michelle Marshman, Cosgrove was able to flesh out the show with informative historical wall texts that link those rising leg-lines to everything from feminism to fitness to fabric.
Nestled in the museum’s cozy temporary gallery, the swimsuits are arranged chronologically around the walls on transparent torsos. There are two or three for each decade, and it’s easy to either see the evolution at a glance or just delve into whichever era you choose.
In the 1910s, women were newly released from the Victorian moral code of covering up. An Auburn photograph of Slaughter District teachers having a swimming picnic in 1890 shows the men in knee-length bathing suits, the women in full skirts and jackets; it’s a far cry from the 1915 and 1918 wool and cotton swimsuits with their sleeveless tunics and tight shorts. Australian swimmer Annette Kellerman, who had invented the shorts, had been arrested in 1907 for indecent exposure when she wore them in public, and Cosgrove highlights the complete evolution in modesty with this year’s Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue, lying for perusal on a chair with its cover tactfully obscured by a text box.
What the exhibit makes quite clear is the backstage revolution in fabric. By the 1920s, Jantzen had invented a rib-knit stitch that turned bagginess into form-fitting cling, and the obsession with female form had begun. By the 1930s, the suits have boy-legs and dipping necklines. They were also slightly easier to swim in, with the new fabrics Lastex, jersey and sateen. Marshman points out that this is also when tanning and beauty pageants began their popularity.
On through the pin-up years of the 1940s and ‘50s, with some lovely examples of fabric – sheeny Velvalure, shiny taffeta – and glamorous shirring. The halter top is invented, and finally we see a two-piece costume, high-waisted in royal blue.
There’s an accessory case with a guessing game (which hat or cap belongs to which decade?) and one of posters, and it’s almost as fascinating to follow the progress of advertising as it is the swimsuits, from wordy black-and-white through multi-font pin-ups to sexy photorealism. In the center is a mini-exhibit of magazine and catalog photos highlighting the changes in how women saw their bodies.
Lycra was invented in 1959, and from that moment the suits start to look modern, with prints (floral in the 1960s, Aztec for the 1980s) and new colors (neon in the 1970s, saturated in the 1980s). String straps, bikinis, cut-out mios and high-cut Jane Fonda leglines make their appearance. Design gets more innovative – keyholes, twist midriffs or the criss-cross of the foil bikini design worn by Princess Diana, until with the 2000s there’s hardly anything left to expose.
Being a Janzten exhibit, of course, it’s a little one-sided – the couture of recent years is absent, as are the iconic Speedos (mentioned, but not shown) and racing styles. A few men’s costumes would have balanced things out, and highlighted even more the feminist perspective that fashion often dictates women’s self-image, health and lifestyle far more than it does men’s.
But “Yellow Polka-dot Bikinis” is a lovely little show, complete with Beach Boys soundtrack – fun for anyone to dip into decades they either remember or have only heard about.
Rosemary Ponnekanti: 253-597-8568 rosemary.ponnekanti@thenewstribune.com
BATHING SUIT BODIES
What: “Yellow Polka-dot Bikinis and Tummy Crunches: A century of female bodies and swimsuits”
Where: White River Valley Museum, 918 H St. S.E., Auburn.
When: Noon-4 p.m. Wednesdays-Sundays through July 31.
Event: 1 p.m. June 11, women’s history lecture and slide show.
Admission: $2/$1/free Wednesdays and fourth Sundays.
Information: 253-288-7433, www.wrvmuseum.org.
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