While most of our magazine is devoted to flesh baring fashion—with a delightful abundance of both skin and style—this page looks back to a time when flashing it all was definitely not fashionable. If you were to stroll—no jogging or running please—onto East Hampton’s Main Beach exactly a century ago you might have seen the actor John Drew and friends Jack Gallatin and Gladys Robinson decked out in dashing style.
The men wore trunks to just above the knees, tighter than boardshorts, but not as revealing as jammers because they were made of heavy wool. On the upper body they wore athletic shirts that could be flattering to a reasonably fit male body although heavy and uncomfortable when wet. Ms. Robinson’s outfit reveals almost nothing of her body, covered from neck to toe with an elaborate tunic over dark stockings. Good thing she has a pretty face.
These outfits are really the last hurrah of the previous Victorian era for by 1920s the female swimsuit was liberated: collars dipped, waists tighten and skirts hiked ever upward. Cotton began to replace wool in the 1930s and the one-piece, sometimes corset-like, suit evolved, epitomized by the pin-up shots of WW2. Men now gained the option of baring their chests and did so increasingly.
Swim fashions changed radically and often in the prosperous post-war years with the introduction of the bikini and its increasing challenges to modesty. Stroll onto Main Beach in the summer of 2010 and you will notice there is no single prevailing style—or body type. Some are clearly more delectable than others.