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In the good ole summertime ladies and men were very modest in what was worn to the beach for a stroll or even bathing. The ladie's parasol and the gentleman's bowler say so much. So does the bare headed gent in his woolens. His armless jersey top was de rigueur..no man of note was ever seen barechested! Notice that the women are wearing black stockings. Showing even an ankle was risque but there must have been an exception for the young bare legged girl.
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Of course these women of social position were dressed for the boat races. The elaborate hats and elegent light colored clothing protected their delacate complexions from the harsh light of the summer sun, but you don't see a single pair of sunglasses! The man with the cane has a cooling seersucker suit but What? No straw hat?
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How spiffy He looks in the latest bathing outfit for 1902. It was probably black or grey with a cream trim and you can bet that the wool construction, even lined, was real uncomfortable. Besides weighing you down it tended to be just a little bit itchy!
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Those curious tiny houses on wheels are bathing machines, a movable contraption popular in beach resorts in the 19th century.They allowed women to change their clothes in private, reach the waters without parading through open stretches of beach in their bathing suits, and then frolic about in relative privacy and without violating contemporary notions of modesty. These caravans of propriety, were usually simple wooden structures. Lest they invite voyeurs, they were often built without windows. Some were made of canvas and still others were very luxurious affairs, but all of them were on wheels, pulled in and out of the surf by horses or brute human power.
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As shown here at Freshwater Bay, Isle of Wright, the English had their own Victorian reticence about how much flesh was exposed. Queen Victoria had her own machine, at Osborne House on the Isle. They were not all of one particular design, but often with steps, very small windows and were pulled into the water by a horse. Many different designs were seen, ranging from those for Royalty to those basic ones which were to be seen on the majority of beaches. Some of the early reports talk of them as being toys of the rich with the ‘less-well off continuing to bathe naked on unfashionable parts of the beach.'
Queen Victoria's rolling locker room on tracks, no less.
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It all changed after the Great War as liberated women made their enfranchisement as voters a demand rather than a request. Two of these demure cutie pies won trophys, perhaps in an early bathing beauty contest.
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By 1919 men got in the act as these Mack Sennet lovelies show lots more skin.
As part of a campaign to promote his latest film, seven of the director's famous
'bathing beauties' pose for photographs in Washington D.C.
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