1920-1929

As in our own time, styles did not change overnight from one day to the next between the 1910s and the 1920s. Bathing suits popular during the second decade of the 20th-century disappeared in the 1920s by degrees as they were worn out or their owners decided to replace them with new, up-to-date designs. The exuberance of the 1920s was manifested in the array of colors and applied decorative details that abounded on bathing suits, especially at the beginning of the decade.

Despite increasingly liberal attitudes in the 1920s the battle to liberate women, and to a lesser degree men, from conservative legislation that restricted how much of their arms and legs they could display on the beach was far from won.

Developed by Guest Curator, James Hanley

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