ROBERT GARDNER -- The Verdict

Anyone who has spent as many years on the beach as I have has seen

some remarkable changes in women’s beachwear. My earliest recollections

are of the early 1920s, when what women wore seemed more like an

invitation to sink rather than swim. Women wore rubber beach shoes,

rubber stockings to the knees and pantaloons. All this was covered by a

loose dress with lots of ribbons and bows and other frills, topped by a

hat. The only thing uncovered besides the face and the hands was a small

part of the thigh. This exposed thigh caused all sorts of problems.

Apparently, the authorities thought the sight of a female thigh turned

men into sex-crazed maniacs, so by law there could only be so much thigh

exposed to public gaze between the knee and the bottom of the pantaloon.

Police officers actually went out on the beach armed with tape measures

to check that the proper amount of flesh wasn’t exceeded, and those who

offended received citations.

The late ‘20s introduced a new style. This was the period of old-style

bath houses. These were places where, for 50 cents, you could rent a

bathing suit and a changing room. There were bath houses by the Newport

and Balboa piers and one in Corona del Mar where Pirate’s Cove is today.

One of my first jobs was handing out suits at the old Corona del Mar bath

house. The bathing suits you rented were one-piece, black Jantzens made

of wool, coming down to slightly above the knees. Still not great for

swimming but a lot better than before. Men’s and women’s suits were

identical except that the arm holes in women’s suits were smaller.

The next innovation in women’s beachwear was the rubber bathing suit.

It was very exciting when it first came out, sleek and form-fitting.

Rubber suits had three drawbacks, however. They split at the seam with

alarming regularity. They tended to vulcanize, so that when a woman sat

too long in the sun, when she got up, she left part of her suit on

whatever she’d been sitting on, and when one perspired, the perspiration

tended to accumulate and run down the inner leg, causing crude remarks.

Rubber suits had a short career.

I don’t know what material women’s bathing suits were made of after

that -- cotton, I guess -- but they were a regular one-piece design

actually suited for swimming. There were also two-piece suits with bra

and shorts.

The changes in men’s suits weren’t so dramatic. First it was the bath

house Jantzen, then came two-piece suits: trunks and tank tops. The

bathing suit police were still active at this time, and you got a ticket

if you went on the beach without your top. Then one summer, we all

rebelled and tore our tops into shreds. The forces of Puritanism finally

gave up, and men have been wearing only trunks ever since, a little

longer, a little shorter, but not much variety.

The final evolution in women’s suits was the bikini. This has gotten

smaller and smaller over the years until it doesn’t seem like it’s safe

to swim in. So in a way, we’ve come full circle.

* ROBERT GARDNER is a Corona del Mar resident and a former judge. His

column runs Tuesdays.