The changing attitudes on beachwear in a brief encounter
There are some visible changes in the attitudes toward beachwear in the last few decades. These changes are social, sexual, and cultural. This change is toward both outfits and bodies.
Over the years, the response and behavior of the multitude have changed towards beachwear and body type. Social psychology has evolved and changed a lot. The world has encountered protests against a protein brand’s advertisement showcasing a bikini-wearing model and her beach body look. These advertisements were showcased in public places where most people did not support the idea of defining a body type for wearing beachwear.
Such social ideology is more toward beachwear than any other form of clothing and it is obvious too. The physical representation of an ideal body seems to be non-ideal from a different perspective.
Beachwear: Saga of a Century
Over the last century, i.e., from 1900 to the present, the evolution of beachwear is exemplary. Such an evolution helped liberate the people socially, culturally, and sexually.
Dr. Christine Boydell, curator of the Riviera Style exhibition says that “beachwear is not about fashion trends but about attitudes to display and modesty since the 20th century”.
Swimwear is displayed as a form of underwear that can not be allowed or accepted to be worn anywhere. Dr. Boydell adds that the holidays played an important role in providing opportunities for the people to cut loose from inhibitions and focus on the holidays where they can experiment and be free from their home environment and the risk of spying eyes.
The change is physical freedom and the leisure business is showcased by featuring more than 200 beachwear ensembles in Rivera style exhibition. The way people see the beachwear has changed a lot in the past century, for example, until the mid-1930s, men were banned to display their chests on the beaches, and until the late 1950s, both men and women were not allowed to display their belly button on the beaches as they were frowned upon.
In early 1900, women used to wear woolen swimwear with long skirts, laced-up boots, and stockings. This sense of beach fashion changed completely in 50 years as the lingerie-inspired bikinis became the new normal. But there was an understanding among the people that such lingerie-inspired bikinis were only to be worn in the water and not otherwise as it is considered as indecent among the social eyes.
An Australian swimmer Annette Kellerman first raised her voice in 1907 to free women from the heavy swimming outfits mentioning their physical exercise rights. With a high neckline and knee-length shorts, she went to a Massachusetts beach where she was arrested for indecent exposure.
Today, the social and sexual way of looking at beachwear has changed a lot, and new and evolved understanding took the place of old practices.