1929 Jantzen Diving Girl Swimsuit

I showed off this prize in my Liberty Antiques Festival post, just because I had the photos of how it looked in the seller’s booth, all encased in glass.  From the look of the frame, my guess is that someone had it framed in the 1980s or possibly 90s.  I’m just glad it was housed away from strong light, and where moisture could not do damage.  With the exception of some dirty spots on the back shoulders, this suit is in perfect condition.  It was never worn, and was stored for a very long time where the moths couldn’t get to it.

I’ve spent some time looking for something similar both online and in my print resources.  Jantzen began making swimwear in 1910, and the Diving Girl dates to 1920.  If you’ve been looking at vintage clothing for any amount of time, you have most likely seen this logo, which was usually located on the left hip of the suit.  The big logo is much harder to spot.  There are two examples of early 1920s suits with it in Making Waves by Lena Lencek and Gideon Bosker, and the Jantzen blog has a marvelous old photo of young women in the snow wearing sweaters with the logo.

But luckily, I was able to track down some specific information on the suit.  It is a woman’s suit (but in this case for a very small woman) style 35, and was made in 1929.  A similar suit was produced in 1928, but in a different color.  It is made from wool, and is sewn together with wool thread.  The original cost was $5.50.

Here is the label shot, showing the wool thread stitching and the paper tag containing extra yarns with which to make repairs.

This is sort of a side note, but notice the patent date of Sept. 6, 1921.  So many people (including the seller of this suit) see that and assume it means that the suit was actually made in 1921.  No, it means the suit design was approved by the US Patent office in 1921.  I’ve seen that date on suits as late as  the 1930s.  It is all about how the garment was designed and constructed.

I’d never really taken a good look at the diving girl, I guess because the patch on most suits is rather small.  With this one you can see just what a marvel of weaving it was.  It is made from silk and was attached to the suit with a type of zigzag stitch.  This big patch came in two sizes – 10 1/4 inches and 14 inches from the fingertips to the toes.

And just to show how interconnected the clothing and textiles industries were, the patch was made by E.H. Kluge’s weaving company, a brother to Adolf Kluge.  Long-time readers may remember him as the owner of Artsitic Weavers, the company behind the fabulous label quilt and maker of art in label form.

This suit was a late version of “the suit that changed bathing to swimming.”  As I said above, this design was patented in 1921, and was soon copied by other makers.  It was one piece, but it looked like two. Ironically, it became known as the California style, because Jantzen was located in Portland, Oregon.  In the early 1920s many beaches outlawed the suit, calling it indecent, but by the end of the decade, the modesty skirt was fading fast, with suits consisting of just the tank and the trucks combination.

My favorite detail has to be the belt loops, which are attached on top of the faux belt.  The belt “buckle” is actually a piece of ribbon, or label fabric, appliqued on.

Ad Campaign – 1937 Jantzen Swimwear

In the late 1930s swimsuit makers were experimenting with new fabric for their products.  For years, knit wool had been the mainstay of the swimwear industry, but new products like lastex were bringing big changes to the industry.

But the swimsuit makers were not quite ready to give up on wool.  they worked with developing new knitting techniques to improve the elasticity of the product, and they were somewhat successful.

Kava knit fabrics of luxurious quick-drying wool in beautiful new weaves have knitted-in perfection of fit that achieve slender “girdle-fit” for women – and trim athletic lines for men.

In that one sentence, the ad addresses the 2 big issues of wool swimwear – it was slow to dry and the fit was droopy.

I was excited to find this ad because I have a version of the swimsuit in the upper left.  It is the “Up-lifter”, in which the name of the suit says it all.

Girls at the Jersey Shore

I look at a lot of vintage photos, and it is pretty unusual to find an entire set from an occasion unless they are in an album.   Jim at UnshreddedNostalgia.com was recently lucky enough to have a friend who put him onto these great photos, which are a record of a group of friends vacationing at Atlantic Beach in the late 1940s or early 50s.

It’s interesting to note what they photographed – lots of beach scenes, but no photos of the nightlife.  I guess they had a pact similar to one used by the folks in Las Vegas today:  ”What happens in AC, stays in AC.”

I keep looking at the photos, trying to see if it is the same 4 gals, or if the photographer ever got her picture taken.  I’ve noticed the same problem with my group of friends when we travel.  I’m usually the only one with a camera, so I’m absent from all the photos.  That’s not necessarily a bad thing, because like these women, I have  shots taken in hotel rooms that occasionally have people in nightgowns and underwear.

These women would be in their 80s today.   I hope they are still friends, still traveling, still having fun.

Many thanks to Beth at RetroRoadmap.com, and Jim at UnshreddedNostalgia.com

Gantner Swim and Beach Wear, 1943

One of the great, but lesser-known California swimwear makers of the 20th century was Gantner-Mattern.  Like most of the makers of swimsuits, they started out as makers of knitwear – stockings, underwear, and sporting sweaters.  By the turn of the century, they were making the swimsuits that made them famous.

The company got its start in San Francisco in 1877 at the J.J. Pfister Knitting Company.  By the late 1890s, two employees, corporate secretary John O. Gantner and mill superintendent Alfred Mattern had left Pfister to start their own knitting company.  That was lucky for them because the Great Earthquake of 1906 destroyed the Pfister operation, while Gantner-Mattern was located in a safe area.  Pfister was able to rebuild with the help of two friends, but it is not known if the friends in question were actually Gantner and Mattern.

Swimwear quickly became the main product at Gantner-Mattern.  In the first days of the 20th century, swimming was becoming increasingly popular, and with the purchase of a Gantner-Mattern swimsuit, one got a free pair of waterwings to help the buyer learn to swim, or at least stay afloat!  In 1932, Gantner-Mattern was the first company to produce a topless swimsuit – for men!  Yes, it was still considered indecent in many places for a man to swim without a tank top in the early 1930s, but before long this quaint old custom was only a memory.

Like most advertising literature from the early 1940s, this catalog from Gantner makes many references to the war, though it doesn’t mention shortages.  That’s probably because the catalog was actually produced in 1942, before shortages became so acute in the US.

I had a fun time researching this label.  Most of the entries were for the many lawsuits that the company was involved in – price fixing after the war, not paying a former employee for work completed before he quit – the sort of thing that always bugged the clothing industry.  But most interesting was a reference to a strike in 1940, where women wore bathing suits and held placards at a union convention to show solidarity with locked-out workers at Gantner.

And here is a nice sampling from the catalog, including a good look at that famous men’s Wikie.

Spring Chicken, or Is It Too Early to Discuss Vintage Bathing suits?

I ran across this lovely vintage print yesterday, and I just fell in love with it.   The drawing is by James Montgomery Flagg, the artist who did the famous Uncle Sam poster during WWI.  He was best known for his work as a magazine illustrator, and since this print was copyright of the Leslie-Judge Company, I think we can assume this is work that was first published in Judge. He had a very interesting career and lifestyle, so be sure to read more about him.  And take a quick look through the google images for some pretty racy stuff.

But back to the print. First, the name, “Spring Chicken” is just so perfect, so full of meaning.   And look at the chicken’s face, at the apprehension, and the slumped shoulders.  You can almost see her shudder!  Add the little tug on her bathing suit top, and the close together legs, and it all adds up to one reluctant diver!

Vintage Themed Watercolors

Remember Their Summer

Isn’t that just beautiful?  It’s the work of artist Susan Grote, a watercolorist in San Francisco.  Susan and I became acquainted when she emailed me concerning an article I helped write for VFG some time ago.  She also wanted to tell me about a collection she was helping to inventory (more about that later…)

After a few emails back and forth, she mentioned that she worked in watercolor, and then she mailed some photos.  I just fell in love with her work.

The ones that I’m going to share with you are based on old family photos.  These are not just old random photos, these are members of Susan’s family, and she knows the people and their stories.

From Susan:

“I have always been attracted to watercolor, the luminosity of the white paper shining through the paint, and I love color, pure and bright, which means these recent pictures based on black and white photos are quite a departure for me… I’m still experimenting with how much I want to introduce color into the new pictures. I sent you my first of these paintings, called Friends, because people who do watercolor are usually interested to hear that I did not use black paint — I always mix black from red, blue, and yellow, or, for a more sepia effect, from purple and gold, or ultramarine and burnt sienna. And I love layering colors — a green apple grows from layers of blues and yellows, for example, instead of mixing them on the palette to make green.”

Friends

“I used to be a theatrical costume designer (that explains my interest in costume history), but I came to design from a background in directing, and was accepted into an MFA program in Design for the Theatre without ever having had an art class! My advisor assured me that “drawing is like typing — it’s a skill, and can be learned.”  To do costume sketches, or fashion illustration, you really need a very large vocabulary of symbols — a symbol for crisp pleats, a symbol for soft ruffles, etc., because you are drawing things that don’t exist yet – it’s not at all like art: drawing or painting an object you can actually look at! I’m still learning to do that, and I love looking at things very intently. There’s a halo effect that makes you notice and really look at things in your daily life after you paint for a while. It’s like travel — when I’m in a new country, I try to really see and remember, because I may never have that chance again. When I get home from a trip (at least for a while), I look at my own country that way, too.

“I enjoy working with a very limited palette, and I think a lot about color theory and the qualities of different pigments. Because I sometimes paint as many as 20 layers, I don’t use earth colors very often — in my hands, earth plus water equals mud! (I make an exception for burnt sienna & ultramarine — they mix to make such a great variety of browns, grays, and blacks. If I’m going to use a mineral color like cadmium red or cad yellow, it’s the very last layer.) I know I have a very “tight” style; people always used to tell me to “loosen up,” “throw the paint around,” “pour it, splatter it!” A couple of years ago I realized that looking at things very intently, painting an apple till I get every nuance of color I see down on paper, is what I enjoy about painting! Yes, it’s a slow process, but it’s the same as traveling: sometimes my destination is only an excuse for the journey.”

I love that – comparing the act of painting to a journey.

If you live in the SF area, Susan will be having an open studio the weekend of October 23.  For more information, and to see more of her work, see her page at Artspan.

Hot Dog Summers

Alice Eating Watermelon

Thrift Store Scandal!

Scandal, as in Scandal Suit, the earth-shattering 1964 design by Margit Fellegi for Cole of California.  At the time, Lycra was still new, and it was the development of new fabrics containing Lycra that enabled Fellegi to make this suit – so bare, yet so covered up.

The Scandal was basicly just a maillot with strategic bits made from a fabric containing Lycra, and cut outs being replaced with a stretchy mesh.  Fellegi worked with fabric makers for months developing both mesh and fabric, and the result was that she was able to “slice up the body any way I want to.”

The first of the Scandal suits were shown to Cole sales representatives in September of 1964.  The show was stunning, and many salesmen declared it would not fly in the more conservative parts of the country.  But Cole was committed, with a huge ad compaign already in the works, an ad campaign centered around the line, “Isn’t it time somebody created an absolutely wild scandal for nice girls?”  This line was uttered by a young lady perched on a brass bed on a beach.  Yes, this was scandalous in 1965!

It was also successful.  The suit was on the cover of the New York Times, and featured in an article in Life magazine.  Imitations soon flooded the market.  It seems as if American women were ready to be a litle daring!

The suit was made in all black, and it was made in the above print and a similar print in black and white with black mesh.

I’ve been looking for one of these for years, and yesterday, I plucked this off the rack of an ultra-conservative group’s thrift store.  Bet they didn’t know the scandalous story behind this one!

Comments:

Posted by Couture Allure:

What a great find! Lucky you!!!!

Friday, May 15th 2009 @ 9:41 AM

Posted by Catwalk Creative:

Not for the faint hearted this one! A brilliant find and a very entertaining read.

Friday, May 15th 2009 @ 11:45 AM

Posted by Brenda:

Awesome Lizzie! That is both way hot and way cool at the same time. As always, thanks for sharing your great finds!

Friday, May 15th 2009 @ 12:32 PM

Posted by glamoursurf:

needs to go shopping with Lizzie!

Friday, May 15th 2009 @ 1:47 PM

Posted by Chris Anderson:

I would have screamed if I found that fabulous bathing suit!!! Its great that things sometimes find their rightful owner. NOw are you gonna wear it????

Friday, May 15th 2009 @ 2:14 PM

Posted by Joules:

Oooh La Lizzie!
It’s funny that you found it at the very “firm” thrift shop. (That’s my word, for really conservative.)

Friday, May 15th 2009 @ 4:00 PM

Posted by Lizzie:

Me wear? I really don’t think so!!!

Friday, May 15th 2009 @ 5:29 PM

Posted by MS:

I also want to go shopping with Lizzie!Nice find!

Saturday, May 16th 2009 @ 7:44 AM

Posted by Lucitebox:

I, too, have been looking for one of these for years. I hope there was, at the very least, some Christian rock playing when you found it.

Friday, May 22nd 2009 @ 7:52 AM