Only Kleinert’s SAVA-WAVE Swim Cap has the Magic Inner Rim! Guaranteed to keep your hair dry
I get something on my mind, and it becomes the latest vintage obsession. Lately it has been swim caps. I have a few of them, but lately I’ve been looking to fill in a few gaps in my collection. So expect to see more on this theme in the next few days.
This week’s ad is from Kleinert’s, which specialized in rubber goods of all sorts. Or I should say specialize, as they are still in business. A couple of years ago I wrote a little history of the company. You can read it, and view a 1930s Kleinert’s brochure, if you so wish.
The Vintage Traveler 
I remember we HAD to wear swim caps in high school (late 40’s) in POOL class (gym) to keep hair out of the pool drains. But we would not be seen dead in a public pools, wearing a swim cap…for fear we would look ugly er. The only kind we had were some with kind of wavy hair embossed in the rubber…like finger waves. As I recall, they only kept the very TOP of your head dry.
And as far as dress shields…I remember seeing them…but never had any, especially shields that were sewed into clothes. I bet they would stink.
Next time I see a pool hat…I will buy it and forward it to you, Liz…for your collection.
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In the 1960s girls were still required to wear swim caps at my Y pool, but boys, who increasingly had hair as long as the girls, did not. The girls finally protested in the form of refusing to wear them, and the rule was dropped after we insisted that the boys must also wear caps to “protect the drains.”
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I, too, hated wearing swim caps and looking ‘ugly er.’ We were told that they were necessary to keep women’s relatively long hair out of the swimming pool filters. They certainly did not keep our hair dry, and especially not if you allowed any part of your hair outside the cap, as illustrated. That simply wicks the water into the hair under the cap. I do remember wearing a cap that had an extra ring of rubber inside — maybe it was a Kleinert’s Save-a-wave! It certainly left a distinctive groove on my forehead!
In defense of dress shields — they were attached to the garment with sewn-on snaps or tiny gold safety pins. They don’t get smelly, because you remove them and wash them after every wearing. Film, TV, and theatre costumers use dress shields because many costumes are not washable, and there is no time to dry-clean them every day. Dress shields also prevent sweat rings from forming — and from staining or deteriorating the garment. Vintage collectors know how many otherwise perfect garments have stained or tattered armscyes. It’s now possible to buy removeable, disposable shields that stick to the fabric like pantyliners. If you’re planning to perspire in a silk dress or suede jacket, they can be your little secret — like wearing a shape-enhancing bra or slenderizing underwear.
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I always am glad to see dress shields in a vintage dress I’m thinking about buying because I know the underarms were somewhat protected. When evaluating a piece for possible purchase, I always check the underarms first, and have eliminated many garments due to damage there.
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I love the bags in the Kleinert’s brochure in your other post. I imagine that it would be hard to find vintage rubber swim caps in good shape.
What a timely post as i recently came across Kleinert’s while searching online to buy dress shields. I’ve also found cloth ones in vintage clothes and thought they were a good idea. I used to pin cloth ones into vintage clothes that weren’t easily washed back in the 80s, but forgot about dress shields until a couple weeks ago. I just packed a suitcase of clothes that has to serve me for 2 months in London (where I am now) and thought to buy the disposable dress shields to reduce the amount of washing of my limited wardrobe. I have to say that the ‘pantyliner-type’ ones I bought didn’t work too well. I’m wearing them in the post I do in the next couple of days. I also saw that Kleinert’s make sort of an elastic ‘harness’ that includes cloth dress shields. I think these would have been a better option.
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Isn’t it amazing the Kleinert’s is still in business? That elastic harness type is an old concept. I see them in ads at least going back to the 1930s. Enjoy your time in London.
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