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In reading about the Schiaparelli for Catalina swim suit I recently bought I discovered that, according to an advertisement, that this suit was the “Official Swim Suit of the Atlantic City Miss America Pageant.” That sent me on an internet search to see if I could actually find photos of the contestants wearing this particular suit. When I came up empty I just assumed that it was Catalina suits in general that were the official suit of the pageant.
To my surprise and delight, I got the above photo in my inbox last night. Julie of Jet Set Sewing saw my Schiaparelli suit and thought it looked familiar. Then she realized that a photo of the 1948 contestants wearing the suit was hanging in her home. Julie’s husband found the photo in a shop in Paris.
As you can see, it is the Schiaparelli swim suit, but with the addition of the Catalina flying fish logo. And even though this was the 1948 Miss America contest, the suit was not made commercially until the next year. Thus, all my searches for “Miss America Catalina 1949” brought up a different set of swim suits.
Even though the power of Google is great and it so often leads us to the correct information, it makes me happy that it was a friend who provided the breakthrough on this one. Thanks, Julie!
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The Vintage Traveler 
How reassuring that, even in this age of scrolling bots, nothing replaces the wonderfully sharp-eyed human blog reader! 😉
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Yes, and how much more exciting it is for me to get the info in my in box rather than through a search engine!
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I am familiar with the suit. In the upper, cropped picture Miss Louisville, 2nd from the Right top row is my Mom. I’m glad to have this historical info to go along with it.
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How wonderful! Your mom was a real beauty. Does her suit still exist?
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She did not have her pageant suit anymore after many moves. I think she had it when I was small. She always loved Catalina.
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You’re welcome, Lizzie! I’ve looked at those suits a hundred times, and I saw the Catalina logo, but I had no idea they were by Schiaparelli. Good sleuthing!
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It’s interesting how information gets separated from objects over the years. I’m so glad we could put your photo and my swim suit into a better historical context.
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Great teamwork – thank you all!
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You are welcome. I’m glad you enjoyed our little game of connecting the dots.
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What a great update! And what a great-looking swimsuit.
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Even without the designer label this would be a fantastic suit!
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