SWIMMING HISTORY

FIGHT FOR THE RIGHT

Woman forcibly removed from a Chicago lakeside beach in 1922 for refusing to wear a modest costume

36 JULY 2021 | Outdoor Swimmeraaa0067e-a8ab-449b-bd64-4cceb84a8f41 outdoorswimmer.com SWIMMING HISTORY

THE t’s been said before that after the fall of the Roman Empire, UTILITARIAN Europeans lost the art of swimming. The supposed Ihedonistic excesses of the Roman baths of yore became REVOLUTION legend as later generations distanced themselves from the pleasures of the water. Before long, swimming skill had become a rarity on the continent. Women’s access to the water has But by the time the Victorian era rolled around, those attitudes often been dictated more by social had begun to shift. Swimming had become a more common pastime mores and fashion than functionality. as the industrial revolution created more leisure time for a certain class of By Elaine K Howley person. While men of this era often swam in the buff, the strict social and sexual mores of the time meant the sexes must be separated when engaging in something as scandalous as a (skinny) dip. For women, intricate clothing and a special contraption dubbed a ➜ outdoorswimmer.com aaa0067e-a8ab-449b-bd64-4cceb84a8f41Outdoor Swimmer | JULY 2021 37 SWIMMING HISTORY

➜ bathing machine solved their problems ground, accessible by step ladders in today’s dresses, with skirts that reached accessing the water. the front and back. “Some had solid at least the knee, corsets, sleeves, wooden walls; others had canvas walls bloomers, stockings, and bathing shoes. VICTORIAN BATHING MACHINES over a wooden frame. Sometimes They were dark in color for modesty’s AND VOLUMINOUS SWIM DRESSES the windowless box was colored with sake, and often quite heavy when wet,” Bathing machines became synonymous the fantastic lavishness of a canal- absorbing some 20 to 30 pounds worth with the conflicting need for modesty boat, and sometimes the whole of the of water depending on the fabric. “For in a time of increasing leisure and superficial space was covered with women interested in venturing away prosperity. Essentially garden sheds advertisements.” from the ropes and actually swimming, on wheels, bathing machines could be The key to the bathing machine not just wading, the suits were a pulled into the shallows by either a pair was the front-door-back door SLOCUM hindrance and a danger.” of work horses or day laborers. There, configuration, which allowed the bather DISASTER The potential risks of such the structure prevented the bather to enter the back door wearing street inappropriate clothing were laid bare from being ogled by onlookers as she clothes, get changed in private, then with the sinking of the PS General ventured into the sea. step out the front door directly into the Slocum, a passenger steam boat, just An 1847 account of a bathing water. Often, the swimmer fell directly In 1904, the PS 20 yards off shore in Brooklyn, New General Slocum, a machine appeared in the Traveller’s into the waiting arms of an assistant, York in 1904. That disaster claimed the passenger steam Miscellany and Magazine of called a dipper, who would support and lives of more than 1,000 people, mostly boat, sank just 20 Entertainment: “A bathing-machine protect the swimmer from the surf and yards off shore women and children, who couldn’t is an aquatic caravan, containing potential drowning. in Brooklyn, New swim and who were dragged to the respectively two towels, two rickety hat- Inside the machines, women would York. More than bottom by their voluminous clothing. pegs, a damp flooring, a strong smell of change into heavy woolen swimming 1,000 people, sea-weed, and a broken looking-glass, costumes akin to full length winter mostly women SLEEKER SWIMWEAR exhibiting the phenomena of oblique dresses, complete with bloomers and and children,lost In many ways, the Slocum disaster was refraction. Though this last cannot be layers of fabric. If such a swimming their lives – a turning point in women’s swimming. exactly considered the ‘glass of fashion,’ costume sounds unwieldy, rest assured, dragged under by The tragedy led to safety reforms and it frequently exhibits the ‘mould of it was. their voluminous galvanised women’s health advocates form’ about to have a dip.” In her 2011 book “Fighting the clothing. The to encourage swimming lessons among Victoriana magazine describes the Current: The Rise of American disaster led women and children. The rise of the bathing machine as “a sentry-box on Women’s Swimming, 1870-1926,” widespread safety Women’s Lifeguarding Association in wheels; it was about six feet in length historian Lisa Bier writes that these reforms. the US also traces its origins to that era and width, and about eight feet high costumes were made of up to 10 when the public became more aware of with a peaked roof,” and the whole yards of wool or flannel. “These suits the urgency of water safety. thing stood about four feet above the provided more skin coverage than About that same time, Annette

38 JULY 2021 | Outdoor Swimmeraaa0067e-a8ab-449b-bd64-4cceb84a8f41 outdoorswimmer.com Kellerman rose to stardom. The glamourous Australian swimming champion arrived in London in 1904 and completed a 26-mile swim down the Thames to garner media attention. She did it while wearing “a sleek, close-fitting men’s suit with tight leggings attached, which provided an unprecedented opportunity to look at the female shape and silhouette,” Bier writes. Her costume was as titillating as it was practical. “To eyes unused to the lines of the female figure, it was an astonishing departure from the bulky, baggy, and concealing swimsuits that women were supposed to be wearing to the beach.” In 1907, Kellerman decamped to the United States to further build her international fame and fortune. There, American prudishness clashed to great effect with a determined and liberated woman’s desire to get in a good swim. The now legendary story goes that Kellerman arrived at Revere Beach just north of Boston on a sunny, summer afternoon for a 3-mile training swim. She was wearing her swimsuit that did Annie Speirs, and Irene Steer with their Swimmers woolen tank suit would bunch up and nothing to hide her curves, which had unidentified chaperon standing behind in Chicago in chafe, so Margaret ventured to Paris been declared “perfect” by a Harvard them in a matronly-looking dress that 1922 having while her sister was awaiting good University professor after a study of might have been a swimsuit for the their costumes weather for her attempt to “buy silk to more than 10,000 young women’s previous generation. The juxtaposition measured to make me a brassiere, which I will wear proportions versus those of the Venus of the athletes standing with arms ensure modesty with short trunks while swimming de Milo. Kellerman was promptly folded across their torsos while wearing was preserved the Channel,” Ederle wrote. The sisters arrested for indecency. two-piece swimsuits in front of the tinkered with the design all summer A court appearance ensued, during dowager is striking, especially when until it was just right for her big swim. which Kellerman appealed to the you take a closer look. The swimmers Julia Harpman, the crime reporter judge’s sense of logic and the very are wearing simple brief bottoms for the Daily News who accompanied real issue of women’s safety. The covered by sheer, silken jumpsuits. The Ederle to France and ghostwrote judge agreed that her costume was short leggings flow loosely to the upper Ederle’s columns for the New York appropriate for her watery endeavours, thigh, and their breasts are bare under paper (which was sponsoring her but she would have to wear a robe the silk. attempt), described her aquatic while on the sand to cover herself. These costumes don’t leave a lot to attire thusly: Henceforth, “The Kellerman” tank the imagination, but they’re beautiful “Entering the water, Trudie wore suit became the hot garment for and utilitarian in their construction. a red diving cap and goggles made adventurous women everywhere, The lightweight fabric repelled water of one curved piece of yellow glass, and women’s swimwear underwent a and certainly would have permitted short, black silk trunks, and a narrow utilitarian revolution. faster swims than the spongy wool or brassiere of navy blue silk on the front flannel tanks that previous swimmers of which is sewn a tiny silk American FUNCTION OVER MODESTY likely would have donned. flag and also the emblem of the New As Kellerman showed, when it comes to In 1926 when she became the first York Women’s Swimming association, moving efficiently through water while woman to swim across the English of which Trudie was elected a life clothed, less fabric is certainly more. To Channel, Gertrude Ederle also honorary member when she turned that end, over the next several decades, prudently prioritised function over professional in Florida last winter. women’s swimsuits shed their bulk. fashion. Ederle’s two-piece costume The brassiere unties and once abreast The now iconic image of the British featured a bandeau bra and super short the channel, she removed it wearing relay team that won the 400-metre shorts. It was a design she and her sister thereafter only the trunks. If these women’s event at the 1912 Stockholm Margaret refined to meet the demands chafed her, she was resolved to undo Olympic Games shows how much of channel swimming, writes Gavin and kick them off as she swam.” swimwear had changed in a few short Mortimer in his 2009 book, “The Great Ederle’s own well-known pre- years. The image features four fierce Swim.” swim photo shows her custom togs women – Belle Moore, Jennie Fletcher, Ederle had complained of how her covered with a thick layer of Channel aaa0067e-a8ab-449b-bd64-4cceb84a8f41 SWIMMING HISTORY grease. That grease was famously the only attire Charlotte “Lottie” Moore Schoemmell, an American swimmer who was the third woman to swim around Manhattan, bothered with when she undertook her many long distance swims. When she attempted to swim the Catalina Channel as part of the Wrigley’s Ocean Marathon event, Schoemmell (along with two other swimmers, Saga Kolb and Jean McKenzie) opted to swim naked, covering their modesty with 10 pounds each of black axel grease. While elite swimmers could get away with skimpier (or nonexistent) suits, strict morality rules in some areas, particularly the United States, dictated that the average beach-going lady should not mimic them. Kellerman wasn’t the only woman who had the length of her costume measured and far from the only one forcibly removed from the beach, as evidenced by photos captured in 1922 Chicago of flappers experiencing a rude interruption to an otherwise pleasant day by the lake. These rules were enforced in some communities well into the 1940s, He called his design the bikini, after Belle Moore, racing in bikinis during its quadrennial despite the changing state of the world the site of the first nuclear bomb tests. Jennie Fletcher, congress in Rome in 1960. around them. The suit bared a lot more skin, so much Annie Speirs, and so that he couldn’t find any runway Irene Steer – the COMING FULL CIRCLE BIKINI KILL models to wear it. Instead, he hired British relay These days, when it comes to As the world descended into its 18-year-old Micheline Bernardini, team that won competitive swim wear, it seems more second major conflagration of the 20th a nude dancer from the Casino de the 400-metre is often more. Now, competitors in the women’s event century, swimming and what women Paris, to model the explosive garment Olympic 10K open water event and at the 1912 were wearing to accomplish it took a at Piscine Molitor, a Paris pool, four those on the FINA Professional Open Stockholm backseat to more pressing concerns. days after the first American nuclear Olympic Games Water circuit routinely don long-legged But as Europe emerged from the second weapons test on Bikini Atoll. cozzies that look remarkably like World War and the atomic age dawned, “Like the [atom] bomb, the bikini Kellerman’s costume from 1904. another bomb was about to explode in is small and devastating,” Réard The shape may be the same, but women’s swimwear. said, adding later that he’d created a the material is 21st century. These It started in May 1946 with Parisian “two-piece bathing suit which reveals advanced pieces of sporting equipment fashion designer Jacques Heim’s modest everything about a girl except for her are made of space age textiles that repel two-piece swimsuit, a design he called mother’s maiden name.” water and offer elite swimmers the the Atome. Advertised as the smallest As the nuclear age accelerated, so additional second or two they need to swimsuit in the world (and named after too did the popularity of the bikini. hit the buoy first. the then smallest known particle in Though initially quite controversial For the rest of us, a standard textile the universe) the Atome would likely and banned in some places, by the swimsuit will usually do just fine, but be considered somewhat conservative mid-1960s, it had become a mainstay there are many choices and decisions today as it covered the navel. of seaside style for millions of women to be weighed when searching for the Meanwhile, another designer named around the world. It has since spawned right suit for your next swim. From Louis Réard observed that women numerous variations, including the fashion to fabric, fit, and the ever- wearing Heim’s design often rolled the tankini and training bikini, both of present issue of chaffing, there are many edges of the fabric down to achieve a which typically offer more coverage and factors to consider when suiting up. better tan line. This gave him the idea are more likely to stay in place when Even though the burdensome swim to trim the fabric to permit more sun training or swimming competitively dresses of old are mercifully gone, we on normally well-hidden parts. He than their flimsy string counterparts. can still empathise with the stylistic connected two triangles of fabric with Still, you’re unlikely to see two-piece struggles of our swimming forebears mere string for the bottom and another suits at most higher level competitions; as we continue to seek the ideal two to cover the breasts, and released FINA, the international governing balance of functionality, comfort, and his scandalous costume two body for competitive swimming, voted performance all topped off with a touch months later. to prohibit female swimmers from of class. 40 JULY 2021 | Outdoor Swimmeraaa0067e-a8ab-449b-bd64-4cceb84a8f41 outdoorswimmer.com