Beauty on the Beach: A Centennial Celebration of Swimwear

July 10–October 11, 2009
The Wolfsonian–FIU @ 1001 Washington Avenue

Over the past one hundred years, ideas about public bathing and its apparel evolved as American society experienced dynamic changes: the urban population grew, personal wealth rose, the marketplace expanded, and travel and tourism flourished. The most marked shift in swimwear came in the 1910s as the habits of bathing and soaking gave way to swimming. In the following decades, swimwear designers created new styles and advertisers developed new marketing strategies informed by scientific theories regarding the health benefits of bathing for both hygiene and fitness, changes in attitudes about exposing the body (especially the female body), and advances in manufacturing techniques and materials.

Beauty on the Beach: A Centennial Celebration of Swimwear posed the question: how do swimwear design and marketing shape and reflect popular ideas about fitness, beauty, and glamour? Featuring rare swimsuits from the Jantzen archives in Portland, Oregon—from dense wool to light spandex—the exhibition invited visitors to explore the interrelationship between fashion design, advertising, and America’s changing sociocultural landscape. It was presented in tandem with the installation Sun Stroke Stimulus.