English Beach Clothing: Playwear--Chronology


Figure 1.-- These three English children had a studio portrait taken at an unidentified beach. All we know for sure is that the portarit was taken in 1908. All three children have sun hats with chin straps. They seem to be wearing turtle-neck sweaters. The water and beach temperatures in England tends to be colder than in America. Two of the children wear striped bloomers or romper pants. The older child in the middle wears a skirt abd opetticioat. The children all look like boys, about 4-6 years old. It was by 1908 , however, less common for boys to wear kilt skirts, especially the older children. The child apparently had contracted polio, a severe children's disease in the early- and mid-20th century. Notice that the child wears long stockings with shoes which were needed because of the brace.

Modern readers might think that children dressed very formally for seaside outings. Unfortunately we know very little about thev 19th century. Photography was invented in 1839. We do not, hoWever see much in the way of beach photogrpahy in the 19th century. For one thing, most photographs were taken in the studio. And people at the time were less likely to take seaside vacations. This does not seem to have cahnged substantially until the 1890s. And even then, most beach photograph were seaside settings set up in the studio. The invention of the Kodak Brownie meant that for the firt time family snapshots could be taken on the beaches, although we still see studio mickups. do know a great deal about the 20th century. Seaside wear was still both formal and cumbersome at We commonly see boys at the seaside wearing Norfolk suits and Eton collars in the early 20th century. Gradually we see boys and girls wearing more casual and less cumbersome clothing. Girls in particular were expected to cover uop even on the beach. And it is not until after World War I that long stockings entirely disappear from the beach. Here we have two types of clothing. The first are actual swimsuits or bathing costumes and the second are outfits worn at beach resorts, but not actual swimsuits. Swim suits were mostly open leg knee pants. We see boys wearing romper like pants in the early 20th century. Sometimes the beach wear for younger children was rubberized and worn over regular clothes as they commonly did not go into the water.








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Created: 11:57 AM 9/19/2013
Last updated: 11:57 AM 9/19/2013