Swimming costumes

With the exception of young children who may bathe nude, swimming costumes are normally worn for daytime bathing at ocean pools. Nude bathing or skinnydipping still occurs at the ocean baths, usually at night.

In the nineteenth century, men bathed nude or in trunks. By the late nineteenth century, some ocean baths insisted that men wore trunks. Fashionable nineteenth century women's bathing costumes could involve as much as ten yards of fabric and were clearly not designed for swimming.

By 1900, neck-to-knee swimming costumes had gained favour for men's competitive swimming. Similar unisex costumes were worn by women for competitive swimming. These neck-to-knee costumes were made in wool or silk, which both clung to the body when wet. White swimming costumes, which became transparent when wet, were regarded as indecent and dark colours were preferred.

In the early 1900s, Australia's Annette Kellerman helped popularise 1-piece costumes for women.

In 1914, when Newcastle City by-laws required men to wear two-piece Canadian swimming costumes, the Cooks Hill Surf club, the Fourteenth Infantry and the Newcastle surf club all wrote to Newcastle Council asking to be exempted from wearing the required costume on the grounds that they already wore what was regulation costume in the rest of the world and the required costume was unsuited to lifesaving.

The availability of elastic meant that by the 1920s, bras were replacing corsets, simplifying the process of dressing and undressing for women.

In the 1930s, E. S. Spooner, the NSW Minister for Local Government after consultation with swimsuit manufacturers, council and surf clubs developed the 1-piece 'Spooner costume', which covered men's chests. Men who insisted on their right to go topless at the beach or baths rolled down the tops of their costumes. Regulations requiring wearing of the Spooner costumes had become a joke by 1939.

From 1900 to WWII, many people hired bathing costumes at the baths. Sydney's Power House Museum holds hire costumes used by women in the early days of Wylies Baths. These costumes included a mob cap, have the Wylies Baths label woven into their fabric and appear far better suited to bathing than swimming.

During World War II, coupons were needed to purchase swimsuits and other clothing.

Soon after World War II, it was still common for people to hire swimming costumes at beaches and ocean baths in Sydney's eastern suburbs.

Later more women adopted two-piece bathing costumes including brief bikinis. Even later, women like men were insisting on their right to bathe and sunbake topless at the beaches. Greater use of tampons from the 1950s meant menstruating women could wear swimming costumes and go swimming without embarrassment.

Use of Lycra by swimwear manufacturers produced fitting, rather than saggy swimming costumes.

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