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Stage Costumes Theory Swimwear evolution has always been driven from several directions and one of the most significant of these has been the influence of costumes worn in the theater and the movies. Virtually all swimsuit styles, from the leotard to the g-string, are worn in the theater long before they are worn on the beach. The theater and the cinema are not a total presage of the swimsuit; erogenous zones are a function of place and utility as much as they are of the specific part of the body exposed. So what is seen by stagelight and projection is not always brought into full daylight, across the barrier of the stage and into full public view. At least not always immediately. The body leotard appears in burlesque 30 years before Annette Kellerman takes it public in 1909, and the g-string is a burlesque staple 85 years before it hits the beaches in southern France in early 1970s (some say 1972 is the exact date). Thus venue is an important part of costume. Underwear is worn in a closed, private interior. Theater costumes are worn in a closed public interior. And swimwear is worn is an unclosed public exterior. All are not equal. The public exterior is further complicated by the venue, or boundary of the the exterior, but that is another discussion entirely. Stage Costumes Practice None the less, the state of affairs in the late 1920s is that burlesque, vaudeville, Broadway and cinema costume traditions are far more revealing than swimsuits seen on the beach, (fig. 12-1 [Earl Carroll's Varieties, 1926]). 1920s costumes are rich, varied, with unusual, with "Postmodern" lines and support. Bralessness is popular, as is a general open-collared and open-armholed attitude toward nipple exposures that is sometimes reflected in beachwear. The key distinction of the deux-pièces is the bare midriff, and bare midriffs in the theater predate the turn of the century. In the first decades of the 20th century theater costumes of the great dance reviews like the Folies Bergère in Paris and The Ziegfeld Follies in New York outrage the flapper era and exploit not only cleavage, bellage, and leggage, but see-through, toplessness, and total nudity (fig. 12-2). Hollywood and the European cinema also contributes to the outrageousness. Metal serpentine breastplates encircle Theda Bara's breasts, The Vamp, in 1915 (fig. 12-3). Betty Blythe demonstrates see-through in The Queen of Sheba, (fig. 12-3.4) and endless body-baring costumes in She (BB192610). Carol Lombard's criss-cross halter connects to her skirt and bares her belly (CL3010), and wild two-piece costumes are common in the pre-Hayes code cinema (BH192720, GG192710). The apex is reached circa Cecil B. De Mille's Sign of the Cross; one of Hollywood's leading ladies, Claudette Colbert (CC3210) takes a milk bath, and half-naked prisoners get devored by gorillas (SC3210-15). Hayes Code Effects Bare-midriff costumes survive the early 1930s Hayes restrictions but not without repression. Tarzan's Jane, Maureen O'Sullivan, wears a baresided leather croptop and loincloth in 1932 (TJ193210), but is more dressed two years later (TJ193410). The Hays Code forbids the exposure of the navel, ensuring that Alla Nazimova will not repeat wearing her harem bra and a low-slung, bare-naveled skirt (AZ191710) twenty years later. In the years that follow, the stomach opens upward, as Hollywood's finest, like Joan Crawford in Dancing Lady, stand prepared to exhibit themselves in little more than a bra and shorts (JC3310). The bare-midriff, deux-pièces theme is especially popular in the jungle (EB3110, CC193301), in ancient Egypt (ZJ3210) and lost cities (KB193210), and outer space (JR3610). Thus most of the soutien-gorge and culotte styles of the about-to-emerge deux-pièces already exist in the theater. The repertoire of tops included the bra, halter and bandeau styles, as well as the camisole (fig. 12-4.5), and the vest. Bottoms included pants, panties, miniskirts, shorts, tap pants, the lower-cut bikini brief, and even the bottomless g-string. These can be worked together in many combinations. |
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