|
Censors The permissiveness of the 1920s barely affect the beach. Indeed, the swimsuit progression is insensitive to the Great Depression of 1929 as well as the rise in censorship in the early 1930s. The Hays Code dictates behavior and dress in the movies, and temporarily breaks the permissive spirit. Bare breasts, bare navels, bosom, inside of the thigh, and lace lingerie, are all banned in the cinema. Earlier silent classics like Abel Gance's Napoleon and Griffith's Birth of a Nation are attacked with scissors. Hedy Lamarr's nude romp in Ecstasy (HL193310) and Myrna Loy's bath in Barbarian (ML193308), both filmed in 1933, are the last cinema nudity until the rules are pushed back again in the late 1960s. Ironically, the Hayes repression does not stop the swimsuit from breaking into two pieces, although it ensures that navels remain obscene. Reductionist Pressures The evolution toward a two-piece swimsuit begins its first murmuring in the first half of the 1930s. In practice, there is no single pathway to the deux-pièces, and the trend is driven from several directions. These include the influences of costumes from the theater, Hollywood (GG3110), cutouts in the maillot, and male chest denudity (1929). Prior to the 1930s, bare midriffs are only seen in the theater and the pre-Hayes code cinema of the late 1920s. Bare midriff costumes comes in many forms, and are especially worn by dance-house girls, jungle Janes, and cinema queens. In 1932 French fashion designer Madeleine Vionnet extracts these Orientalist influences from the stage and introduces the bare midriff evening dress. It meets limited acceptance but by the following summer shorts, as well as skirts and pants, are being combined with a wide variety of bare midriff blouses, as well as bra, halter, and bandeau styles. The result is the maturation of the bare midriff sunsuit (fig. 11-6). Many of these ensembles are for semi-public wearing at the cabana, the pool, or the resort (LA3301). And they are primarily for exercise (LA3303), socializing and drinks, and sunning (fig. 7-5). They help establish sunning as an activity in its own right, and sunning, like other specialized activities, demands specialized clothes. The material is typically cotton print or linen, occasionally a knitted wool, although by the end of the decade elasticized fabric, particularly nylon by DuPont, allow a gentle corseted look; it is also very easy to dye in bright colors. Thus one vector toward the bare midriff exposure derives from the tank top and shorts silhouette of the 1920s. The first two piece swimsuit in the movies is often attributed to Dolores Del Rio, whose two piece in In Caliente (1934) combines a bulky asymmetrical bra with a skirt slung on the hips (fig. 11-5). Strapless on one side and strapped on the other, it is a design lost until it is rediscovered in the 1980s. The bare midriff deux-pièces is a welcomed development for the swimsuit. The steady reduction of the size of the maillot since Annette KellermannŐs era has reached its limits. Feet, ankles, calves, knees and thighs have been bared; arms, shoulders, and underarms are open to view (PE193710); Jean Harlow has rendered the maillot backless; and low-cut scoop necklines already display deep cleavage. Because the maillot is a silhouette difficult to reduce in its extremities, the stomach becomes a natural candidate for exposure. Maillot Cutout One of the driving forces for the deux-pièces breakout gains momentum in the mid-1930s when maillot cutout acquires mainstream appeal. Although maillot cutouts appear before the 1930s in pinup pictures, it is in the early thirties that the cutouts are seriously treated in the fashion press (EG3410) and advertising (CC3410). The first cutouts excise fabric out of the sides of the maillot, but by the following season the designs become bolder, and clip an isosceles triangle right out of the front of the maillot, integrating a bare stomach into the basic one-piece design (fig. 10-3). The result is one of those events that appears at a focal point of a transition, in this case a species which bridges the discontinuity between maillot and deux-pièces. The basic maillot halter design resonates well with the cutout. The belly exposure runs the width of the front and above the navel, and apexes on the sternum just below the breasts. The sides of the triangle cutout mirror the neckline and encase the breasts in a bow tie dynamic that resembles the counter-tensioned slide-side halter and deep v-bottomed bikini of the future 1980s. Leading designers, like Ruth McCardle and Margit Fellegi of Cole, shepherd the cutout through the late 1930s (CC39AA). Fellegi introduces x-backed straps and opens the stomach further (CC39BB). But a maillot trying to be a two-piece is a short-lived compromise and ready to let go. The first two-piece swimsuits to evolve directly from the maillot separate the top and bottom as if a narrow, but complete, ring of midriff has been excised from maillot (JH3910). Together, the fissured halter and briefs mimic the lines of the maillot. Bikini scientists in good faith can debate whether to call this a deux-pièces, because to do so overlooks the strong maillot lines, and some may argue the species is better classified as a variety of maillot, for example, a maillot separate or maillot two-piece. Such discussions may never be resolved. Needless to say, by the end of the 1940s, the maillot cutout is extinct (AW4910). And it remains so until the 1960s, when it is reintroduced for a the opposite reason--a bikini becoming a maillot (B196805). These initial developments are plotted on the Belly-Up/Belly Down Chart (BSD8830). Although the maillot cutout provides an excellent example of a transition species, one must observe that the bra and brief combination has been a stable of the musical review since the early years of the 19th century. So the idea of the deux-pièces certainly predates its evolution in swimwear. Perhaps the role of the maillot cutout is that of a transition aid, and a way for the public to make a gradual transition, rather than a leap, to the bare-midriffed two-piece silhouette. The First Deux-pièces Of course once the belly opens up wider any residual influence of the maillot silhouette vanishes. Out of the maillot's upper half the halter top is introduced into swimwear: a string tie around the neck, a down-sweeping underarm line that passés the sides of the breasts and bares the back, and a depth somewhere below the breasts and above the waistline (fig. 11-2). Stomach comes into full play. A beauty queen might expose only the narrowest circumference of stomach, but how she moves, stretches, leans over controls the amount of her midriff exposure (fig. 11-3 [Vogue]). The bottoms of the newly established deux-pièces tend to follow the lines of the maillot. Hips are elasticized and the crotch is initially sheathed, skirted, or knot-tied to adjust the snugness of closure. By and large, the deux-pièces swimsuit is an innovation lead by the Europeans, who begin taking the bold separation step by step. The French introduce halters as early as 1933 (LA3301, LA3303). Clearly defined separates, combining bra and panty culotte, are spotted in trendy resorts in the summer of 1934 (LA3304), and in England, beauty contestants even expose the underside of the breasts (EB3510). In 1935 French Vogue highlights a water-skier clad in a basic bra top and panty-cut briefs that are skirtless and with a legline angling slightly up from the crotch (FV3510). Bandeau and trunk combinations emerge by 1936 (PO3610). In America, quite a bit more modesty prevails than abroad, with American styles in swimwear often trailing fifteen years behind France. In 1936 Life magazine shares the latest scandal with its readers, showing pinup Betty Cook, a Miami darling wearing a tight fitting and very daring bare midriff. A clasp at the front of the halter gathers it in and chevrons the belly (fig. 11-9). Many Americans think the deux-pièces is "too much," meaning too little. Hollywood old-timers, like Greta Garbo stick to regressive designs (GG4110) and very a narrow belly displays. It is not until the mid-1940s that the stomach is universally exposed on the American beach, and not just by pinups and movie stars. But by then, the French will have already popularized the bikini. |
|
