Evolution of suits over the years
 

How have brief changed over the years? One person in the board said he recognized a speedo style suit from the '80s. I realize fabrics change. What else changed? Have they gotten better, or worse?

Evolution of suits over the years
 

Well JameSwim, speedos really started in Australia, by a scotish immegrant, (he was gay) the firat speedos wereMAINLY ALL 100% nylon most were 4 inches sides.
Then triough the years the Dupont company came out with spandex lycra materials thus speedos from then on used those materials to fabricate speedos, as from the 80ts they didnt change much except that thay ahave bene made from 4 to 3 and 2 and 1 inches sides, new colors, patterns multocolors and such. Then were added pouches, and back and front seams like the japanese suits and Nikes and outhers .... some are now made with very shiny materials that enhances the suits. see trough and non see trough of course, front and back linings have bene added, mind you 100% nylon still prevails.
Now there is a huge competition between speedo makers and are sold by hundreds of different companys, just navigate trough the internet you will see that there is hundreds of choices of styles , materials, etc, Who sead thet speedos were out of style noticing the hundreds of them offered to detailers and the general public is prouf enough that they are still going on like our moto here on the board SPEEDO ON.... (SORRY FOR MY MISSPELLINGS)

Add to this that Speedo is a brand, not a style. Just like Kleenex is a brand, not a type of tissue. When people incorrectly call a swimsuit a speedo, they really mean a brief. There are not hundreds of companies that make speedos, there are lots of companies that make swim briefs.

Jockey was the first company to come up with brief-style underwear for men, and the design dates from the 1930s. Guys were initially uneasy about the new, then considered very minimal, design, when the normal undewear for men was the so-called "Union suit", much larger, often with a trap door in the rear. As I understand the story, sales were slow initially especially in less urbanized areas , but men found the minimal jockey shorts to be very comfortable and by the 1940s they were widely worn See this link. Go to the 1930s http://www.jockey.com/en-us/CorporateInfo/History/

Anyhow, what the Speedo company did was simply adapt the Jockey Brief design for use as swimwear. Obviously cotton was not going to cut it as swimwear, and thats when the newly developed nylon came into play. Others had experimented with brief-style swimwear prior to Speedo. In the 40s there were actually brief-style swimuits for men made out of WOOL of all things!

The rest is history, mainly the transition to Lycra. In the late 1980s competition swmmers thought the smaller the brief the faster they could swim, so this was the period of time you saw the really tiny briefs, particularly worn by competitive swimmers from Europe...France, Italy, 1/4"-1/2" inch siides. Then the early 90s thongs became popular with many men but that is a story for another day. I remember sorting hrough a rack of thongs for men at Macy's. I used to wear these regularly at Hotel/Motel hot tubs.I would put a swimming brief on over the thong and then discard the brief as I entered the hot tub. Great fun!

Sebbie

changes
 

As for fabrics we now have fastskin and tan thru (one on sale in forum) just
to mention two - and the new technology for printing on stretch material has of course produced a revolution in pattern and art representations.

As for design , one never seen now is the lace-up at both hips (perhaps from the sixties).
A sexy bikini, mostly pioneered by the French, was joined at the sides by rings, or fixed with interlocking clips. Looked good on the right body but
would need to be searched out from a specialist supplier these days.

As for better or worse, well there are only so many changes possible in a small garment and many have appeared over the years. Today the Brazilian sunga seems to predominate (instead of the trendy tanga of a few years back) but others may disagree.

Evo.....of suits over the years
 

Effectively Byron and Sebby added interesting details to this subject.
SwimteamSpeedo the term speedo is generally used to refer to brief style swimwear,effectively it is a brand, I usually use the term SPEEDO BRAND wene referring speedo made suits and just speedo (s) wene refreeing to swimwear in genaral.

what's in a word
 

Yes, that's probably been a good way of tackling it and there has also been much past discussion on the speedoboard about a correct singular or plural designation of the garment's by-word.

My own habit has been to use S for the brand and s for all other swim briefs.
I wish in a way that the word had never been adopted at all for general usage but I would think that speedo lovers generally know what they are talking about to each other.

The problems lie with manufacturers and journalists. Just about any type of male swimwear can be found to be described as a speedo. I always was and still am annoyed to see the last James Bond actor being captioned on a pic as wearing a speedo or a tiny speedo. It was neither of course and I had steam coming from my ears when one newspaper even referred to him as wearing a daring bikini ! (in fact Burt Lancaster was more daring in his beach scene with ?.. sixty years ago).

The trouble with men's swim suits is that they are so loosely defined, everyone having different perspectives and definitions.

To me a men's swim suit should be close fitting and exclude swim shorts, board shorts and other loose shorts used for swimming. A proper swim suit should have an elasticated waist and elasticated leg holes.
I would also exclude body suits, skin suits and wet suits as although they are meant to be used for swimming they have functions other than body cover and support built into them, eg warmth, flotation and faster movement through water.
A swim suit should have a back however brief, so I would exclude G strings and jock straps but include swim thongs.
A bikini has a fuller back than a thong but narrow sides (hips) ranging from half inch to 2 inch.
The speedo or swim brief or racing brief has sides ranging from 2 -5 inches, but has a distinct cut away leg look.
Square cuts (sangas in Brazil) lack the cut away look having full sides, resembling tight shorts, while jammers are up to knee length suits derived from cycle shorts.

Very tight brief suits and suits designed for fashion rather than speed may have a pouch front, there seems to be a fashion for pouch fronts at the moment particularly in Brazil.

Suits designed for diving, either from boards or blocks tend to have waist cords to avoid embarrassment when entering the water head first.

Many materials have been used for swim suits cotton canvas and knitted wool were early efforts. Wool is reputed to be very scratchy when dry and endlessly saggy when wet. Speedo pioneered the use of "parachute" nylon, it worked as it doesn't absorb water and just clung neatly to the body when wet. Nylon got replaced by Lycra which made suits truly skin tight although Aussibum have brought nylon back.

Seeing a picture of a suit we can spot the branding, the material and the cut and make a guess at the era and continent the suit comes from or from which the retro design is taken.

I don't think there are any suits designed for diving - I think divers just tend to 'downsive' their Speedos or TYRs or whatever brand of brief suit the other guys on their swim team wear.

name that suit
 

Yes, it is a little misleading to suggest that there are special suits designed for
"diving" , be it from platform or block - and waist cords appear in all competition suits for obvious reasons, including those worn by backstrokers who do not commence with a dive.

(but I have yet to see any competitive swimmer enter the water by the pool ladder anyway).

Nevertheless, Torchwatch gives us a very good summary and a reminder of how many styles have appeared on the market over the years and just how confusing it is to put an accurate name to each.
(I wish he hadn't mentioned wool - my mind goes back to early teens and recalls just how horrible it was to be wearing such inappropriate material !)

Byron. Wool ??? Gag me with a spoon !!! Unfortunately, I can relate. Long story; so I'll leave it at that

Evolution of suits over the years
 

We're forgetting about "Ocean"!! They had "racing" suits well before Speedos started to be imported from Australia. Ocean "Champion" - a 7 or 8 inch side cut which was well over twice as much fabric as in the modern "Speedo".

And, yes, before that there were those horrible, itchy, heavy, water-logged wool suits which tended to drag you to the bottom of the pool.

Does anyone remember silk racing suits? I'm told that they existed before WW II. At that point all silk went into the war effort - parachutes.

If memory serves, Speedos were first imported into the US following the 1960 Olympic Games, I bought my first one in the summer of 1963 - a solid maroon nylon suit with ~7" sides.

progress?
 

:eek: I don't remember any silk racers but seem to have a fellow sufferer in Crail as regards woollen trunks.

Just to compare, here are swimming shorts in Dubai 2011 and in Hawaii 1953 (Deborah Kerr being the actress I could not recall in the famous wet clinch with Burt Lancaster - From Here To Eternity).

http://www.thenigeriandaily.com/2011...orange-bikini/

(Bring back Burt I say - he also made The Swimmer in 1968 of course)

URL correction
 

:o http://www.thenigeriandaily.com/2011...friend-in-tiny orange-bikini/

Any suit with a waist cord is designed for diving, whether you are diving from the side of the pool or from the high boards if your suit isn't totally secure it will end up around your ankles.
Suits not intended for such use may not have waist cords.

Isn't it annoying when the end of the string gets lost inside the suit.

Cord
 

The best way to fix a lost end is to pull the whole cord out-Pin on a small safety pin-reensert and work it back through-be surprised how fast that works.

the lost chord
 

:mad: Yes, and why are some suit manufacturers so mean with the length supplied? - does it mean a cent difference in profit for them ?

info.
 

OK - hope this lot works:

Casino Royale:
The "daring pic" that launched a thousand newspaper articles in 2006
(007 Daniel Craig)

http://www.paulinlondon.com/2006/11/...-premiere.html


A potted history of swimsuit styles:

http://elupton.com/2009/10/swim-suits-stats/

Note that the US swimmers of 1948 are "streamlined"
(if that was at the Olympic Pool that would be the last
occasion the Games were hosted in London).

continued...
 

Silk suits:

Cannot find one but did see that they were at one time
standard issue to US Marines.

Ocean:
The company appears to have started in New York although
no history found.

Pic 5 here seems to be an Ocean Champion with a yellow side stripe
(and a club or brand logo hard to discern)

http://meninnylon.blogspot.com/2011/...8f0e31b3b5ccda


Also

http://www.hydroponicsonline.com/sto...647382136.html

and

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Vintage-Oc...-/220871575592

continued...
 

Silk suits:

Cannot find one but did see that they were at one time
standard issue to US Marines.

Ocean:
The company appears to have started in New York although
no history found.

Pic 5 here seems to be an Ocean Champion with a yellow side stripe
(and a club or brand logo hard to discern)

http://meninnylon.blogspot.com/2011/...8f0e31b3b5ccda


Also

http://www.hydroponicsonline.com/sto...647382136.html

and

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Vintage-Oc...-/220871575592

addendum
 

:o first of three URLs above is wrong and should be
http://meninnylon.blogspot.com/2011_09_01_archive.html

Ocean Champion there is pic 5 of 45 and I think the guy is
wearing a SLSC emblem on his suit. (for the City of S........)

I said no silk suits to be found but there are all sorts of stuff
on this blog and a couple are in fact included.

ring link brief
 

found one (4th pic down) (Ipanema Brazil)
http://www.aussiegayguy.com/speeedo/...peedos/page/2/

guy exercising
 

correction: http://www.aussiegayguy.com/speedo/t...peedos/page/2/

Powerhouse museum collection of Speedo Swimweasr
 

http://www.powerhousemuseum.com/coll...peedo_Swimwear

Has a collection of swimwear going back many years.

Powerhouse, Sydney
 

Thanks James - long time no see and they seem to have a lot more cataloged in detail now.
We hadn't mentioned "paper" suits previously for the various fabrics and they are there for Seoul 1988 (and some board memberrs still have some).

stretch brief with no lycra
 

I remember from long ago a brief with stretch that was not made with Lycra.
I think it a Jantzen suit and was woven with nylon and some latex rubber -- kind of like an Ace ankle brace supporter.

Jantzen
 

:) Remember it just as you describe. A great fit and I had it in light blue. Never did know what to call that fabric but did not as I recall appear in any other than Jantzen suits. All I remember was a slight dimpled or honeycomb surface - not silky or shiny.

Jantzen suit
 

Yes, mine was navy blue. It was cut with a front center seam, and the fit was good. It didn't stretch as much as like Lycra, and that made for a snug, different kind fit from suits you find today.

I don't think Jantzen sells men's suits anymore in the US, and I see some in eBay sold from Asia, but I think they just use or license the name.

Catalina
 

I had a Catalina suit with side split going to nearly the waist. Yellow with blue trim. When sunning you could fold the sides back revealing a very skimpy liner.

Racing Suits
 

Interesting thread. I swam competitively in the 90's, The common view back then was the smaller and tighter the speedo the better. For competition we had special racing suits. We wore them 1 size smaller than normal. This was to maximize the compression. It was more contoured and smaller on the sides than the regular speedo, very tight, and difficult to put on and take off. It didn't reach up all the way to cover my butt, and was unlined except for a thin layer of the same material up front. Visible penis (and balls) lines were the rule. We had to shave everywhere on our bodies, and i do mean everywhere. My obsession with swimming faster over-rode any modesty or embarrassment I felt. We switched to Speedo Aquablades around 1997, tight, striped, still worn a size too small, and semi-transparent. Supposedly it channeled water around the suit. I believe that the technology behind it led to idea that fabric could be less resistant than skin and therefore the larger suits evolved.

At any time where performance takes priority over modesty then sportswear becomes briefer and/or tighter. When modesty takes over due to child protection, homophobic or religious issues sportswear becomes longer, baggier and looks more frumpy.
Performance demands that a swimmer in a tight brief suit shaves.
When materials that perform better than naked shaved skin are permitted than sportwear design can go anywhere, and resulted in bodysuits for swimmers.
Big baggy shorts accepted by prudes and frumps are great for sports fans, they can look sporty wearing the same gear as their heroes whilst tanking up on 10 pints of beer in a bar.

tres bon as they say in France
 

:) Very true - I enjoyed the last line (the old adage of no pain no gain still applies in sport).

I particularly enjoyed hearing also from Brent as a competitive swimmer - we need more pieces like that.
(I hope Louis is taking note as he has been complaining about off-topic posts)

Mr International
 

PS to Brent: Did I correctly recognise Oasis as the shoot location?
(your post 6th Jan. and mine 7th)

When the 100% nylon suits were worn for competitive swimming there was a different suit made for diving. It was made out of something similar to spandex and was very high over the waist. (usually about 8" sides) It fit very tight and didn't offer water resistance when entering the water. The nylon suits fit much lower and briefer. Though worn tight, the nylon and lower fit offered more chance of a Wardrobe Malfunction when entering the water on a dive. When the nylon/lycra blend was perfected more the suits became interchangeable.

high cut
 

I did not know that but it raises a puzzle I have never resolved, ie when the (banned) full-leg suits were around why were they always cut so low
across the hips ?

Speedo Aquablade
 

Examples of the Aquablade fit.

cut of suits
 

OK - I recognise the Aquablade brief but what I call the leg suits were waist to ankle but cut so low as to barely cover the pubes.
My thought was always that at that part of the anatomy there would not be the closest of fits and so allow undesirable water drag (an important factor if races are won by a hundredth of a second these days).

Btw was it at Oasis ? (the pics you posted three months ago)

what I meant
 

Example: http://www.flickr.com/photos/2616538...n/photostream/

(referencing Byron's picture)

So, somehow chest hair drag went away when swimmers wore suits that covered the legs?

As for design , one never seen now is the lace-up at both hips (perhaps from the sixties).

A sexy bikini, mostly pioneered by the French, was joined at the sides by rings, or fixed with interlocking clips. Looked good on the right body but
would need to be searched out from a specialist supplier these days.

I remember "Parr of Arizona" had one made from chamois, with D-rings on the sides, and a little chamois pouch for your keys. HOT HOT HOT