Evolution of suits over the years

[Lap Counter]

Originally Posted by Brent

I swam competitively in the 90's, The common view back then was the smaller and tighter the speedo the better.

My obsession with swimming faster over-rode any modesty or embarrassment I felt.

During the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, Speedo plastered the city with bus stop posters of a U.S. team swimmer (I think it was Gary Hall Jr). He was wearing the smallest, tightest suit I'd ever seen. Suit top just barely high enough to cover penis base. Zero hair. Talk about over riding modesty and embarrassment! Wearing that suit would take balls, (but there would be no place to put them). Sticking your pic all over the city would take big brass ones.

It made the suit worn in the famous Mark Spitz poster look huge.

Brent - did those '90s suits stretch to accommodate you, or did the downsized compression just crush your balls? Did you learn any special tricks of how to place your goodies for comfort or look? Wondering, because the Speedo poster showed no hint of any detail. Might have been suit compression, or they might have air-brushed the detail out to make it acceptable for public viewing on a bus poster.

[dorcas3]

I always trained in a drag type suit and then competed in a size or two smaller-this was commom practice on most levels of swimming. It seems to me that the whole speedo issue has appeared in the last 10 or 15 years. In other words progress went backwords. Even the boxer types of trunks were much more form fitting and in fact I had some that you zipped your way into- I even had a racer which had string side panels-only comment "that looks great-where did you get them" Same thing with basketball shorts-they were! and no one gave it a thought-guys used to sit down for coach instructions and show some jock so what everyone including the girls knew us guys were wearing them and so they had haltes for their boobs! Later on jogging bra prototypes were based on two jocks sewed together right here in Burlington, Vermont!.

[Byron]

A reminder:
http://morristsai.com/assets_c/2008/...mb-300x392.jpg

[dorcas3]

Speedo later came out with a much briefer version of the Spitz suit-I had one and remember that it was entirely lined-great colors until they began to fade.

[Byron]

............and yet they know nothing when I say "your posters all around Atlanta in 1966"

[Byron]

1996 for the Olympic Games

[JamesSwim]

Originally Posted by NakedBudd

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

Is this an example of a lace-up at hips? This page has an old ad from the early 1950's.

http://madmen.wikia.com/wiki/Jantzen_Swimwear

[Lap Counter]

Originally Posted by JamesSwim

Is this an example of a lace-up at hips? This page has an old ad from the early 1950's.

http://madmen.wikia.com/wiki/Jantzen_Swimwear

Interesting to note that Jantzen was a mainstream department store brand, so that suit represents what was popular and accepted in those days. Pretty bold to leave totally bare sides! However, I've got to guess that not too many guys smoked pipes at the beach.

[Torchwatch]

Byron, 1966 was the year of "They think it's all over, it is now!"

The string sided suits came from an era before stretch fabrics, the suit could be made body tight by adjusting the strings.

I remember seeing them in the 1960's in the old Victorian municipal pool. They kind of caught the eye.

Putting eyelets into Lycra is very difficult as the fabric is so thin and stretchy. I've tried it.

We do seem to keep coming back to Jantzen on this board, they must have been an important part of life in the USA.

[Byron]

A bit of clarification needed here:


What you have posted as a quote from NakedBudd is largely my post of 03-11-2012 and his post of 04-25-2012 quotes part of that and adds his own recollection of the Parr suit in chamois with D rings (and yes, I can just about remember that one too now that he mentions it).

Now to side lace-ups (for want of a better description):

The Jantzen guy in red (and hilariously smoking a pipe as pointed out by LapCounter) is in my opinion a figment of some artist's imagination as,
to my knowledge, Jantzen never produced a suit with such lattice-work fabric at the hips (and such an odd design would be out of keeping with their generally good taste).

Lace-up sides certainly existed in some swimsuit designs , for pulling the suit to fit - as an alternative to what we all know as the drawstring waist cord. They never looked very stylish however which no doubt accounted for their short life in the stores. I will post a pic if I can find one but all signs seem to be that they went the way of the dinosaur.