Bathing suits of the early 1900s were more like costumes. Many of the women’s suits had dresses that went down to the knees or past the knees. These long skirted bathing suits would get tangled around their legs when they tried to swim.
Eventually, women started to wear the men’s bathing suits for comfort. Surprisingly enough, there were many who felt that the tighter men’s bathing suits were vulgar on men but practical on women.
The video below shows several different bathing suit styles from the early 20th century.
