I've seen one too, in San Francisco. It was one that was rented at Sutro Baths, the large pool near Ocean Beach from the 1870s until the 1920s, I believe. There were several separate pools in the complex overlooking Seal Rock and men could rent a heavy swim suit for the day. I have no idea how they cleaned them. Yick.
At any rate, the one I saw was heavy as AlbertCat said, heavy like a sweater. It weighed, dry, about the same as a heavy winter sweater. I can't imagine how heavy they were wet, but there are photographs of swarms of men in identical swimsuits on the edge of the pools. The one I saw also had the woven cotton underwear sewn into the bottom. LynnD On 1/14/10, [email protected] <[email protected]> wrote: > > > > just a bit heavier than T-shirt fabric. > > > **************** > > > > The two real one piece tank top vintage bathing suits for men I found at a > flea market were knit but sweater weight (perhaps a bit denser, tighter > stitch than a sweater). They also had a woven cotton underwear- like thing > sewn into the bottom part. One was navy with a wide white stripe running > horizontally at chest level. The other was black. Both were wool. > > > Wool, y'know, will still keep one warm when wet. And sometime in the 1870's > I believe it was considered a healthy thing to break into a sweat. Thus, a > "sweater" was proper attire for tennis and the like. These ideas linger into > the 20th century. > > > > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > h-costume mailing list > [email protected] > http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume > _______________________________________________ h-costume mailing list [email protected] http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume
