Bathing Beauties at the Beach!

I love these retro bathing beauties! They are reminiscent of a time when bathing suits were called "costumes" (and if you look at the old photographs, they do actually resemble a costume more than our version of bathing attire!). And every lady wore a bathing cap to keep her expensively coiffed hair in shape . . . not to mention that most of the ladies of that day still swam with their head stretching out of the water to keep that hair safe! There was actually the fashion thought that the bathing cap resembled the close fitting cloche hats that were in style at the time. They remind me of my great aunt who swam a few times a week (well up into her late 70's) traveling on a train from eastern NJ to her spot on Coney Island where she began swimiming as a child. As a kid I loved visiting her and rummaging through her eclectic collection of clothing, especially her hats. She also had a collection of swim caps and I loved the 60's version with all the crazy flowers.

The wooden retro divers are my favorite. At 46" in length they make quite a statement. I have one above the kitchen sink in our newly renoved beach kitchen (surprised, right?) . . . in aqua. The new bathing beauty diver hook pillow is on its way to our store and coordinates with so many of our other pillows in that shade. You can create quite a varied seaside look with this collection. And we could all use a little bathing beauty on a hand towel!