By the Seaside
Chevron bathing suit in the Modern Girl and Ladies Home Journal.
If you are hoping to be by the sea-side this summer, I’ve got some of the best sea bathing tips to share with you from Irish women’s magazines from the early 20th century, spotted while doing research over the last few months. How about getting ready for summer days by the sea by knitting and crocheting a whole beach ensemble, as per the instruction of the 1930s magazine The Modern Girl Ladies Home Journal? They offer a whole knitting pattern, see pictured above and below and The Lady of the House a women’s magazine/journal (now Irish Tatler) which which began in the 1890s tell us of the perils and pleasures of sea-bathing on hair and skin. I leave you with their practical advice, some of which may be useful for the modern reader, others with make you smile.
1930s – The Modern Girl, Ladies Home Journal
The Modern Girl says in their article Swim for Pleasure…Don’t over do it and don’t make a spartan rite out of it.
“Unless you are very strong and very accustomed to the water, cut out an early morning bathe so beloved by writers of holiday storyettes. Those 6am affairs where the clean limbed young man swimming round the headland sees the Girl in the Green Swim Suit a quarter of a mile further out. Cut out, too, that romantic standby illustrated on a dust-cover, the moonlight bathe. The time to bathe, for the average person, is when the sun is high and shining and you can have a sun-bath afterwards. And don’t stay in too long. Twenty minutes is the absolute maximum for ordinary folk.” – The Modern Girl and Ladies’ Home Journal
A Beach Ensemble you can knit crochet. Bathing suit, skirt and cap, using Copley’s 2 ply climax knitting wool in Absinthe green and orange. 1935.
1900s – Lady of the House, Ladies Journal
The Lady of the House leaves us with some thoughts on the health benefits of sea-bathing, but take note ones tresses may suffer.
About Sea-bathing
“Delightful as it is sea-bathing to those with whom it agrees, it cannot be denied that salt water has a bad effect on the complexion and the hair. it makes the latter sticky and the former it discolours, except if one is careful to sponge the face with soft fresh water at once after returning home after one’s dip. I knew a pretty blond who always brought with her to the baths sponge soaked with fresh water, which she used the moment she came out of the sea. However, I think it is sufficient to take this precaution when one reaches the house. Sea-water should not be allowed to remain in the hair either, but as most people wear bathing caps now-a-days one’s tresses seldom suffer.”- The Lady of the House
The Dun Laoighaire baths in the 1920s. The women and children’s pool. Note the 1920s bathing suits and caps and steamship in the background. Image courtesy of National Library of Ireland.