Fun in the Sun with Seasonal Fashions in Historic Textiles Gallery

Event Details

As spring in Charleston transitions into a playful and sunny summer, so do the garments in the Charleston Museum's Seasonal Fashions exhibit. The museum continues its year-long rotation in its Historic Textiles Gallery with Seasonal Fashions: Summertime in Charleston, on exhibit April 21 through August 26, 2012. The exhibit will explore bathing garments and accessories beginning with the cumbersome, full-coverage bathing costumes of the late 19th and early 20th century through the form-following, functional and sporty suits that emerged in the 1920s and 30s and the more glamorous suits of the 1940s and 50s. For more information, please visit www.charlestonmuseum.org or call (843) 722-2996.
Exhibit Highlights
Summertime in Charleston highlights include a woman's black cotton two-piece bathing suit, c. 1900 (pictured left) and a man's orange wool knit bathing suit (pictured below)from about the same period, each with a long tunic (much longer for the woman) for modesty's sake.

Fortunately for beach lovers, the swim suit changed in the 1920s and 30s, as evidenced by a fashionable wool Janzen suit purchased at local clothiers, Condon's Inc. Later suits, such as a glamorous yellow two-piece bathing suit (pictured top) and a cherry red knitted two-piece (pictured right) from the 1940s, help chart the evolution of women's suits up until the time of the bikini.