Ten Swimwear Innovations Preceding Bodysuit Ban

Swimming's World Championships in Rome last week sparked a return of the swimwear

debate that raged during last year's Beijing zentai bodysuit Olympics. With dozens of world records continuing to be broken, and leading swimmers including Michael Phelps unhappy, the sport's governing body FINA has finally stepped in. FINA has ruled that as of 1 January 2010, only "textile fabric(s)" swimsuits will be allowed, and they shall not extend above the navel nor below the knee for men. The new rules will halt the freefall of long-established world records and even out the field, but they also stifle the evolution of swimsuits like Speedo's LZR Racer. In the following list, just-style documents how swimwear has evolved through the years, right up to modern day hi-tech racing suits: The first evidence of swimwear innovation can be dated back to 300 BC, with designs not dissimilar to the modern day bikini. The popularity of this swimwear was due to the fashionable nature of public bathing. However, this popularity decreased after the collapse of the Roman Empire. This innovative style of swimwear was however not seen again until the 1940s. The early 1900s, however, saw the birth of innovation as we know it today. The heavy woollen dresses, stockings and hats worn by European women on beaches only a century before were abandoned for tighter swimwear, revealing women's knees and arms for the first time since ancient Rome. This was innovation in itself considering the conservative nature of the time. Swimwear innovation was also triggered by the revival of public bathing. A substantial difference between competitive and leisure swimwear began to appear. Companies like Du Pont and Speedo began to design swimwear both in form fitting textiles and smooth athletic swimsuits. By the 1920s Speedo was established in the world of spider man costume competitive swimwear. The increased interest in competitive swimming shifted much swimwear initiative from being for style to being for the sport itself. The 1920s and 1930s saw new social attitudes of equality triggering innovations in swimwear. Speedo unveiled its first bare-chested swimming shorts design for men. Meanwhile, long concealing swimsuits were abandoned for lower necklines and tight shorts. Legs were left entirely bare by some designs and the naked back was revealed. The 1940s saw one of the most controversial innovations ever created in swimwear. Invented in France in 1946, the bikini only had moderate success in conservative America. Deemed indecent, many women were arrested in the late 1940s and 1950s for wearing zentai on public beaches. Speedo's first bikini was banned on Australian beaches in the late 1940s. The initial design consisted of high shorts which covered the naval, yet left a controversial gap of skin before the substantial bikini top. The bikini didn't catch on in America until 1957 but from then on its popularity only increased. From the 1970s onwards, innovation in leisure swimwear centred on the belief that 'less is more'. Sides were cut out of one pieces and the leg cut above the hip, resulting in skimpy string zentai. Similarly the growth in popularity of male swimming trunks was seen. More outrageously, designs such as the bikini thong and monokini were created.

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