Figure 1.--This unidntified photograph shows a family waing on a beach. We are not sure just where, but the family has a French look to us. Notice the children wear protective H. bar shorts over their clothes. They may have been rubberized. A reader writes, "I can hear mum say, " We are going to aunty's after the beach. You can go for a paddle but you must wear the beach protecttors so you don't get messed up. Don't you dare throw wet sand at each other either!. Father roll up your trousers!" Click on the image for a fuller discussion.

Swimwear/bathing costumes were not as common before World War I as they are today. Children commonly wore formal clothing at beach resorts. Some times they rolled up their pants and took off their shoes and stockings, but basically wore nice clothing even for plying on the beach. One option was protective clothing worn over their clothing. We have noticed both rubberized and non-rubberized protective garments. One such garment was bib-front short pants, but with big legs in which pants and skirts could be rolled up. We are not sure when these protective garments forst appeared. We do not yet have any 19th century examples. We do have sime early-20th century examples. We do not see many examples of protective clothing, but enough to know that it was a fairly common practice. We continue to see examples into the inter-War era.

Navigate the Boys' Historical Clothing Web Site:
[Sailor suits] [Sailor hats] [Buster Brown suits]
[Eton suits] [Rompers] [Tunics] [Smocks] [Pinafores]

Created: 7:25 AM 4/8/2012
Last updated: 10:06 AM 4/8/2012