Figure 1.--Here we see two brothers wearing cabana shorts, we think in 1940. One boy has the conplete cabana set while his brother is wearing a T-shirt. We think they are in Florida at a kind of fishing camp. Note deep sea fishing is being offered. |
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A cabana set is a two-piece beachwear ensemble for men and boys consisting of loosely fitting short pants or swim suit and a matching short-sleeved shirt some times called a jacket. As far as we know, this is an American style. Cabana sets are commonly done in bright tropical floral patterns and are most assoiated with vacations in Florida and Hawaii. The term comes from cabana meaning a beach hur, commonly with a thatched roof. The priginal spanosh (cabnań) means cabin, but apparently was picked up by tourists in the Caribbean, probably Americans in Cuba, to mean a beach hut that vacationers rent. Beach shops were also doine as cabana offering cold drinks and snacks. We are not sure when these sets were first offered, but supect it was the 1930s. They seem especially popular in the 1950s as many families in the Northeast began after the War to take Florida vacations. Some boys at the time didn;t normally wear shorts, but some how found them acceptable as vacation wear. Cabana sets were reintroduced in the 1980s as Jams. I do not know any real difference between the two except that some cabana sets were done with swim suits (or shorts that could be worn as swim suits) rather than short pants.
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