swimming in the buff

Until the mid 1800's men swum pretty much entirely in the buff. Their were a few countries such as japan where men wore bottoms to swim, but places like England men swam naked. In the mid 1800s swim trunks that looked similar to the ones worn today appeared, though slightly shorter. Despite the new swim clothes men bathed naked in London right into the beginning of the 1900s when swimming in coed  groups was popularized. Swimsuits were originally made out of stretched wool, because it absorbed less water than many other fabrics. For a short time some swimsuits were made out of rubber and then nylon took over in the late 1930s. In the early 1900s men wore swimsuits that went all the way from elbow to knee, these suits lost their arms first and then the top began to shrink back down, completely disappearing and leaving men with swim short that they started with. With the fabric shortage during WWI and II trunks got even shorter In the mid 1950's modern swimsuit fabrics were introduced to the market. In the 1960s the Australian company Speedo created the smallest of all, the brand became a synechdoche for all swim bottoms of this style. The hippies revived swim suits that had tops and tried pretty much everything. In the 1990's board shorts were popularized. Loose and long these are still the prefered style for men in the U.S.A

1860's painting of mens swimwear, Frédéric Bazille’s Summer Scene 1869, Oil on canvas Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, Massachusetts

1880s swimwear

men in 1910

1920s