Thursday Night-Textile Collection

The women's bathing dress or suit from the 19th century that originated in the US is a full length dress worn with a separate piece; an outer skirt that goes on the outside of the dress.  This bathing suit is usually worn with bathing stockings and bathing shoes.  The skirts are usually weighted down with weights so it does not rise up when the women entered in the water.  It's interesting how we moved on from a full length dress in the beginning of the 19th century to a two piece string bikini that is considered a bathing suit now.  I think this garment has already influenced our culture in the sense that a full length weighted dress as a bathing suit is really too much to wear inside the water and women may have drowned if they went into somewhere deep, especially since their skirts are weighted.  Now the bathing suits for women hardly cover anything.  We went from being completely covered into being almost completely naked in one century.  I don't think this garment can further influence our culture because there is nothing more they can take away from our bathing suit now, unless they start realizing the bikinis show more than necessary and start adding some material back to our bathing suits.