Only last week I was reminded how swimsuits, as we now know them, are relatively new inventions and how popular the WOOL swimsuit was in days of old. The strict Victorians were heavily against disrobing if they went swimming in public, but then their huge, voluminous skirts and the tight woven fabrics of the time proved hard to swim in. So this was when the wool swimsuit was born. There I was face-to-face with a true designer version of the wool kind at the Tate Modern. Because the Sonia Delaunay (1885-1979) retrospective currently on there includes a lampshade, six evening coats, a pair of chevron-striped shoes edged with gleaming silver leather, endless textile designs, cover illustrations of Vogue alongside this 1928 stunning piece of swimwear.
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