Contest Entry: Helanca Full Stretch Nylon Yarn

[jocelmeow.livejournal.com]

Bonus: This ad struck me as very interesting because of how it explains that swimsuits made with this nylon fiber stretch. If you've grown up in the Spandex era, it may not be obvious that swimsuits used to be much more constructed, with boning and such, and so if they weren't a perfect fit they could be a problem. There's more of this explained in this Collector's Weekly piece.

Comments

[shortsweetcynic.livejournal.com]

yes, if only because that's a fascinating little bit of history. i've actually had a couple of not-completely-elastic swimsuit tops recently and they were so uncomfortable i had to retire them. don't care how cute they are, nothing is worth squeezing my ribs like that.

[jocelmeow.livejournal.com]

Of course, before the very constructed suits of mid-century there were the wool ones of decades earlier, which were very stretchy and pretty darn revealing when wet. A browse through the bathing category at Shorpy (http://www.shorpy.com/search/node/bathing) will reveal this - here's one example (http://www.shorpy.com/node/6301?size=_original#caption).

[jocelmeow.livejournal.com]

More revealing suits from Shorpy: