The trend of swimming as a leisure activity started during the 1920s, and although there had been a move towards outdoor bathing, particularly amongst men, for decades, this was a new world for women.
By the 1930s, it had become something of a craze, seen as a daring and adventurous leisure activity and an indicator of a healthy and active lifestyle. Modesty however remained a problem, and the design of bathing suits remained controversial for decades.
Strange then to encounter something you wouldn’t even expect today, but the 1930s saw something truly unexpected for the time. Stories started flying about dissolving bathing suits, and the public was duly shocked and scandalized by the very idea.
Where did the story come from, and how did such a thing come to be?
The Story Begins
It all started when Webb Miller’s account of the story caught the attention of the public. The American journalist Webb Miller had become famous for his war reporting during WW1, and after the war he became chief of the Paris bureau of United Press.
In later life, when writing his memoir entitled “I Found No Peace” Miller reflected on the story. In the account, he had mentioned that the origin of the story was when he came across a unusual illustration while in Paris.
The story was, of course, a fabrication from start to finish, a hoax played at the expense of the general public. Inspired by the risqué picture and with his creative juices flowing, Miller expanded on his tale.
One of his friends, he wrote, had obtained a story from a supposedly reliable source. The name he gave for his friend was Bartley Grierson, but of course Miller declined to tell his readers the real name of the prankster.
Furthermore, the story was related to house parties that were thrown by a British millionaire on the French Riviera. As per the information received by Miller’s friend, a new synthetic fabric was discovered that dissolved instantly when it came in contact with salt water.
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According to these supposed reports, the millionaire had plenty of women’s bathing suits that were made up of that fabric. Whenever the millionaire used to give a party, he would suggest his women guests to wear the dissolving bathing suit for a swim in the Mediterranean. As per the story, when the women entered the water, the bathing suit would disappear.
A few days after “Bartley Grierson” cabled the story, he got a cablegram from the managing editor. Miller thought the game was up, but the message was quite different: the managing editor wanted Grierson to send him some of the dissolving bathing suits.
He claimed that he wanted the suits for an eminent official of a bath-suit manufacturing company, with whom he had shared the story. While Grierson again confirmed the story, he of course knew that no such fabric existed: the article was, after all, a hoax.
However, he did not want to admit to his managing editor that he failed to check the authenticity of the story. So, he sent his editor a cablegram that the suits could not be shipped, as they could disappear entirely in the salt sea air.
Replying to his cablegram, the editor asked Grierson to put the suits in a tin box, seal it, and then get them shipped. This would surely prevent the dissolving bathing suits from disappearing.
So, Grierson got a tin box and placed in it some finely pulverized breakfast cereal. He sealed the tin box and shipped it to the address of the managing editor. When the managing editor saw the content of the tin box, he was convinced that the bathing suits could actually not be shipped and disappeared on the way.
At this point, a number of questions would arise in the minds of people. One of the questions is how Miller, and indeed anyone else, could fall for the deliberate hoax of disappearing bathing suits. Did he just report an urban legend that he thought to be a story?
It seems, in fact, that Miller may well have realized that what he was publishing was a send-up. There are a number of factors that support this fact. First, there is no identifiable author of the story.
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Second, the story was built upon the stereotypes relating to the luxurious life of the rich people in Europe. A third reason is that the idea of a fabric that dissolved in water was thought to be possible. There were a lot of advancements in fabric technology during that time, and a lot of new synthetic “wonder” fabrics were coming on to the market.
The Story Continues
The legend of a dissolving bathing suit that was brought to light by the United Press is one of the earliest references. Even though the story did not last for long, many other such stories followed later.
In the year 1935, wire services brought into light a story relating to one “Miss Cassie Moses”. She was said to have invented a bathing suit that was soluble in water. When the suit became wet, it dissolved, and only a net suit would be left behind.
However, the reason for which she invented the bathing suit, presumably a disaster for whoever was wearing it, was not included. It was also said that the soluble bathing suit was put on display at the National Inventors Congress in Chicago. Even though it seems to be another hoax story of the 1930s, there is still a possibility that it could be true.
In 1966, several newspapers contained the news that Michel de Lacour, a Parisian designer, had developed a bathing suit which would disintegrate when put in water. It was supposedly designed in order to enable the women to walk respectably dressed from the hotels and get a nude midnight bath. However, the reason stated did not really justify the need for the dissolving bathing suit.
In 2009, a story became quite popular relating to the sale of dissolvable “Get Naked Bikini” by a German company. However, in comparison to other stories, this story was 100% true. EUR14.99.
Stories about the dissolving swim suits were published in the Weekly World News not once, but twice. One was the story of a “perverted prankster” in Brazil that was featured in 1994. In 2004 also, the story of Australian inventor Bryan Marple was featured in Weekly World News.
According to the story, she invented swim suits that would melt when they came in contact with water. With these however, as with most, it is easier to separate the suit from the swimmer than it is to separate truth from fiction.
Top Image: 1930s swimwear still had a firm eye on modesty, which led to stories of dissolving bathing suits being even more scandalous. Source: Edward Mason Eggleston / Public Domain.
By Bipin Dimri
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