The Evolution Of Swim And Surf Wear
In the fifties, people never knew about this water sport, surfing. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, everyone wants to go surfing or at least have an association with such lifestyle. Then a new style of swim and surf wear has begun to be seen, including the Midwestern states were waves are really far.
Certainly, not the Beach Boys were the very first in surfing. In 1957, a book known as ‘Gidget’, was written about a female surfer, and it became a hit movie in 1959. This is when surfing really began, and are now popularized by many beach lovers.
The popularity of that movie led to many imitators. In pop music, surf music became huge, with groups like Dean and Jan and the Beach Boys making the number one hits on the charts. About the only teenagers who never liked their music were already surfers, who chose to keep their sport to themselves. Instead, they listened to the music of bands like the Ventures and Dick Dale. Music like “Walk, Don’t Run” and “Perfidia” were what they listened to as they tackled the waves.
Surfing started when people interested in huge tidal waves would use their surf boards and roll it down the waves. With its popularity, surfers go surfing in various types of beaches. They would also be sporting various swim and surf wear, just to be comfortable and cool.
Baggy Hawaiian shirts, trunks and Hawaiian print bikinis were the surfing style of that era. It took time for a surfing apparel industry to evolve, and it did evolve. Today, some of the early surf wear companies are multi-million dollar corporations.
Nowadays, you can see surfwear being worn just about any place in the world. For men, there can be board shorts and bikinis to shoes, pants, shorts, shirts and even socks. Women’s styles include dresses, miniskirts, skirts, blouses and tank tops. In fact, many surfers find adequate designs to choose from that they wear nothing else but surf wear.
The swim and surf wear have joined the mainstream and are no longer ornaments. The best surfers in the world earn huge money as huge surf wear companies compete for their sponsorship dollars. You can’t help but wonder what Gidget thinks about all these changes.
