History Main / OldTimeyBathingSuit

* Not actually seen, but referenced in ''Literature/DiaryOfAWimpyKid''—- when Greg tries wrestling at school, he says the singlets remind him of “Those bathing suits from the 1920s.” (See the Professional Wrestling entry below.)

* Samantha's Edwardian collection from Toys/AmericanGirl includes an accurate old-style bathing suit, Samantha's Bathing Costume. Both editions include a navy dress style bathing suit with an overskirt, black tights (either used from the collection or included), and swimming slippers; the first also includes a large straw hat, while the rerelease has a bathing cap to cover her hair. Notably, Samantha never ''goes'' swimming in her books or movie; the first outfit was part of a limited edition set focusing on outdoor activities, while the second release was part of a set of swimsuits for early 20th century characters and included Kit and Molly to show how swim wear had changed over the eras.

* ''The Coming of the Quantum Cats'': Implied and discussed in this multiverse-spanning novel by Creator/FrederikPohl. A version of the main male character in one timeline narrates that ''him'' going topless whilst swimming is considered daring -- he'd be arrested if caught. This goes towards demonstrating that the timeline in question is an OppressiveStatesOfAmerica, dominated by a morally-conservative government influenced by wealthy and powerful Arabs.

* ''Return to Gone-Away'': The children borrow bathing suits similar to these from their elderly neighbor Mr. Pindar Payton. At the advice of Mrs. Minnehaha Cheever, Mr. Payton's sister, the two girls wear boys' swimsuits because the girls' version would be rather cumbersome.

* ''Film/TheGhostAndMrsMuir'': Anna Muir is sketched in hers by the unscrupulous Miles Fairley, causing mild scandal to her maid, Martha.

* The girls in ''LightNovel/TheFamiliarOfZero'' wore such bathing suits and the plot of the BeachEpisode centered on the guys getting them into more provocative swimsuits from Saito's world.

* In the BeachEpisode of ''LightNovel/ThatTimeIGotReincarnatedAsASlime'', Rimiru wears an old-fashioned striped swimsuit.

* ''Literature/TheWorstWitch'': In ''Literature/TheWorstWitchAllAtSea'', Miss Cackle orders bathing suits for the girls when they have a seaside excursion. In keeping with the old-fashioned nature of the school, these are striped old-timey bathing suits, complete with a school badge. When the girls are disappointed to see these, Miss Hardbroom is appalled by their lack of enthusiasm, and makes them write [[TheDreadedThankYouLetter thank-you cards]] to Miss Cackle for providing the bathing suits.

[[quoteright:330:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/old_time_swin_suits_8554.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:330:His love life is going quite [[{{Pun}} swimmingly.]]]]

In fiction, these will be seen either in period stories where they're appropriate, or on an individual character to show that he or she is hopelessly old-fashioned, extremely modest, or downright prudish. Stereotypically, the horizontally striped models from between 1900 and 1910 are used (the page image is from 1906), as swimwear started becoming more daring in the 1920s.

* ''VideoGame/BioShockInfinite'' has people wearing these in Columbia's Battleship Bay. That's right, the flying city even has a huge artificial beach.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheBeatles'': Mirroring their publicity photo shoot, wear these in the episode "Boys." They look completely out of place compared to the guys who congregate at a beach for a movie studio's Mr. Hollywood contest.

-->--'''Stefon''', ''Series/SaturdayNightLive''

* The Mousekwitz family and Tony Toponi wear these at the end of ''WesternAnimation/AnAmericanTail: The Mystery of the Night Monster'', implied to take place in the late 1880s.

[[caption-width-right:330:His love life is going quite [[{{Pun}} swimmingly]]]]

* In the ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad'' episode "An Incident at Owl Creek", Stan makes Hayley wear one of these to a pool party.

* ''Franchise/AvatarTheLastAirbender'': ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra'', being set in a 1920s analog, features this type of swimwear. When compared to the beach episode of ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'', it looks like fashion has grown more conservative in the 70-year timeskip. Alternately, Republic City might simply be colder than the tropical islands of the Fire Nation. [[https://i.pinimg.com/originals/a9/b1/76/a9b1764cfee07061875d6ac37fb9f9df.jpg You can compare the two sets of swimwear here.]]
* ComicBook/TheJoker wears one when he goes swimming in Mayor Hill's pool in an episode of ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries''. [[BrainBleach (Of course, taking into account his clown-white skin, bikini briefs would have been even more horrible.)]]
* Mirroring their publicity photo shoot, WesternAnimation/TheBeatles wear these in the episode "Boys." They look completely out of place compared to the guys who congregate at a beach for a movie studio's Mr. Hollywood contest.
* ''WesternAnimation/CatDog'' The title characters are seen wearing one (they're ConjoinedTwins) when they go swimming, as seen in the episode "Shriek Loves Dog" (also when they dive into a pile of diamonds [[spoiler:which are actually rock candy]] in the episode "Diamond Fever").

* The episode "Beach Blanket Bonehead" of ''WesternAnimation/{{Dinosaucers}}'' involves the cast all spending a day at a beach, and Bronto-Thunder's two-piece striped number falls squarely into this trope.

* The Paedofinder General in ''WesternAnimation/MonkeyDust'' wears one... which makes sense, since he would likely consider the exposure of skin in public to be [[PaedoHunt a form of paedophilia]].
* In the storyboards from ''WesternAnimation/TheMrMenShow'', Mr. Persnickety wears one when he goes swimming.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Popeye}}''

* ''WesternAnimation/RegularShow''. Pops wears one of these. Given that he's over a hundred years old and usually dresses in an antiquated fashion, it suits him.

* In the Creator/TexAvery short "WesternAnimation/SwingShiftCinderella", the [[DirtyOldWoman randy old fairy godmother]] transforms her dress with a wand to go nightclubbing with the unwilling wolf. She accidentally ends up in an old-style swimsuit with a beauty contest sash that reads "Miss Repulsive 1893".
* Tom wears one in every BeachEpisode of ''WesternAnimation/TomAndJerry'' (including "Salt Water Tabby" and "Muscle Beach Tom"). Strangely enough, Tom still wears it in ''WesternAnimation/TomAndJerryTales'', 60 years later!

Before the 20[[superscript:th]] century, people who wanted to go swimming in mixed company but keep their modesty would wear bathing costumes that covered nearly as much skin as their regular clothing. In fact, men could be arrested for swimming topless. These are relatively rare in Western culture in the current day, but are still used in cultures where body modesty is considered paramount, such as among Muslims (the style is called a "burqini"). [[note]]Interestingly, this style is in a sense being reintroduced to the West thanks to Muslim immigration; and with even Muslim women becoming fashion-conscious, non-Muslim women themselves are beginning to take a liking to them (they look a little like bodysurfing suits).[[/note]] Not to be confused with modern wetsuits or bodyskins, which also cover more skin but are for protection and competition purposes, not modesty. And especially not with the CreepyOldFashionedDivingSuit.

That made this kind of swimsuit also a porn trope when bathing machines were at their zenith, before mixed gender bathing started to become more acceptable in the 1900s. Even during TheEdwardianEra, when standards started to relax, the female version of the Old-Timey Bathing Suit, with its extremely short ([[OldTimeyAnkleTaboo by the standards of the 1900s]]) skirt and the sheer (usually black) [[StockingFiller silk stockings]] that always covered the wearer's legs, was an immensely popular motif in the pinup art and photography (the so-called "French postcards") of the period. The famous illustrator Charles Dana Gibson (creator of the "Gibson Girl"), for instance, drew a lot of pictures of beautiful young women disporting themselves at the seashore in these outfits -- very likely, according to one biographer, so that [[AuthorAppeal he could legitimately draw shapely and exposed feminine legs]].

* The girls in ''LightNovel/TheFamiliarOfZero'' wore such bathing suits, and the plot of the BeachEpisode centered on the guys getting them into more provocative swimsuits from Saito's world.

* Anime/LupinIII is occasionally shown to wear one. It functions as a ShoutOut to the era that birth his famous literary grandfather.

* ''Anime/{{Pecola}}'': Pecola, Chewy and Rudy are seen wearing the striped one-piece version in the BeachEpisode "Gazelle's Goof".

* ''Anime/TheWallflower'': Sunako Nakahara, being the sort of girl she is, wears a striped Victorian-styled bathing-suit whenever she goes swimming.

** Another Archie story had Betty and Veronica filming a documentary on the history of the swimsuit, with Archie running the camera. While it was [[{{Fanservice}} blatantly an excuse to draw the girls in sexy bikinis]] by the end, they also showed off some old timey suits for both women and men.

* ''Franchise/WonderWoman'' [[ComicBook/WonderWoman1942 Vol 1]]: The Holliday Girls are rather curious to see what their middle aged dean looks like in a swimsuit, only for her swimsuit to be an old-fashioned, not-form-fitting striped thing with carpi-length pants.

* The Mousekwitz family and Tony Toponi wear these at the end of ''WesternAnimation/AnAmericanTail: The Mystery of the Night Monster'', implied to take place in the late 1880's.

* ''Literature/BellesOnTheirToes'': The girls are wearing skirted bathing suits with leggings in 1924, when one-piece suits are starting to become the norm. Mother's is even worse, described as "practically a Gay Nineties model" and able to pass for a circus tent. Martha scandalizes her sisters when she forgets her suit and decides to wear just the underpart of her mother's.

* ''Series/MurdochMysteries'': Set in late Victorian period and the turn of the century in Canada. There's a HeatWave in Toronto in episode "Loch Ness Murdoch" and our characters enjoy a BeachEpisode. Lots of lovely beach wear to be admired, worn by both ladies and gentlemen. At the end Murdoch gets a bit scandalized (but not really) when Julia decides it's ridiculous that she's wearing wool stockings.

* Male wrestlers can be seen sporting any number of wrestling costumes, but the type favored by Wrestling/KurtAngle, Wrestling/RobVanDam and Wrestling/JackSwagger (among others) is the singlet, which looks similar to an Old Timey Bathing Suit except for showing more of the legs. For that matter, British wrestler Dave Taylor was known to wear [[RealMenWearPink a legless red one-piece]] that wouldn't have looked out of place on one of the female lifeguards on ''Series/{{Baywatch}}''.

* In South African childrens' show ''Series/DieLieweHeksie'', Lavinia the Little Witch wears one for the BeachEpisode, despite the obvious amusement of the elves she is with.

* ''Radio/OurMissBrooks'': In "Heat Wave", Miss Brooks notices Mr. Boynton, Harriet Conklin, Walter Denton and Stretch Snodgrass are wearing bathing suits beneath their regular clothes. They're quite evidently in the old timey style, given the fact Miss Brooks sees the suits sticking out of their collars.

* Harris from ''VideoGame/HarvestMoon64'' a man who wears one at the Swimming Festival.

* In ''Webcomic/{{Hooky}}'' princess Monica, Dani and Dorian wear these when going to the beach, while their friend Niko wears normal swimming trunks. The twins' bathing-suits are even horizontally striped.

* ''Franchise/AvatarTheLastAirbender'': ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra'', being set in a 1920s analog, features this type of swimwear. When compared to the beach episode of ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'', it looks like fashion has grown more conservative in the 70-year timeskip. Alternately, Republic City might simply be colder than the tropical islands of the Fire Nation. [[https://i.pinimg.com/originals/a9/b1/76/a9b1764cfee07061875d6ac37fb9f9df.jpg You can compare the the two sets of swimwear here.]]

** WesternAnimation/BugsBunny wears one lifted from the Coney Island Baths in "Frigid Hare", when he shows up at the North Pole (or South Pole, or wherever penguins and Eskimos coexist).

** "WesternAnimation/TheDoverBoys" features an odd man walking by wearing an old-timey bathing suit as a RunningGag. [[spoiler:He ends up with the girl at the end, after the Dover Boys punch each other out.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'': Granny Smith wears an old-fashioned women's bathing suit in "Leap of Faith", when Flim and Flam's "miracle cure" inspires her to relive her days as an aqua-pony.

* ''WebAnimation/MyLittlePonyEquestriaGirlsDigitalSeries'': In the various {{Beach Episode}}s or the [[VacationEpisode Cruise Special]] ''[[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyEquestriaGirlsSpringBreakdown Spring Breakdown]]'', local nerd Microchips is seen wearing an old-school, striped suit with suspenders. (Though the girls don't wear such swimsuits, theirs are still a bit all over the place in term of time periods.)

* WesternAnimation/ClassicDisneyShorts: WesternAnimation/{{Goofy}} has been known to wear this whenever he goes out in the water (such as in "Hawaiian Holiday", "How To Swim" and "WesternAnimation/{{Aquamania}}").

* On ''Series/ThirtyRock'', Liz prefers one of these when going on a beach vacation.
* On ''Series/TheAddamsFamily'', this is the sort of bathing suit Gomez wears while moonbathing.

* On ''Series/TheBigBangTheory'', Sheldon and Amy wear these in one of their "[[ShowWithinAShow Fun with Flags]]" segments.
* An episode of ''Series/BoardwalkEmpire'' features a woman in 1920 getting a citation for wearing a swimsuit that ends above the knee.
* The First Doctor imagines himself in one when aliens attempt to read his mind in the ''Series/DoctorWho'' serial "The Space Museum".
* An episode of ''Series/HorribleHistories'' features the Victorian Beach Watch, a pair of lifeguards who take so long getting into their Old-Timey Bathing Suits that they end up failing to save a struggling swimmer. Who was struggling in the first place because ''his'' suit was so hard to swim in.
* On ''Series/HowIMetYourMother'', Lily forces Ted to wear a red-and-white striped bathing suit that was hanging as decoration in the hotel they are staying at because Ted and Marshal ruined her dress for a rehearsal dinner.
* On one episode of ''Series/ILoveLucy'', Lucy buys what Ricky assumes is a one-piece swimsuit for Little Ricky. It's actually for Lucy herself. "It stretches."
* ''Laugh-In'' features the cast dressed like this for a musical/comedy sketch dealing with the issue of chicken meat being used in hot dogs.
* ''Series/MurdochMysteries'' is set in late Victorian period and the turn of the century in Canada. There's a HeatWave in Toronto in episode "Loch Ness Murdoch" and our characters enjoy a BeachEpisode. Lots of lovely beach wear to be admired, worn by both ladies and gentlemen. At the end Murdoch gets a bit scandalized (but not really) when Julia decides it's ridiculous that she's wearing wool stockings.

* ''WebAnimation/MyLittlePonyEquestriaGirlsDigitalSeries'': In the various {{Beach Episode}}s or the [[VacationEpisode Cruise Special]] ''[[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyEquestriaGirlsSpringBreakdown Spring Breakdown]]'', local nerd Micro Chips is seen wearing an old-school, striped suit with suspenders. (Though the girls don't wear such swimsuits, theirs are still a bit all over the place in term of time periods.)

[[folder:Web Comics]]

Before the 20[[superscript:th]] century, people who wanted to go swimming in mixed company but keep their modesty would wear bathing costumes that covered nearly as much skin as their regular clothing. In fact, men could be arrested for swimming topless. These are relatively rare in Western culture in the current day, but are still used in cultures where body modesty is considered paramount, such as among Muslims (the style is called a "burqini"). [[note]]Interestingly, this style is in a sense being reintroduced to the West thanks to Muslim immigration; and with even Muslim women becoming fashion-conscious, non-Muslim women themselves are beginning to take a liking to them (they look a little like bodysurfing suits).[[/note]] Not to be confused with modern wetsuits or bodyskins, which also cover more skin but are for protection and competition purposes, not modesty.

Before the 20[[superscript:th]] century, people who wanted to go swimming in mixed company but keep their modesty would wear bathing costumes that covered nearly as much skin as their regular clothing. In fact, men could be arrested for swimming topless. These are relatively rare in Western culture in the current day, but are still used in cultures where body modesty is considered paramount, such as among Muslims (the style is called a "burqini"). [[note]]Interestingly, this style is in a sense being reintroduced to the West thanks to Muslim immigration; and with even Muslim women becoming fashion-conscious, non-Muslim women themselves are beginning to take a liking to them (they look a little like bodysurfing suits).[[/note]] Not to be confused with wetsuits or bodyskins, which also cover more skin but are for protection and competition purposes, not modesty.

Before the 20[[superscript:th]] century, people who wanted to go swimming in mixed company but keep their modesty would wear bathing costumes that covered nearly as much skin as their regular clothing. In fact, men could be arrested for swimming topless. These are relatively rare in Western culture in the current day, but are still used in cultures where body modesty is considered paramount, such as among Muslims (the style is called a "burqini"). [[note]]Interestingly, this style is in a sense being reintroduced to the West thanks to Muslim immigration; and with even Muslim women becoming fashion-conscious, non-Muslim women themselves are beginning to take a liking to them (they look a little like bodysurfing suits).[[/note]]

** ''Literature/TheLastContinent'': The wizards wear these when they are [[SuspiciouslySpecificDenial definitely not on a tropical beach holiday]] in , only made suitably wizardly: