Bathing costume did not evolve gracefully into the swim suit, nor was
there an abrupt replacement of one garment for the other. Instead, a
garb designed for swimming emerged in the 19th century as tentatively
and as poorly received as had the suggestion that women should be active
in the water. The growing popularity of swimming and the changing status
of women eventually made it possible for the swimming suit to replace
the bathing suit in the 1920s. By the 1930s, however, this trend was
accelerated by a growing advertising and ready-to-wear clothing
industry. Thus a history of the swimming costume tends to divide itself
into two sections: early swimming suits and the influence of the swim
suit industry.