30's 40's? Peter Pan elasticated blue satin swimsuit!

Pinkcoke

Pinkcoke

Alumni
well I got a very interesting group of swimming costumes from my last house: The first is this Turquoise blue stretch number:

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made by Peter Pan & Co. on my research so far I have discovered were part of Symington & Co. Ltd. from the 'A Libertyland product' text and the patent no.: GB486475 (Application Date: 1937-03-30 Publication Date: 1938-06-03) which is assigned to them for:

Wearing - apparel; elastic fabric. SYMINGTON & CO., Ltd., R. & W. H., and BILLING, G. W. March 30, 1937, No. 9090. [Class 141] [Also in Group VIII] The invention relates to garments, particularly but not exclusively intended for bathers or swimmers, made of puckered material rendered elastic by stitching therein strands of rubber a Fig. 1, following the warp and weft in a zigzag manner. The material is folded and seamed as in Fig. 6. The material so folded is provided with a continuous spirally run length of rubber strand e, Fig. 2, intersecting the other strand a. The garment has a top hem f, Fig. 7, as a runner for draw-strings g. Shoulder straps h and a crotch are also provided.
Click to expand...
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So, the shoulder and drawstring straps have been removed and replaced with these two lengths of soft backed elastic which I don't like personally on the back (looks too much like men's suspenders!) but works for practicality I suppose.

What I needed your opinion on was am I safe to call this swim suit 1930's or do you think it could be later? (comparing with the other red swim suit I'll post, I think the strap design put it more in the 30's than anything else) I'm assuming the patent allows manufacture forever with that design..

And before I forget, anybody know what this 'Libertyland' idea of Symington's was all about? I find little references to it here and there but no full explanations anywhere.
 
Interesting info you've dug up but I don't think the process is describing the construction of this swimsuit - which has standard shirring. It's very cute, I'm not sure about the straps but think it's closer to late '40s-50s in date. The label seems to fit with that dating too.

It's probably unrelated, but here in Australia there was a swimwear company called Liberty.
 
The information is what the patent office holds as granted for that patent no. on the swimsuit label so it must use some of it otherwise there would be no reason putting it on the label as protection I believe. All the patents on my swimsuits have differed slightly in design from the final garment.

I'm not sure it's unrelated to the Australian Liberty swimwear brand as Symmington & Co Ltd. appears to have been an international umbrella company, in reference to the 'Libertyland' as they call it I read about swimsuit manufacture in New Zealand too. There is a film about it held in the midlands Media Archive Centre but it's not converted to digital yet so only available for commissions.
 
I'm seeing late 30s on this, cusping 1940. And I think the straps are making this fit higher that it would have been originally. Did I miss the red one somewhere?
 
Thanks Pam, yes as per the patent design it would have had drawstrings through a channel round the back originally and so wouldn't get pulled up as the elastic does now.
I'll post the red one now.
 
Adorable and what is amazing is that shirring looks to be in remarkably good shape!
 
A newby Kiwi here - I thought the link following may be of some help. When I ready your post I immediately thought of the old 'Libertyland' in Palmerston North in the North Island of New Zealand. I chanced upon this building recently and was charmed by it - it is an amazing old Art Deco factory building. I looked into its history and found this - http://www.stuff.co.nz/manawatu-standard/features/6536467/The-golden-days-of-the-local-rag-trade . This quote particularly struck me when looking at this post: "You took a piece of strong fabric and sewed lengths of elastic to it, criss-crossing them about an inch apart. The elastic pulled the fabric into puffs, and it was made into swimming suits. They stretched around the body and clung when wet. And so the telescopic swimming tog was born and guaranteed to not sag, with fabric created in Palmerston North's Libertyland factory that is now closed." Maybe there is a connection? xo
 
Bartondoll yes the elastic is in fantastic shape, it's all as strong as the day it was made and I only found one stitch that had come undone and I can repair myself.

HiddenValley Yes Symmington & Co went international with the Libertyland brand, I haven't discovered how far they went but they were certainly manufacturing in several countries as I had alread seen one article about them in New Zealand yet my swimsuit says 'made in England'.
 
Look what I found!:
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By happy coincidence I walked in to a local charity shop yesterday and found a copy of 'Foundations of Fashion' The Symmington Corsetry Collection 1860-1900 by Phillip Warren. An excellent publication I've just added a blurb about to the resource book thread. Thrilled to find it has several pages with period adverts and photographs of their swimwear collections (they eventually made children's and men's as well as womens.
It does contradict itself however on the dating of my swimsuit, advertised above as they place this circa 1950 (I think they have printed confirmation of the dates without circa) yet on the next page explain that this was the first patented swimwear design from 1937, and new designs didn't appear until the 50's. Which says to me, they don't hold an original example of this costume and therefore don't know it has the original patent number on the label which puts it pre 1950's.
It also has a spread of adverts for 1938/39 with several swimwear designs I would have placed later due to elements like skirted bottoms.
 
Lovely swimsuit and kudos on the research - great ad.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, Nicole you never cease to amaze me!
 
Thank you all, I might just ask the council if I could get a copy of the original, as they're obviously edited out the rest of it for use in this book. (and ask if they actually own a swimming costume....there weren't any catelogue images of them like the corsets.)
 
Oh wow!!!! How exciting. I recently sold a Peter Pan (but with full satin straps) on ebay same colour as this : ) I love it when you manage to link back to the original advertisments like this.
 
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