Help dating Miss Mary of Sweden swimsuit

laurenm

laurenm

Registered Guest
Hello there,
This suit I have been considering a 1980s does 1950s era. The tag is ripped, but I figured out it is Miss Mary of Sweden who is 'still' a company manufacturing lingerie and bathing suits. Now am thinking it could be later.
Does the suit contain any clues to date it?
Thanks alot in advance,
Lauren
 

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I looked at the Miss Mary of Sweden website, and they have a cute 'timeline' by decade here, which helpfully shows a logo for each decade: http://www.missmaryofsweden.com/corporate.htm (click on travel in time on the left).

The logo on on your label matches the one they have put for the 1970s, and in fact they have show a similar, though not identical swimsuit in that slide show. They don't say when the began making swimwear, but they don't show a swimsuit for the 1960s. They are a company aiming at older women, so they might be 'fashion-backward' (if that's a term!).

So perhaps 70s rather than 60s? I bow to others greater experience of the construction details though, if those point more to the 60s.
 
Thanks everyone for all your help.
I think the fashion backward idea is interesting as I have come now upon garments that are older 'era' style manufactured a decade or so later. Trends take a while to catch on, particularly with different age groups. I think modesty, familiarity, a sense of "i'm too old for that" plays into the 'maintenance' of style over a time period just as a 'classic' persists, but for different reasons. Okay, now I'm going a bit of tangent, but I think that one of the changes that has occured in styles and marketing over the years, maybe post sexual revolution era, has been in part that we no longer loosely categorize women into pre-motherhood and post-motherhood.
 
Okay, got me curious and I found these two books. Anyone have any good recommendations of fashion history books they feel are particulary useful for both dating/info and/or social history? Should I move this to a different section of the Forum?
Here's two that I thought looked interesting.....

Adorned in Dreams: Fashion and Modernity



When "Adorned in Dreams" was first published in 1985, Angela Carter described the book as 'the best I have read on the subject, bar none'. Elizabeth Wilson traces the social and cultural history of fashion and its complex relationship to modernity. Wilson delights in the power of fashion to mark out identity or to subvert it and this brand new edition of her book follows recent developments to bring the story of fashionable dress up to date, exploring the grunge look inspired by bands like Nirvana, the 'boho chic' of the mid 90's, retro-dressing and the meanings of dress from the veil to Beck's pink-varnished toenails.




The Culture of Fashion. A New History of Fashionable Dress (Studies in Design)

Publication Date: May 15, 1995




This illustrated survey of 600 years of fashion investigates its cultural and social meaning from medieval Europe to twentieth-century America. Breward's work provides the reader with a clear guide to the changes in style and taste and shows that clothes have always played a pivotal role in defining a sense of identity and society, especially when concerned with sexual and body politics.
 
Thank you for the info about those two books: the first one especially sounds really good and I'll have to see if I can track them down.

When I first started reading about costume in the '70s you could count count on one hand the number of books available (or at least it felt like it) and they were all focused on what rich Westerners wore. Now we're spoilt for choice, and you can even read my book "Love Vintage" too.

Here's a thread with lots of great reading suggestions.
 
I thought 70s at first look, rather than 60s, and then read Ruth's post, which seems to confirm that.

The bodice is styled very much like dresses from that era--the shape of the neckline, the whole general look of it. And the bra cups don't look any more recent than that.

Love the color!
 
Thanks for all the help. That little timeline is great, wish other companies would do the same. So helpful and they can monopolize on the 'vintage' fad that seems to be currently growing fast.
Thanks Nicole for your book link....that's exciting, I'll definitely check it out.
70s it is.
 
Oh my... you just sent me down memory lane! I remember Miss Mary of Sweden so well from looking through mail-order catalogs as a kid in the 80s and early 90s. These middle-of-the-road, never too daring Swiss mail order catalogs always featured Miss Mary lingerie. Their products to me always seemed aimed at older women... something that someone like my grandma would have worn. I even remember that little picture with the lady in the black dress showing here with and without Miss Mary lingerie!:hysterical:.
Now I actually have a spring/summer 1971 Veillon mail-order catalog here, and I took a look at it. It has four pages of Miss Mary lingerie (no swimsuits though - the few swimsuits in the catalog are definitely only for the young and trendy...), and on the back one page with clothes, which even shows the supposed Miss Mary! The logo though is definitely the same as on your swimsuit!
I also found the reference to Bally Lycra very interesting... I already noticed that on the Miss Mary website timeline and wondered if Bally in that case really was the same as the shoe company? The Bally logo itself is the same. It just says that the Bally Lycra is the elastic material used in the corsets and that it is of highest quality.

Karin

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