THE GLAMOROUS
BEACH PYJAMA
G'day folks,
Before the bikini, fashionable ladies donned “beach
pyjamas” all along the world’s most stylish coastal towns. The swishy
palazzo-like pants and jumpsuit styles shocked the public in the interwar
years, while we, on the other side of the second millennium, find some serious
beach-going inspiration.
But what made the “beach pyjama” so shocking? As with much
of 1920s women’s dress, it crossed gender lines. Up until this point, only men
wore the “pyjama” style—a lightweight style fitted with drawstring waistbands
adopted by British colonial powers from Indian Muslims in the 1800s. The
English word itself, pyjama,
derives from pāy-jāma
in the Urdu language, which was borrowed from the Persian pāy-jāmeh, meaning
‘leg garment’ and unrelated to sleeping.
Ladies of the time, at least in these same colonised
territories, almost exclusively wore night gowns for sleepwear and dresses or
skirt sets of varying shapes during the day. With the beach pyjama however, the
“modern girl” could roam beach-side towns with greater freedom, walking
unhindered by sand and sun.
The 40s saw a regression from androgynous beachwear styles
like the beach pyjama in favor of more effeminate silhouettes, like the bikini.
But the glamourous 1930s fashion left a legacy beyond the Riviera’s sandy
shores. It influenced wide-leg pant styles for decades to come, including the
“palazzo” pant of the 60s.
Some might also remember the days of “hostess pyjamas”;
from the 1930s through the 1970s, women might wear hostess pyjamas while
entertaining in their homes when they wanted to impart a casual and relaxed
atmosphere for their guests.
Love it or hate it, pyjama fashion will likely not be
disappearing anytime soon, which is good news for the
avant-garde vacationers or fashionistas in our midst. And as Coco Chanel once
said, “It is always better to be slightly underdressed.”
Clancy's comment: Mm ... Fashion is a multi-billion dollar business. Check out your wardrobe. One of your old favourites might be back in fashion.
I'm ...
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