Swimwear

A swimsuit (also swimmers), bathing suit (also bathers), aqua jammies or swimming costume (sometimes shortened to cozzie) is an item of clothing designed to be worn for swimming. more...

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In New Zealand English and some areas of Australian English, swimsuits are usually called togs. This term is less common in other parts of the Commonwealth where it can also refer to clothes in general. Swimsuits can be skin-tight or loosely fitting and range from garments designed to preserve as much modesty as possible to garments designed to reveal as much of the body as possible without actual nudity. They are often lined with a fabric that prevents them from becoming transparent when wet.

Swimsuits in general

Swimsuits are generally designed to cover at least the genitalia, and in some cultures women's nipples. Men's swimsuit styles tend to be shorts, trunks, boardshorts, jammers, speedo-style briefs, thongs, or cut-off jeans. Women's swimsuits are generally either one-piece swimsuits, bikinis or thongs.

The monokini, a style of swimsuit that most often takes the form of a bikini bottom without the corresponding top, leaves a woman's breasts uncovered. Monokinis are quite common in many places throughout South America and Europe, though due to particularly stringent taboos they are almost never seen in the United States, except in places with a strong European tourist influence. For pre-pubescent girls leaving the chest uncovered is sometimes considered more acceptable.

Special swimsuits for competitive swimming, designed to reduce skin drag, can resemble unitards. For some kinds of swimming and diving, special bodysuits called diveskins are worn. These suits are made from spandex and provide little thermal protection, but they do protect the skin from stings and abrasion. Most competitive swimmers also wear special swimsuits including partial and full bodysuits, racerback styles, jammers and racing briefs to assist their glide through the water and gain speed advantages (see competitive swimwear).

Swimming without a bathing suit is a form of social nudity. Special nude beaches may be reserved for nude sunbathing and swimming. Swimming in the nude is also known by the slang term skinny-dipping. As an alternative to a bathing suit some people use their trousers, underpants or T-shirt as a make-shift swimsuit. At beaches norms for this tend to be more relaxed than at swimming pools, which tend not to permit this because underwear is unlined, may become translucent, and may be unclean.

Swimsuits are also worn for the purpose of body display in beauty pageants. Magazines like Sports Illustrated's annual "swimsuit issue" feature models and sports personalities in swimsuits.

History

In Classical antiquity swimming and bathing was most often done nude. In some settings coverings were used. Murals at Pompeii show women wearing two-piece suits covering the areas around their breasts and hips in a fashion remarkably similar to a bikini of c. 1960. After this, the notion of special water apparel seems to have been lost for centuries.

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