Bathing beauties!

Chris Boydell: beachwear style over more than a century

LIFE’S a beach for an Oldham-born academic overseeing a London swimwear exhibition

Christine Boydell, a design historian at De Montfort University in Leicester, is guest curator of London Fashion and Textile Museum’s “Riviera Style” exhibition.

The summer show charts beachwear fashions over the last 100 years, from the English seaside to the Cote d’Azur and examines how changes in society have been reflected in swimwear.

Christine, who grew up in Garden Suburb and attended St Augustine’s RC High School, collected over 200 objects for the exhibition, which has pieces from the 1890s, swimsuits, sarongs, boat neck Bretons, bikinis, burkinis, palazzo pants and playsuits.

It also sheds light on the manufacturing processes and materials used by fashion houses and designers.

“Swimwear tells many different stories about society,” said Christine, who studied fashion history and design at Manchester Polytechnic.

“In the 1920s for example women did not wear trousers but the beachwear allowed them to do so,” she explained. “In the 1960s swimming costumes were named after Spanish resorts, to reflect the new British love of package holidays.”

This isn’t the first time Christine has curated an exhibition at the museum. In 2010 she put together a collection by the iconic Ardwick-based Horrocks Fashions and wrote a book to accompany it.

“Rivera Style” runs until August 30, and for more information visit www.ftmlondon.org.TextileMuseum.