Bona Fashion

Celebrating Saucy 1950s Men's Swimwear

Who’s your fave?

Dreamy, beefy brunette Raymond in his ‘expression of masthculine strength’ leopard print bulging bikini?

Or handsome be-quiffed Alan? ‘Note how casually he slips off his sleeveless jacket to reveal the matching swimmers in sulphur yellow and black stripes’

Or cute Ian, in his ‘wildly topical’, ‘crazy little shirt designed in honor of the Festival year’, with ‘Battersea Park’ (a famous gay cruising ground) on the hem hanging over his packet (fingered approvingly by a seated, suited older male). And ‘South Bank’ over his bum.

Or Raymond again, ‘dressed for active sports’ in his ‘spider stitch slip-over which allows him full freedom and blends very well with the black Raylan shorts’.

As Sandy (Kenneth Williams) would say, ‘OOOH!, inee bold?’

This charming and, it has to be said, absolutely screaming, Pathe newsreel clip from 1951 offering us a ‘collection of models interpreting the revolt of modern man against the restrictions of conventional design’ seems to have been shot in the designer’s hallway, adding an extra, crotch-level of intimacy to the proceedings for the seated fashionistas.

The designer, and narrator, is credited as ‘Dale Cavahnaugh’ by Pathe, but Google doesn’t appear to know him. It seems to be a double-typo, they probably meant John Cavanagh, who was an Irish-born designer in London in the 1950s and early 1960s, whose style was described as ‘Paris in London’ - which at that time was a way of saying, sensual. And free.

Or in this instance, Gay Paree in pre-Wolfenden London.

h/t James C