BATHING SHORTS

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Volume 81, Issue 61, 4 December 1937, Page 13

BATHING SHORTS

Our Own Correspondeut.)

1 Trend from Overseas

(From

AUCKLAND, Last Niglit. December, when the swimming season is beginning, is the time to ask this question — what does Auckland think about bathing suits and bathing shorts: will the controllers of the i'oreshores tolerate the appearance on the beaches of men clad in trunks only, or will it demand "neck to knee or nq sjvim"? '

Every year there are people who find grounds (for objection in the shorts worn hy men bathers. Already this summer it has been noticeable that the number of men and boys wearing shorts has increased considerably. Any man who appears less than 50 years of age, who enters an outfitter's store and asks for bathing apparel, is j likely toi be offered shorts by the as- 1 siatant rather than the ordinary bathing suit. Why? Because 85 per cenn. to 90 per cent. of liis customers ask for shorts. Older men, it must be admitter, still ask for the few styles now manufactured 'that approach the traditional "neck to knee." The Auckland City Council demands that all bathers on foreshores or in domains under its control shall be "so clad in bathing attire as not to cause I offence." The Takapau Borough Council and the Devonport Borough Council folloyr the lead of the city council in asking only for comxnon decency. The so-called "kippies" are tolerated, although no mention of them is made in the by-laws. The only trouble ever experienced at Devonport, in fact, oecurred two years ago, when the council' s inspector entered a protest when women paradedl the main street in bathing costumes. The men kept to the beach. In Victoria, Australia, men appear on the beaches hared to the waist at the risk of summary prosecution. Melbourne men, pointing to the example of conserv'ative England, have been making sardonic requests to the authorities to fall into step with other parts of the world in the adoption of a commensense attitude to the question. In Hyde Parlc, in the heart of London, men disports tliemselves on | the banks of the Serpentine clad in the controversial trunks. Tops are rarely seen on Amorican beacEes. Only yesterday a cable stated that Albert de Paris, famous beauty culture expert, predieted hefore a conference of liairdressers that the women of the United States would be appearihg, like their menfolk, in topless bathing costumes before 1940. Generally speaking, it would take more than a baro chest to sboclc the women of to-day. She knows that when she goes to the heach she is not going to see men in sedate suits and stiff white collars. The beach is a placfi for cooling off in the most comfortable way, -and it is possible t.o allow a j little lattitude without offending against ordinary moral standards