As you know, Circa is hosting a vintage swimwear parade at the Wintersun festival in June, and it’s been a wonderful excuse to stock up on swimwear from the ’30s to the ’60s (not that I needed one).

Although I’ve bought quite a few lately, some styles are particularly hard to come by so I turned to the Vintage Fashion Guild for help. I’ve bought over thirty suits from fellow VFG traders around the world now and finally began to feel as if I have enough. That’s on top of about thirty or so that I already had.

But there was one style that I really wanted – and I found it on ebay, from a seller who wouldn’t ship outside of the US. Thankfully Jennifer from Vintage Visage came to my rescue, and the following beauty was mine for the princely sum of $3.99US. I don’t think the seller knew what she had…and she photographed it badly. Oh dear.

I waited eagerly for it’s arrival and here it is – from the late 1930s or early 1940s, it’s made of ribbed knitted wool and features a cut-out midriff and adjustable straps that can be worn either halter-neck or cross-over style. The straps have been replaced, and it looks like it’s gone a few rounds in a washing machine but all in she’s looking pretty good for seventy years old.

Here’s Fiona showing the swimsuit to much better effect:

In case you’re wondering why the swimsuit has suspenders attached, don’t worry….it’s not some wacky old-fangled kind of bathing suit, it’s just that Fiona (like all well behaved ladies) has kept her underwear on when trying it on. Doesn’t she look smashing?

If you’d like one for yourself, I found a nice stretch satin version on Glamoursurf’s website. This one will be appearing at Wintersun in June – and speaking of which, thank you to everyone who has volunteered to model or help out, I shall be contacting you soon with some shots of swimwear that will be available for the parade, and yes, we’re still looking for models – please email me at nicole@circavintageclothing.com.au

For those who missed last Friday night’s episode of ABC1 “Collectors”, here is the segment where I talk about vintage swimwear – and the lovely Candice deVille does a wonderful job modelling some of my ladies designs. You’ll also get to see a bit of Circa, which has recently been expanded to include a better fitting room area, complete with rose print carpet.

It will be repeated on ABC2 on Monday night. The full episode can be viewed online for a limited time.

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Since the book has come out, I’ve been doing a bit of writerly publicity – there are a few magazine articles still to come out, an appearance on Deborah Cameron’s ABC radio show in Sydney and a nice big article in the Age by James Cockington (I’ll post it when I get around to scanning it, so that you can see the photos too, but you can read it online here).

Recently I got to go on national ABC Radio for the Coodabeen Champions. Tim has edited the segment down to the 13 minutes we chat about the book and vintage. Click on the link below – be warned, it starts to play right away!

Nicole on the Coodabeen Champions.

There was also a mention of the book in a reading guide included in the Sydney Morning Herald and another mention in the latest Qantas inflight magazine. Also: lots of blogs (which is especially wonderful)!

As well – look out for the Collectors segment on vintage swimwear this Friday at 8pm. The episode guide is already up on the ABC website – if you look very carefully you can see a tiny image of me in my wisteria-print dressing gown, admiring shop mannequin Clark in his shiny ’40s bathing trunks. Can’t wait to see Candice parading the women’s swimwear.

From the website:
Nicole Jenkins literally parades her collection of vintage and retro swimwear, with familiar names like Jantzen and Speedo going back to the 40s. The ladies’ one-piece cossies from the 50s make for a very attractive tableau.

It will be repeated on Monday evening, and available for download from the website after it screens.

Last Friday we had a film crew at Circa to shoot a segment on vintage swimwear for ABC programme The Collectors.

I spoke about my love for vintage, as well as mens and ladies swimsuits from the ’20s to the ’70s. I set up the window for the annual swimwear display (usually it happens when it’s actually summer but allowances needed to be made), and best of all – Candice modelled some of the best pieces from my collection.

Here you can see Candice dressed in an ultra-glamourous strapless ’50s Jantzen style made from ruched lace. She looks the part, doesn’t she?

Photo courtesy SuperKawaiiMama/Candice.

You can see some of the other swimsuits I talked about here – some will be in the shop soon, available for new homes just in time for summer.

You’ll have to wait until it screens on December 4th (8pm on Channel ABC) to see how good Candice looks in them, though.

UPDATE: The ABC has bumped it back a week and the episode will now be screened on December 11th.

For those who are based in Sydney (or likely to go in the next few months) a great new exhibition is opening next week on the history of swimwear.

Exposed! the story of swimwear highlights the designs and designers, past and present, at the forefront of Australian swimwear fashion.

What: Exposed! The Story of Swimwear.
Where: Australian National Maritime Museum, South Gallery, Darling Harbour
When: July 2nd to October 25th, 2009.
Cost: free!

More information at the ANMM website. Image courtesy ANMM.

It looks like this is a travelling exhibition so those who live in Perth, Adelaide, Brisbane, Wagga Wagga and Newcastle will see it later. Sadly, it’s not coming to Melbourne – perhaps a trip is in order?

UPDATE: nice article about the exhibition from The Australian.

Speaking of swimwear, if you’d like something gorgeous for this summer you might like to check out the website of Glamoursurf a vintage site that specialises in bathing suits. Here’s one of my favourites:

1940s jersey Hawaiian print swimsuit. Image courtesy Glamoursurf.