FRENCH BATHING.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1271, 28 October 1911, Page 10

FRENCH BATHING.

No one can bathe on tho French coast this year (writes a woman correspondent of the "Manchester Guardian") without noticing what a change has come over the French bathing costumo. More and more has this bceomo afi'c-cted by the English ideas, so that ono rarely sees trimmed hats in the water now, or elegant waist-lines, or any kind of shoo except tho ordinary sand slipper. Tho reason is probably twofold. Frenchwomen tako bathing more seriously than they onco did, and arc now as likely to swim well as their English sisters—at a Normandy seaport in August the average of French swimming was as high as the Euglish, if not higher—and the enormous influx of Euglish visitors has also influenced French dress in the water, and tended to mako it more serviceable. On the other hand, .Englishwomen have learnt a good deai from bathing in French waters, and ono never sees now the old-fashioned typically British bathing-gown, consisting of a short and scanty tunic worn over long and voluminous knickerbockers. French and English girls bathe alike in well-cut dresses, neither scanty nor baggy, with a short skirt and knickerbockers, both ending iv.st above the knee, and many of tho English have copied the French fashion of wearing black stockings as tve.ll, which is quite pretty and does not in the least impede swimming. Bathing caps, too, show the best of both French and English features, and are generally impermeable to tho water without suggesting sponge bags. One notices also a tendency lo bathe in dark colours, preferably black taffetas, silk, or alpaca. Mauve is sometimes seen and occasionally light blue, Imt red for Ihe moment is quits unpopular. This sujKests Italian influence, for in Ihe Mediterranean a woman who bathes in anylhins but bl»ck is a marked figure.