COLOURS AT THE BEACH

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLV, Issue 21216, 10 December 1938, Page 11

COLOURS AT THE BEACH

CHOOSING A BATHING SUIT Nautical fashions have always been directed from a realisation that certain colours and combinations of colours were most effective on board ship, in the clarity of oceanic atmosphere, and in accordance with the limited range of colours in the general background of sea and sky, states an English writer. The predominance of blue and white, of clear contrasts in the form of stripes and braidings, has not been seriously challenged. For even a temporary life at sea the pretty things and materials that look right in town or garden are seen to be inadequate; colours appear to fade in the strong light. But certain other colours come into their own at the seaside. Tan a Good Shade No colour, for instance, one would usually agree, is more uninteresting and becoming than unrelieved tan. And yet on the beach, against a sunbrowned skin, it is a colour that charms the eye. This fact was discovered when a hand-knitted bathing suit for a child of four had been sought in a shop; the only ones left of the right size were somewhat dreary-looking though wellmade garments in this unattractive shade. They were backless except for straps of knitting, and there was no contrasting border, pattern, or ornament of any kind. They proved most successful. Their wearer had a dark skin that tanned deeply and evenly, and the tan bathing suit that revealed so much of its surface made a perfect outfit, so that a view of child and garment suggested that seaside delight to the eye of not recognising where one element ended and the other began. Bold Beauty The tan costumes had more practical value in not betraying marks of sand or seaweed or dust from the cliff path. They are now outgrown, but their wearer is destined to be a nut-brown bather and player for years to come. An alternative garment that harmon-

ised almost as well with sunburn and sand was in mustard yellow, a coDur that looks crude on the shop counter and in the family trunk but which is toned down on sunny sands. Red, on the other hand, seems to become more blatant, and this is not surprising if we remember that the shore is a brown rather than a blue setting, and that red is seldom used successfully in conjunction with brown. Yellows and blues and greens respond best to coastal light, and bold shades, much more than indeterminate shades, add lustre to the beach scene.