Occasion: Recreation

People don special attire for engaging in many sports and recreational activities. Special articles of clothing such as hiking boots and spandex bicycling outfits have utilitarian functions, like body protection or performance enhancement. In the past, and still to some extent today, recreational clothing had to be designed to reconcile prevailing standards of modesty and decorum with the body freedom required for strenuous physical exertion. In the nineteenth century, riding habits, with skirts longer on one side than the other, allowed women to ride a horse sidesaddle without exposing their legs. This man’s wool bathing suit, bearing the Washington Athletic Club logo, provided appropriate body coverage for the early1930s.