Rose Marie Reid was a world famous swimsuit designer in the 1950′s.  She revolutionized the swimwear industry by introducing the buttonless one piece swimsuit,  photopermeable tan through fabric and adding  figure moulding internal support structures like built in cups and boning.  She believed womens’ swimwear should be as elegant as the evening dresses worn at that time.  Her bathing suits were worn by famous Hollywood bombshells Jane Russell and Marilyn Monroe.

The  advertisement below is from my 1956 issue of McCalls magazine and features suits from her “Hourglass Collection”,  one of her most popular designs.

Rose Marie Reid-Jewels of the Sea 1956 Ad

The ad states “This is the hourglass, the silhouette that does so much for every figure. Under its shaping influence your waist is whittled, your hips go into hiding.”

Rose Marie Reid swimsuits are highly coveted by collectors of vintage swimwear because of their amazing construction and fabrics not found in bathing suits of today.

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Tags: 1950s swimsuits, 50's swimsuits, rose marie reid, vintage bathing suits, vintage fashion, vintage swimwear

This entry was posted on Monday, May 25th, 2009 at 12:32 pm and is filed under Fashion, Memorable people. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.