From Sleepwear to Sportswear: How Beach Pajamas Reshaped Women's Fashion

by Janine D'Agati; Hannah Schiff

Publisher:

Bloomsbury Visual Arts

, 2024

Overview

How did women begin wearing pants? Prior to the 1920s it was a rarity to see women in pants in the Western world, but as the silk pajama trouser suit moved from the boudoir to the beach in the early 1920s it cemented the image of the trousered woman.

Worn by Jean Harlow and Marlene Dietrich, painted by Raoul Dufy and immortalized in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Tender is the Night, between the two world wars pajamas came to symbolize much more than sleepwear. This book explores how the pajama phenomenon was not only critical to the careers of designers such as Chanel, Patou, Poiret, and Schiaparelli, but how the versatile garment was also bound to the independence of women and influenced culture more broadly.

Through meticulous research and never-before-seen images, the authors position pajama fashion in the context of the Golden Age of Travel, the rise of Hollywood, and the changing political climate of the early 20th century, to reveal how the rising trend in sleepwear influenced The American Look, modern sportswear, and the image of the trousered woman.

Key Features

First book to trace the important and untold history of the pajama trend
Provides readers with previously unpublished photos and access to unseen private collections
Reveals how interwar pajama fashion led directly to the establishment of sportswear, women in pants, and American fashion as we know it today

Contents

List of Figures
Acknowledgments

Introduction

1. Beach Pajama Origins
Eastern Pajamas and the Western Imagination
Sleeping Pajamas and Lounging Pajamas
The Ballets Russes
Paul Poiret and the jupe-culotte
Early Gym Wear and Swimwear

2. Beach Pajamas: 1919-1927
The Advent of Beach Pajamas: “No More Sunburned Knees”
The Rise of Resort Culture
The Lido: “Pajamaland”
Pajamas on American Beaches
Early Beach Pajama Styles
Controversy: “She Shocked Palm Beach!”
Mary Nowitzky

3. Beach Pajamas: 1927-1939
The French Riviera: “The Chic World Turns Proletarian”
Sporting and the Rise of Athleticism
Nautical Style
Sun Worship
The Great Depression: Ready-to-wear, Tubfast, and Homesewn
Workwear Influences

4. Beach Pajamas’ Influence
Pajamas and Modernity
Collegiate Fashions
Evening and Formal Pajamas
Hollywood: “Over the Footlights to the Public”
The Beginnings of American Sportswear

Conclusion

Bibliography
Index

Praise for From Sleepwear to Sportswear

D’Agati and Schiff’s insightful and detailed analysis elevates pajamas, at last, to their rightful position in the history of modern fashion. Enriched by a superb collection of illustrations, this book represents bedtime reading at its most sophisticated.

Drawing from a wealth of original material, D’Agati and Schiff provide a long overdue investigation into a transformative garment that embodied modernity in the early twentieth century. The connections between beach pajamas and orientalism, casual dress, and women’s rights are skillfully explored and contextualized in this beautifully illustrated book – an enriching contribution to fashion history.

Product Details

• Title: From Sleepwear to Sportswear: How Beach Pajamas Reshaped Women's Fashion
• Authors: Janine D'Agati, Hannah Schiff
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Visual Arts
• Print Publication Date: 2024
• Logos Release Date: 2024
• Pages: 272
• Language: English
• Resources: 1
• Format: Digital › Ebook
• ISBNs: 9781350231979, 9781350231924, 1350231924, 1350231975
• Resource ID: LLS:9781350231979
• Resource Type: Monograph
• Metadata Last Updated: 2025-04-22T12:07:57Z

About the Authors

Janine D'Agati is the owner of Guermantes Vintage, specializing in 1920s-1940s women's fashion. She has been interviewed on theartofdress.org, acknowledged in Fashion Studies Journal, and has contributed to period wardrobe for numerous film, tv, and theater productions. She holds a BA from Barnard College, Columbia University.

Hannah Schiff is a fashion historian with an MA in Costume Studies from New York University. She is published in The Hidden History of American Fashion: Rediscovering 20th Century Women Designers (Bloomsbury, 2018). She is a fashion photography producer and has collected and studied vintage clothing for over a decade.