See How Swimsuits Evolved From Victorian Times to the Bikini Age

Think it's hot at the beach these days? Imagine wearing wool, which is what the first garments we'd recognize as swimsuits were made of. But maybe wool had its charms. "Our forebears knew that wool offers protection against chills," LIFE noted in a July 1, 1940, spread on the latest trends in swimsuits: that season's brave yet "vain" women "gladly shivered for fashion's sake" in cotton and rayon.