I played tennis when I was younger. So I find it fascinating as I do research for my next time travel novel what women wore in the past on the court. Can you imagine rushing the net in a full-length dress? Doing a power serve with tights on and a skirt hugging your ankles? What about the heat? I think I might’ve collapsed on the baseline with all those clothes on.
Just for fun, I "tried on" some tennis outfits from the early 1900s. The first picture of me (on the left) and a couple of my dear tennis friends, shows ladies’ tennis attire in 1900. I would’ve surely suffered heat stroke. The second picture is an action shot of me on the court in the more “modern” tennis outfit of 1918. (That’s the year my heroine travels to in my forthcoming book.) And in the third picture, you see me front and center (looking more youthful) with some of my tennis pals in the year 1930. Making progress, but still a long way to go. I mean, can you imagine Serena Williams in any of these get-ups?
There’s a tennis scene in my novel, so I needed to know what my women characters wore back then. It made me hot just writing that scene!
I also learned that deodorants and antiperspirants were in their infancy back then. Not very effective, to say the least. I’m sure there was a good deal of body odor.
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