1940s swimming suits and cars
Stuff I found out from researching about swimming suits and cars in 1940
Swimming Suits
For the pool party scene in Chapter Two in Rose of Anzio Book One - Moonlight, I had to find out what kind of bathing suits women wore in 1940. (This is why writing historical fiction can take a long time. We have to get many small details right. Even something that has little bearing on the plot.) I also had to confirm that women actually wore bikini by then.
I found this 1935 photo of Jane Wyman which in a 2-piece bathing suit, which helped a lot. (Sometimes I'd want to writing something in a scene, and if it turns out the thing didn't exist in history yet, I'd have to do something else.)
Here's also an interesting link the Witness2Fashion blog about 2-piece bathing suits in the 1930s, with some beautiful vintage photos and illustrations.
Cars in 1940
“A dark blue Buick convertible pulled up to the entrance of the driveway leading to a limestone mansion. The mansion itself was barely visible from the street, but from there, the passersby could catch glimpses of the magnificent rose garden in front of the house.” – 𝑹𝒐𝒔𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝑨𝒏𝒛𝒊𝒐 𝑩𝒐𝒐𝒌 𝑶𝒏𝒆 - 𝑴𝒐𝒐𝒏𝒍𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕, Chapter One, opening scene.
I don’t know much about cars. So I had to research what kind of car Brandon was driving when he drove Anthony home after their school term was over. The car would have to be American, of course. The European countries were embroiled in war by 1940 and exporting cars wasn’t exactly on the top of their national agenda.
Turns out, American cars looked pretty awesome. Check out these babies!
I actually enjoy very much researching vintage automobiles for my books.