Women's Swimwear - Jantzen

Celebrating their 100th year of swimwear in 2010, this historic brand is known, worn and loved by women of all ages around the world! The 2010 Heritage Collection draws its inspiration from a centenary of swimwear design and innovation to recreate classic and retro Jantzen signature styles with 21st Century flair. Design leaders ever since they launched the first tank suit for women in 1924 with the slogan "A Jantzen puts the joy in swimming", the contemporary Jantzen swimsuit is supremely comfortable, fitting and fashionable with sizes ranging from 10 to 22, including stylish and flattering mastectomy swimwear and silhouette-shaping one-pieces that will make you feel as pin-up perfect as Jantzen's iconic Red Diving Girl logo!

The Jantzen Red Diving Girl

Jantzen introduced the Red Diving Girl in a 1920s catalogue and in groundbreaking billboard advertisements in the US that saw her quickly elevated to pin-up girl status! She was embroidered or sewn on Jantzen swimsuits for over 60 years and during that time her original rib knit swimsuit was updated to reflect the changing designs of women's swimwear.

The Red Diving Girl represented the modern woman of the day in the "suit that changed bathing to swimming". True it was a one-piece wool bathing suit in an elasticised rib stitch that no modern woman would appreciate wearing in the water today, but back then, Jantzen's new suit was a revolutionary stride away from the standard women's modesty costume with metres and metres of heavy fabric and neck-to-knee styling!

Jantzen urged women to start swimming instead of merely bathing and even sponsored "Learn To Swim" Campaigns to get more women to actively engage in water sports and is today recognised for having promoted swimming as a sport before any other apparel brand.

As more women embraced swimming, Jantzen concentrated on evolving new cutting and patented assembly methods, looking at innovative designs that would incorporate fashion and function and focusing on achieving a better fit for all women to encourage ease of swimming and movement and, gradually, as modesty gave way to mobility, creating styles that really enhanced the figure!

Famous Bodies in Jantzen

The Jantzen word spread quickly. With catchy advertising and marketing campaigns featuring the Red Diving Girl and the swimwear to back up their claims, Jantzen campaigns often featured Hollywood celebrities - Loretta Young was "Miss Jantzen" in 1931 and a teenage James Garner was "Mr Jantzen" in 1947!

Champion swimmer and bathing beauty of the Hollywood screen, Esther Williams, was photographed in Jantzen swimsuits at the height of her celebrity in the 1940s.

Even a young Marilyn Monroe (back when she was still Norma Jean Baker) modelled the Jantzen "Temptation", a two-piece bra and tight skirt-fronted swinsuit and the provocative "Double-Dare", a two-piece with peek-a-boo hip cut outs that exposed glimpses of thigh through the cut outs! By 1956, at the Melbourne Olympic Games, the US Women's Swimming Team were wearing the innovative original racing suit by Jantzen. Supermodel Carolyn Murphy has been the face and body of Jantzen for the new Millenium and in 2009 stunning Brazilian supermodel Raica Oliveira showcased the latest collections on the runway.

The 2010 Heritage Collection

Jantzen Senior Designer, Lisa Dixon, says that the Centennial of Jantzen is a time to celebrate the enormous legacy of the brand and to re-interpret some of the style of bygone eras with a truly contemporary vision. "This Collection represents the juxtaposition of classic vintage with a modern interpretation of swimwear," she explains of the inspiration behind the latest range. "The new Jantzen line pays homage to our illustrious heritage and signifies the true meaning of 'what's old is new again'".