Wooden Bathing Suits

Wooden Bathing Suits: Here’s one retro trend we don’t think will come back in style: wooden bathing suits. Like the best archival images, it needs almost no explanation — the frame tells its own story.

Wooden bathing suits appeared as a publicity stunt from the timber town of Hoquiam, Washington, around 1929, promoted as a novelty product made from thin spruce veneer. They were photographed widely and made for great newspaper copy, though as swimwear they were about as practical as they sound.

The strangest historical photos are rarely staged jokes — they usually show a real solution to a real problem of their day. Understanding why this scene made sense to the people in it is half the fun of looking at it.