Women's Paula Stafford shark skin bikini
Maker
Paula Stafford
Date1950s
Object number00006145
NameSwimsuit
MediumSynthetic fabric, cotton
DimensionsOverall: 27 x 315 mm
ClassificationsClothing and personal items
Credit LineANMM Collection
DescriptionQueensland designer Paula Stafford produced fashionable and daring swimwear for both men and women from her Surfers Paradise studio in the 1950s. This white 'sharkskin' bikini features a ruched bandeau top with a shoestring halter neck cord, and a plastic clasp fastening at the back. The bikini bottoms use four panels of material, with a central seam at the back and front, and an elasticised waist and legs.
Stafford is remembered as one of the first bikini designer/manufacturers in Australia, designing and selling bikinis on Queensland's Gold Coast from as early as 1946. She gradually expanded her business and promoted the bikini in Sydney and Melbourne and later successfully exported to the UK and Asia.
HistoryAustralian Paula Stafford is credited with introducing the French two-piece swimming costume to Queensland and designing the world's first reversible bikini in the late 1940s.
Stafford's early bikinis were tied at the side or knotted at the front and were daringly brief compared to other swimwear on the Australian market. They challenged dress codes on Queensland and Sydney beaches where the bikini was banned in the late 1940s.
In the mid 1950s Stafford opened a boutique in Surfers Paradise, the Paula Stafford Fiesta Tog Shop and organised Australia's first bikini fashion parade as part of the Holiday and Travel Exhibition at Sydney's Town Hall. Stafford then began supplying retailers such as David Jones, Myer, Georges and Buckleys as well as exporting to Great Britain, the United States and Hong Kong.
By the 1970s Stafford employed sixty people in her Gold Coast based business. Her bikinis were sold world wide competing favourably with French designs. Paula Stafford retired in 1985.
SignificanceThis bikini is representative of Australian women's beachwear fashions made by Paula Stafford in the 1950s. The style reflects developments in Australian and international swimwear design.
