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Description A maillot tank is a one piece swimsuit usually sleeveless or strapped and with a legline in the proximity of the crotch. It is, by definition, absent a pantaloon. It contains five edges, two each arm and legholes and one neck line. The existence of these five lines is a common feature to all if not most maillots, and to some extent species differentiation varies the placements of these five fashion lines. That is a subject we can explore in the different species, for the factors which drive the species are complex and interesting. None the less, the tank maillot is a basic building block and contains a lot of the DNA of the species. Origin of the Species Maillot tank emerges in the late 1920s as a reduction of the maillot pantaloon. It is seen earlier, but this is the period of its swimsuit development. Remember that the tank also has a nativist tradition of leotard. In other words, a maillot tank is basically a leotard silhouette; and a maillot tank in the maillot genus is equivalent to a leotard in the -tards. The same garment could really be tossed into the same pile. It is rare in Bikini Science when a silhouette is duplicated, and no other exact example comes to mind. (Even biketards are classified as maillot pantaloons. And modern Spandex exercise wear unitards are fused with pinkies. One positive thing we have learned about keeping tight species definition is that it can drive us making discoveries and insights.) Why in this case approach differently? In the case of the leotard/maillot tank we have created two separate species because we believe that the leotard is an important component to the tards continuity. Without it, the tards don't really work as a genus, furthermore, a *leotard* belongs there because a leotard is part of the period, the temporal environment, the public discussion, the sociology. The maillot tank hadn't been invented yet, nor had the maillot. Maillot Tank Emerges The maillot tank evolves independently of the leotard and for that reason has its own story to tell. And so a different species, one of the maillots. (Yes, there is a path directly from the leotard to maillot tank and visa-versa, because they are the same things, and yes there is a resonance.) An important path to the maillot tank begins with maillot skirted pantaloon and maillot pantaloon and involves loosing the last bit of legline and skirt. It is uncertain if the middle to late 1920s striped top and shorts swimsuits are in fact maillot tanks, but they could be and they are in terms of silhouette (VG0064_151, MR2510). Belts are present throughout the late 1920s as well (CB2L30, CB2L80). Cleavage and armhole obviously can play naughty or nice (MD2650, CB2880), and wetness can also tell stories. But nobody combines a larger armhole and a rising legline better than Clara Bow (CB2L40). The maillot tank is similar to the maillot skirted; here too the maillot skirted pantaloon as retreated baring the leg, but the skirt has been retain. In the tank it has not. The skirt is often surrendered with great reluctance, and as late as the 1940s maillot thru off the backside while retaining the front as a fairly ineffective sheath in front of the crotch; this is the maillot sheathed species. (The sheath does draw attention to derrière, a new venue after legs; see Betty Grable!) Maillot tank is also a pivot point between maillot shortsleeve, maillot sleeveless; then on the other side of the scales, the paths to maillot haltered and maillot strapless. So maillot tank really is in the middle of a really different sociology that the leotard. Is the Leotard Extinct Then? The Bikini Scientist hesitates to term the leotard an extinct species because he believe it is still being used today for its original purpose; furthermore there may be some different considerations besides silhouette which cast it as a genuine different species. But also consider the 1990s Spandex exercise maillot (); exists equally well in either species, and perhaps putting it is both tells a story about how modern exercise wear and swimwear have blended. Twenty-first century exercise and swimwear can be cut from the same silhouette in the same material (Spandex) yet worn two different ways. Well, sort of.... |
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