Abstract:
Bathing Suit as a Visual Expression of the Concept of Personal Space
The article examines the relation between the emergence and development of the idea of personal space, on the one hand, and the transformation of dress norms, on the other.
The concept of personal space is used to signify the movable territory of inviolability which each person preserves in their contact with others, regardless of the characteristics of the social space in which they are situated.
The gradual confirmation of the norm of social and legal inviolability of the person in the last two centuries has resulted in significant changes in the socially acceptable dress codes. Clothing gradually lost some of its significance as a symbolic barrier between the person and the others. The article analyses the results of this process, such as the tendency towards reduction of the length, volume, and number of layers of clothes worn on one's body.
This will be illustrated using a historical study of the bathing suit from the 18th century to the present.
