Objects of Substance- The Swim Coat

teams were photographed together in swimming coats and caps. It was perhaps not the most attractive look but, at least, modesty was preserved. The coats worn were issued to girls for the QGSSSA competition only, and then returned to the School. When reflecting on wearing the BGGS swim coat, Margaret McNamara (Hislop, 1948) remembers marching into the Valley Pool wearing the ‘royal blue dressing gowns’. She described the coat as wool flannel, to the knee and as being ‘a bit moth-eaten’. Not only did these coats provide protection for the girls’ modesty, but McNamara alluded to its function as a uniform and subsequently, the pride in representing your school by wearing the coat. The program for the early swimming competitions included diving. The time lapses between each dive made the coats most useful in providing protection on wet Brisbane days in March. By 1953, the School struggled to keep the original swim coats in good repair. At the Sports Club meeting held on 6 December 1954, Swimming Captain, Ada Ball (1954), ‘suggested new coats should be bought for the whole of the swimming team as the coats now used are very shabby and there are only enough to supply half the team with them. The rest wear blazers.’ [1] This may also partly explain why cutting the coats to a shorter length was not simply a fashion statement but a necessity, as well why there were girls in blazers in this 1953 photograph.

Swimming Team, 1953 including Ada Ball (1954) seated at the left of Swimming Captain, Jill Malouf (1953), seated centre.