Visiting Vintage: Jantzen

Thursday, July 26, 2012

Jantzen

It's swimming and vacation season. According to family lore my great grandmother Olga Espelien Andrew tried to help her son, Orville Andrew keep up with the times in the 1920s but not having the money to purchase anything fashionable took it upon herself to repurpose the wool yarn unraveled from an old, orange sweater and knit her son a bathing suit of the latest style. He was even pleased with the results and proudly wore it to swim with the other teenagers at nearby Fraser River. Imagine his horror when the yarn after becoming wet, stretched awkwardly long down to his ankles. At that point, Great Grandmother Olga then squirreled away enough money to purchase a store bought suit.

In 1910 the Portland Knitting Company went in to business. The name changed in 1918 to Jantzen Knitting Mills. The bathing suits were knit from 100% wool and matching stockings and stocking caps completed their swim ensembles. You might enjoy further history from Jantzen's timeline. In addition to swimming suits, they eventually added vacation wear to their line.

I'm actually quite fond of many of their mid-century styles:

"More fun than Money!"