Did you know that around 1900 no one with “good manners” could go to the beach?

The sea was the place for the treatment of patients by hydrotherapy (what would be today as the water aerobics). The habit of bathing in the sea begins around 1910, for

the influence of similar French habits in the “Côte D’Azur”.

Mayors tried to regulate sea bathing, establishing schedules, with strict provisions regarding clothing, particularly for women (*seriously?).

It was not possible. The beach established itself as free territory, a feature that not even the Military Regime was able to restrict. The beach was the barrier-free territory of Rio, where there were no social differences and everyone could walk around half-naked.

In the 70s, bathing in the sea had become such a specialty of the Ipanema people that, in 1970, the famous “Tanga” appears on the beaches of Ipanema, inspired by the summary clothing of Brazilian Indians. The first to use it was the actresses Leila Diniz and Tânia Scher.