Designs for health and beauty

DOES anyone still have a beach cape? If so, Ghislaine Wood, curator of the Sainsbury Centre’s new exhibition, would like to hear from you. Beach capes—voluminous, tent-like robes that allowed the (female) wearer to change into a swimsuit without any loss of modesty—were an essential accessory of the 1930s seaside.

Brightly coloured and strikingly patterned, these once ubiquitous garments seem to have been thrown out, together with the knitted bathing dresses over which they were worn, once fashion changed.