Hermosa's Old Ban on Showing Skin

Tan lines, bikinis, and a surfer dude going shirtless can be spotted in Hermosa Beach and surrounding towns nowadays, but for a brief time around 1932, tops stayed on for men and women alike—and had to cover more than just breasts.

The strict rules and clothed beach-dwellers of the early 1900s in Hermosa Beach form a serious contrast with the beach scene now.

For example, neighboring Manhattan Beach in 2009 ranked among one of Maxim magazine’s "six sexiest beaches of America." And Hermosa was ranked as the No. 4 hotspot for the rich and single by CNNMoney .

But while the Beach Cities garner national attention for the single and sexy of today, Hermosa Beach in 1932 gained national attention for requiring men to wear tops on the beach.

According to an archived Daily Breeze article, sweating young men found the law "ridiculous," while city government and those reportedly concerned with "immorality" took the position that men ought to cover their chest and navel in public.

The city ordinance was repealed swiftly, but still created serious controversy. The debate "reached such a hot stage at one point that a trial of an offender had to be held in Gardena to prevent prejudice and possible bloodshed," the article reported.

Most locals may consider the issue an incident from a bygone era, but 80-year-old Hermosa Beach resident Georgia Spencer has fond memories of her father’s one-piece wool swimsuit from that time.

"My father’s bathing suit was one piece, from the stomach to the shoulders. I don’t know why he saved it," she said.

Spencer, a docent at the , told Patch that her boyfriend once borrowed the one-piece suit from her father because he had forgotten his trunks. In her own words, Spencer said she was "impressed" by the appearance.

"There have been a lot of changes made since then," Spencer said.

Mike Flowers, another docent at the historical society agreed.

"Just to show you how much the times have changed: guys and girls will get out of the water, open up their car door, put a towel around their waste, strip down, put on their shorts and shirts, and take the towel off," he said.

Back in the day, Flowers said, you would have been arrested for indecent exposure.

Both Flowers and Spencer agreed that for many women, wearing skimpy bathing suits is a sign of how far they’ve come since their fight for equality and the right to vote.

It all started, they said, when women began wearing pants around the 1920s, which for the first time would show the outline of their legs.

Women wearing pants on the beach was in stark contrast to the early 20th century, when women wore multiple layers of clothing, including skirts that sometimes included tail hems. Neither men nor women were allowed to show their knees at the time.

Decades later, as written in Hermosa Beach municipal code now, beach-goers only have to worry about covering their private areas, "buttocks" and women must cover their breasts with "opaque covering" when in public.

When asked about the bikinis women wear now, or spotting a shirtless man around town, Spencer didn’t have one opinion or another—"it’s just what people wear nowadays," she said.