Esther Williams, a style appreciation

Sad news on Thursday that the million-dollar mermaid Esther Williams has died. She’ll be remembered as many things. She was an athlete and a movie star, of course, but also a style icon who helped sell the fantasy of Hollywood as the swimwear capital of the world with glittering pools and smiling starlets diving into them.

An L.A. native, Williams was a swimwear champion who got her start at the Los Angeles Athletic Club. She made a splash on film in the 1940s and ‘50s, appearing in a dazzling array of swim costumes and performing spectacular feats of underwater acrobatics while she was at it. When she signed her contract with MGM, one of the conditions was that she receive a guest pass to the Beverly Hills Hotel, so she could swim there daily. The lady knew how to negotiate.

In 1948, Williams signed a contract with Cole of California, the innovative L.A. swimwear brand founded by Fred Cole in 1925, to be its spokeswoman. Because Cole suits were made of lightweight Latex, they worked well for the physical rigors of her moves, and she wore them in many of her films.

“Esther Williams was the face of swim in Hollywood, and so naturally Dad put her under contract with Cole,� Fred Cole’s daughter Anne Cole told former L.A. Times writer Rose Apodaca in 2007. “She used to come to the house quite a bit to swim, but it was during market week that the showman in Dad really came out.�

Market week was when New York fashion editors and retailers came to L.A. to preview the next season’s swimwear collections at a fashion show around the pool at the Cole’s Beverly Hills mansion. Naturally, Williams would make a guest appearance.

“We once even built a bridge of glass so it would look like Esther could walk on water,� Anne Cole said.

In 1989, Williams, who was 65 at the time, launched her own line of swimsuits for mature women, the Esther Williams Collection for Misty Swimwear, at a fashion show in Orange County.

“I understand your bodies,� Williams told the L.A. Times. “I know what will stay put. I know what swimming has done for my life, and I want it to be the same for you. I want you to go in the water.�

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