Evolution of suits over the years

[Torchwatch]

Jantzen were an up market swimwear manufacturer, they charged a premium for their suits and were able to use better fabrics and spent more time in making them.
The pipe smoker suit of 1952 has lattice sides, the objective was to make a skin tight suit with non stretch fabrics. I suspect that there is elastic hidden in each of the straps of the lattice, the waist and leg straps hold the suit on while the lattice straps running at different angles tighten the fabric up making the whole suit more skin tight.
It is interesting to note that although at first glance the suit appears to be square cut they are in fact very high waisted briefs. This would hold your belly in and make a man appear slimmer and more muscular. Since this was before the invention of the teenager when everyone wanted to look like their parents this style would appear to be a good thing.
There have been 89 movies with Tarzan in the title between 1918 and 2008, many with Olympic swimmer Johnny Weissmuller in between 1932 and 1948, men in 1952 would have been familiar with Tarzan's open loincloth look and so wished to emulate it, perhaps with a more civilised Jantzen swim suit.

According to David Wallechinsky's Complete Book of the Olympics, while playing in a celebrity golf tournament in Cuba in 1958, Weissmuller's golf cart was suddenly captured by rebel soldiers. Weissmuller sized up the situation, got out of the cart and gave his trademark Tarzan yell. The shocked rebels soon began to jump up and down, calling "Tarzan! Welcome to Cuba!" Johnny and his companions were not only not kidnapped, but were given a rebel escort to the golf course.