The kind of vintage piece that pipe dreams are made of

Perhaps it's the pale-as-concrete colour palette nature's been sporting lately, the -20C temps (with the wind chill factored in), or the snowdrifts so high you half expect to see a penguin come sliding down them. Whatever the reason, I think that most of us (in those parts of the western hemisphere that endure winter's icy wrath) start to get a certain jonesing right about this time year for summer's return.

I don't mean a quaint spring day spent amongst the tulips in May or June, no, I mean the full-on, toast your skin in a flash, soul sizzling heat of the dog days of summer, say around the end of July, when the sun is as golden as a nugget and the world is alive with a million rainbow's worth of vibrancy.

Of course, naturally enough, when that time of the year does roll around once more, we'll sit there pining for this very cold, very snowy second half of winter again. Such is human nature. Perhaps more than what the weather is up to these days, it was was the spotting a vintage bathing suit ad a while back that suddenly had me yearning for summer's fiery embrace, and more over, for the swimsuit in the ad itself!

You know those vintage items that you spot somewhere, instantly fall in love with, and just as quickly understand that you have a snowball's chance of ever coming even remotely close to tracking them down? I'm a huge glass-half-full kind of gal, but I'm also a major realist, so I completely grasp that my hopes of every tracking down one of these amazing suits (in my size) is very, very slim.

Nevertheless, a girl can fantasize - and hope that maybe, just maybe, by posting about said swimsuit, someone out there in the vast reaches of the interwebs will one day come across one of these suits (if I don't spot it first) and let me know.

Without further ado, may I present fellow Vancouver born gal Yvonne De Carlo sporting what may very well be my favourite vintage bathing suit of all time, Rose Marie Reid's "Canadiana".

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To many this may just seem like a cute novelty print suit, but to this red-as-a-maple leaf blooded canuck, who utterly adores vintage fashion and vintage Canadiana, this is the kind of garment that patriotic meets sartorial dreams are made of (and I love it all the more because the designer, Rose Marie Reid, was herself a Canadian).

I have an eBay keyword search on various possible names for this garment, and have checked etsy and a few vintage other online vintage shops numerous times, but haven't unearthed one of these stellar First Nations imagery covered swimsuit yet, and doubt I will anytime soon (if ever). Still, I'm not one to be deterred and part of me loves that I have a new vintage holy grail to try and track down.

It might not be in time for this coming summer or even the next, but if this bathing suit is out there in my size, I like to think that one - perhaps very distant - day I'll find it and get to bring it home to live alongside my vintage winter coats, always ready and waiting for the summer’s glorious return (just like me!).