boatwear en · NOUN
Etymology
From boat + -wear.
Meanings
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(uncountable) Clothing to be worn in a boat.
Arriving in a huge, smart marina with tidy showered people mincing along the pontoons in designer boatwear, the kippers start to feel less like a hidden treasure and more like a shameful secret.
2001, Libby Purves, This Cruising Life: A Collection of Amusing Stories from the Popular Yachting Monthly Column, London: Adlard Coles Nautical, →ISBN, pages 59–60:Boatwear’s growth—Bell said that boatwear and skiwear are so successful today—have “caught on” so well—that the apparel and “extra” items are the reasons one “moves up” to the sport.
1961 November 1, Boot and Shoe Recorder, volume 160, number 11, page 76:Stearns Manufacturing Co., Division St. at 30th St., St. Cloud, Minn., offers a line of fashionable buoyant boatwear.
1966 January, Better Camping, volume 7, number 1, page 66:There are some very fine examples of woven armor, too, and waterproof boatwear made from seal gut.
1999, Dana Stabenow, So Sure of Death: A Liam Campbell Mystery, Dutton, →ISBN, page 247:She was wearing a ridiculous white sailor’s suit from Lord and Taylor’s; she even had the cap. It was not ideal boatwear.
1989, Carl Hiaasen, Skin Tight, New York, N.Y.: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, →ISBN:Today the company remains the choice of yahcting^([sic]) champions and the new flagship shop on Carnaby Street is bursting with top technical boatwear and some fun forays into fashion too.
2003, Where to Wear 2004: The Insider’s Guide to London Shopping, New York, N.Y.; London: Fairchild & Gallagher, →ISBN, page 87: