There are three things I remember most about my maternal grandmother’s swimming pool in Virginia: The endless summer afternoons I spent there earning my freckles, the artificial turf, and the umbrellas. Yes, the umbrellas. They were turquoise and piped in white. The whole setup looked like something out of a Slim Aarons photo from Palm Beach in the Sixties.
Betty Jo Philpott Martin’s pool in Martinsville, Virginia, complete with turquoise umbrellas and artificial turf.
The umbrellas were the perfect design counterpoint to the artificial turf, which my grandmother installed so her thirty-odd grandchildren wouldn’t slip and skin their knees racing each other to the slide. Granny Martin’s pool was my babysitter (and played babysitter to countless neighborhood children), and to a little girl growing up in a very small town it was my definition of glamour. I knew Granny Martin’s personal style and sparkplug personality were unique (she did, after all, keep a small-bore shotgun handy for the times when the varmints overtook her prized tomatoes), and I knew that pool was magic. And now, as I see retro umbrellas make a stylish comeback, all I can think about are those days of sitting under one, eating a pimento cheese sandwich, and plotting my next big splash.
Below are a few present-day designs with decidedly throwback looks.
—Haskell Harris is G&G’s style director. Follow her on Instagram @haskellharris.
One Kings Lane
Poppy two-tier patio umbrella, $495
Amazon
Catalina patio umbrella, $200
Frontgate
Milos air umbrella, $1695
Target
Safaviah patio umbrella, $118
Kmart
Zimmerman umbrella, $169
One Kings Lane
Dani pom-pom umbrella, $595
Amazon
World Market
Natural umbrella with fringe, $80
One Kings Lane
Poppy patio umbrella, $425
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