For some reason, it just hit me. Like hypercolor t-shirts and jelly shoes and off the shoulder sweaters. From the very depths of my memories: Swim trunks with designs that showed only when the fabric got wet.
I remember owning a pair of swimming trunks, itself an anomaly because I can’t swim, but these trunks had patterns on them that would only appear when wet. Basically, the shorts had a sort of paisley design that would only show up when they were splashed with water, because parts of the fabric were impregnated with water repellent. So you would get this interesting pattern, with some of the fabric getting wet and appearing darker, and part of it remaining dry.
Since I didn’t swim, I’m still trying to recall how I found this out. I probably read the tags on the trunks.
I do remember them losing the water repellent properties over time, so then they just turned into regular swim trunks after a while.
Still, interesting concept. But inane enough for me not to remember them until now.