FanPost

8/8/14 OT - Friday Swimwear

The history of the bikini can be traced back to antiquity. Illustrations of Roman women wearing bikini-like garments during competitive athletic events have been found in several locations. The most famous of them is Villa Romana del Casale. French engineer Louis Réard introduced the modern bikini, modeled by Micheline Bernardini, in July 5, 1946, borrowing the name for his design from the Bikini Atoll, where post-war testing on the atomic bomb was happening.

French women welcomed the design but the Catholic church, some media, and a majority of the public initially thought the design was risqué or even scandalous. Contestants in the first Miss World beauty pageant wore them in 1951, but the bikini was then banned from the competition. Actress Bridget Bardot drew attention when she was photographed wearing a bikini on the beach during the Cannes Film Festival in 1953. Other actresses, including Rita Hayworth and Ava Gardner, also gathered press attention when they wore bikinis. During the early 1960s, the design appeared on the cover of Playboy andSports Illustrated, giving it additional legitimacy. Ursula Andress made a huge impact when she emerged from the surf wearing what is now an iconic bikini in the James Bond movie Dr. No (1962).

The bikini gradually grew to gain wide acceptance in Western society. According to French fashion historian Olivier Saillard, the bikini is perhaps the most popular type of female beachwear around the globe because of "the power of women, and not the power of fashion". As he explains, "The emancipation of swimwear has always been linked to the emancipation of women."[1] By the early 2000s, bikinis had become a US$811 million business annually, and boosted spin-off services like bikini waxing and the sun tanning.[2]

The modern bikini[edit]

Micheline Bernardini modeling one of the first modern bikinis

French fashion designer Jacques Heim, who owned a beach shop in the French Riviera resort town of Cannes, introduced a minimalist two-piece design in May 1946 which he named the "Atome," after the smallest known particle of matter.[53] The bottom of his design was just large enough to cover the wearer's navel.

At the same time, Louis Réard, a French automotive and mechanical engineer, was running his mother's lingerie business[1] near Les Folies Bergères in Paris.[54] He noticed women on St. Tropez beaches rolling up the edges of their swimsuits to get a better tan [1] and was inspired to produce a more minimal design. He trimmed additional fabric off the bottom of the swimsuit, exposing the wearer's naval for the first time. Réard's string bikini consisted of four triangles made from 30 square inches (194 cm2) of fabric printed with a newspaper pattern.[1]

When Réard sought a model to wear his design at his press conference, none of the usual models would wear the suit, so he hired 19 year old nude dancer Micheline Bernardini from the Casino de Paris.[55] He introduced his design to the media and public on July 5, 1946, in Paris[56] at Piscine Molitor, a public pool in Paris.[57][36] Réard held the press conference five days after the first test of a nuclear device (nicknamed Able) over the Bikini Atoll during Operation Crossroads.[58] His swimsuit design shocked the press and public because it was the first to reveal the wearer's navel.[59]

To promote his new design, Heim hired skywriters to fly above the Mediterranean resort advertising the Atome as "the world's smallest bathing suit."[53][60][61] Not to be outdone by Heim, Réard hired his own skywriters three weeks later to fly over the French Riviera advertising his design as "smaller than the smallest bathing suit in the world."[53]

Heim's design was the first to be worn on the beach, but the name given by Réard stuck with the public.[1] Despite significant social resistance, Réard received more than 50,000 letters from fans. He also initiated a bold ad campaign that told the public a two-piece swimsuit was not a genuine bikini "unless it could be pulled through a wedding ring."[62] According to Kevin Jones, curator and fashion historian at theFashion Institute of Design & Merchandising, "Réard was ahead of his time by about 15 to 20 years. Only women in the vanguard, mostly upper-class European women embraced it."[63]