A Brief History of the Bikini
The weather is warming, the flowers are blooming and spring is finally in the air. It will be beach-going time before we know it. Although women in bikinis stroll the shoresides without controversy today, it was not long ago that when the beloved bikini was created many deemed the attire indecent.
Victoria's Secret models in 2015 bikinis. Image Credit: Splash News.
The bikini emerged in a post-World War II climate that still held on to frugality. With war time rationing, some governments ordered manufacturers to reduce the amount of fabric they used, which resulted in designers sparing bodily surface area.
In May 1946, French fashion designer Jacques Heim, who owned a beach shop on the French Riviera, introduced a minimalist two-piece design that he named the "Atome" after the smallest known particle of matter. This design still covered the navel.
A month later, on July 5, 1946, French engineer and designer Louis Réard revealed an outfit "smaller than the world's smallest swimsuit,” made from just 30 inches of fabric. This was four days after the U.S. military had conducted nuclear tests at Bikini Atoll in the Pacific Ocean. Réard hoped that his newest invention would be as explosive as these tests so he called his new creation the "bikini."
Immediately, however, he faced a major problem: None of the Parisian models would wear it. He enlisted 19-year-old Micheline Bernardini, a nude dancer from the Casino de Paris, to debut his design on July 11, 1946, at a press showing at the fashionable Piscine Molitor in Paris.
Two-piece swimwear in the fifties. Image Credit: Popsugar.
The original two-piece swimsuits, which consisted of a structured halter top and modest bottom that covered the navel, hips and derrière, became more revealing over time, eventually baring the mid-drift.
It quickly made international headlines due to its provocative name and cut. Beaches across Europe and the Mediterranean tried to ban bikinis, and the Vatican declared the garment “sinful.” In London, the bikini was banned for contestants of the 1951 Miss World pageant.
In June 1960 American singer Brian Hyland released his Billboard hit, "Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polkadot Bikini.” This popular song takes on new meaning when you consider the bikini was still catching on at the time. It's no wonder "she was afraid to come out of the water."
Watch Brian Hyland preform his hit song:
French fashion historian Olivier Saillard, has commented that 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.”
