When was the bikini invented?
From history.com: If you like or wear bikinis, you can thank Louis Réard, the French designer who came up with the then-revolutionary design in the 1940s. The revolutionary part wasn’t the two-piece nature of the bikini — European women had been wearing two-piece bathing suits since the decade before. But those existing two-pieces were pretty conservative, even if they did lack the traditional skirts; they had halter tops that left very little of the midriff in view.
That wasn’t the case with the skimpy bikini of Réard’s creation, which he described as “smaller than the world’s smallest bathing suit,” according to History.com. He debuted the design on July 5, 1946, but as you might imagine, he didn’t do so personally: Micheline Bernardini, a Parisian showgirl, modeled the suit in a photo shoot. The location of the shoot was the Piscine Molitor, a popular swimming spot in Paris. (“Piscine” means “pool” in French.) Piscine Molitor was nowhere near anything called “bikini,” but Réard decided to name his creation the “bikini” all the same, after the Bikini Atoll, where the United States had done a nuclear test in the Pacific Ocean earlier that same week.
Yes, thank you Louis Reard. You are, without a doubt, a pioneer, who all heterosexual men should thank every night, or at least every time we visit a sunny, sandy beach.
Who remembers this song (June, 1960) by Brian Hyland? It reached number one on Billboard!
She was afraid to come out of the locker
She was as nervous as she could be
She was afraid to come out of the locker
She was afraid that somebody would see
Two, three, four, tell the people what she wore!
It was an itsy bitsy teenie weenie yellow polka-dot bikini
That she wore for the first time today.
An itsy bitsy teenie weenie yellow polka-dot bikini
So in the locker she wanted to stay.
Two, three, four, stick around we’ll tell you more!
She was afraid to come out in the open
And so a blanket around her she wore.
She was afraid to come out in the open.
And so she sat bundled up on the shore.
Two, three, four, tell the people what she wore!
It was an itsy bitsy teenie weenie yellow polka-dot bikini.
That she wore for the first time today.
An itsy bitsy teenie weenie yellow polka-dot bikini.
So in the blanket she wanted to stay.
Two, three, four, stick around we’ll tell you more!
Now she is afraid to come out of the water.
And I wonder what she’s gonna do.
‘Cause she’s afraid to come out of the water.
And now the poor little girl’s turning blue.
Two, three, four, tell the people what she wore!
It was an itsy bitsy teenie weenie yellow polka-dot bikini.
That she wore for the first time today.
An itsy bitsy teenie weenie yellow polka-dot bikini.
So in the water she wanted to stay.
From the locker to the blanket,
From the blanket to the shore,
From the shore to the water
Guess there isn’t any more.
Moving on from the song, here are some perhaps, little known bikini facts to impress your friends, or piss them off!
The bikini was not the first two piece. That honor belonged to Jacques Heim.
Of course, the original bikini was rejected as too revealing. The nerve!!
Some countries initially banned the bikini. So, like Spain, they became topless beaches.
Bikinis are the official dress code for female Olympic beach volleyball players.
The first woman to model a bikini was a nude dancer named Micheline Bernardini.
Vietjet Airlines in Vietnam staffs its plane with bikini clad flight attendants, female I presume?
The original monokini took the bikini to the next level.
July 5th is National Bikini Day, I am about a month late!
Global swimwear sales are around $19 billion annually. Swimming is considered to be a popular fitness and recreational activity. It is the most popular sport in many countries. Asia Pacific is the largest growth area, followed by Europe. But the largest market is North America, thankfully.
