Today in History: First bikini unveiled by French automobile engineer
The item of clothing was naturally met with objections at first, but gradually gained popularity on its way to becoming what we know it as today.
On this day, 72 years ago, French designer Louis Reard (formerly an automobile engineer) unveiled a daring two-piece swimsuit at the Piscine Molitor, a popular swimming pool in Paris.
European women first began wearing two-piece bathing suits that consisted of a halter top and shorts in the 1930s, but only a sliver of the midriff was revealed and the navel was vigilantly covered. In the United States, the modest two-piece made its appearance during World War II, when wartime rationing of fabric saw the removal of the skirt panel and other superfluous material.
In 1946, Western Europeans joyously greeted the first war-free summer in years, and French designers came up with fashions to match the liberated mood of the people. Two French designers, Jacques Heim and Louis Reard, developed competing prototypes of the bikini.
Heim called his the “atom” and advertised it as “the world’s smallest bathing suit.” Reard’s swimsuit, which was basically a bra top and two inverted triangles of cloth connected by string, was in fact significantly smaller.
Made out of a scant 30 inches (76cm) of fabric, Reard promoted his creation as “smaller than the world’s smallest bathing suit.” Reard called his creation the bikini, named after the Bikini Atoll.
In planning the debut of his new swimsuit, Reard had trouble finding a professional model who would deign to wear the scandalously skimpy two-piece. So he turned to Micheline Bernardini, an exotic dancer at the Casino de Paris, who had no qualms about appearing nearly nude in public.
Today in 1946: Bikini,named after Bikini Atoll in Pacific Ocean,made its debut during an outdoor fashion show at the Molitor Pool in Paris pic.twitter.com/wykhsRxBFn
— Mohandas Menon (@mohanstatsman) July 5, 2017
As an allusion to the headlines that he knew his swimsuit would generate, he printed newspaper type across the suit that Bernardini modelled on July 5 at the Piscine Molitor. Reard’s business soared, and in advertisements he kept the bikini mystique alive by declaring that a two-piece suit wasn’t a genuine bikini “unless it could be pulled through a wedding ring.”
In prudish America, the bikini was successfully resisted until the early 1960s, when a new emphasis on youthful liberation brought the swimsuit to US beaches.
It was immortalised by pop singer Brian Hyland, who sang Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka-Dot Bikini in 1960; by the teenage “beach blanket” movies of Annette Funicello and Frankie Avalon, and by the California surfing culture celebrated by rock groups like the Beach Boys.
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