Bikini introduced

On July 51946French designer Louis Réard unveils a daring two-piece swimsuit at the Piscine Molitora popular swimming pool in Paris. Parisian showgirl Micheline Bernardini modeled the new fashionwhich Réard dubbed “bikini,” inspired by a news-making U.S. atomic test that took place off the Bikini Atoll in the Pacific Ocean earlier that week.

European women first began wearing two-piece bathing suits that consisted of a halter top and shorts in the 1930sbut only a sliver of the midriff was revealed and the navel was vigilantly covered. In the United Statesthe modest two-piece made its appearance during World War IIwhen wartime rationing of fabric saw the removal of the skirt panel and other superfluous material. Meanwhilein Europefortified coastlines and Allied invasions curtailed beach life during the warand swimsuit developmentlike everything else non-militarycame to a standstill.

In 1946Western Europeans joyously greeted the first war-free summer in yearsand French designers came up with fashions to match the liberated mood of the people. Two French designersJacques Heim and Louis Réarddeveloped competing prototypes of the bikini. Heim called his the “atom” and advertised it as “the world’s smallest bathing suit.” Réard's swimsuitwhich was basically a bra top and two inverted triangles of cloth connected by stringwas in fact significantly smaller. Made out of a scant 30 inches of fabricRéard promoted his creation as “smaller than the world’s smallest bathing suit.” Réard called his creation the bikininamed after the Bikini Atoll.

In planning the debut of his new swimsuitRéard had trouble finding a professional model who would deign to wear the scandalously skimpy two-piece. So he turned to Micheline Bernardinian exotic dancer at the Casino de Pariswho had no qualms about appearing nearly nude in public. As an allusion to the headlines that he knew his swimsuit would generatehe printed newspaper type across the suit that Bernardini modeled on July 5 at the Piscine Molitor. The bikini was a hitespecially among menand Bernardini received some 50,000 fan letters.

Before longbold young women in bikinis were causing a sensation along the Mediterranean coast. Spain and Italy passed measures prohibiting bikinis on public beaches but later capitulated to the changing times when the swimsuit grew into a mainstay of European beaches in the 1950s. Réard's business soaredand 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 Americathe bikini was successfully resisted until the early 1960swhen a new emphasis on youthful liberation brought the swimsuit en masse to U.S. beaches. It was immortalized by the pop singer Brian Hylandwho sang “Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka-Dot Bikini” in 1960by the teenage “beach blanket” movies of Annette Funicello and Frankie Avalonand by the California surfing culture celebrated by rock groups like the Beach Boys. Since thenthe popularity of the bikini has only continued to grow.