While many of us were busy celebrating the Fourth last week , an of import milepost slipped by us : the birthday of the bikini . And while the swimwear itself may be itsy - bitsy , this natal day definitely was n’t - the two - piece of music turned 65 on July 5 .
The construct of the two-piece - a garment that treat two very specific field of the body while leave alone the torso bare - has been around for ages . Ancient artwork render cleaning lady wear similar attire . The modern edition of the two-piece , however , was invented in 1946 by a gentleman named Louis Reard who was once an engineer for Renault . He was competing against intriguer Jacques Heim to create the tiniest washup suit ever . Although Heim beat Reard to the punch with “ the world ’s smallest bathing suit , ” Reard one - upped him by fundamentally accept a bandeau and two triangles of fabric and marketing it as “ smaller than the world ’s smallest washup case . ” He buzz off alien social dancer Micheline Bernardini ( envision ) to debut his avant-garde style at Parisian swimming pocket billiards Piscine Molitor on July 5 , 1946 . Bernardini received more than 50,000 letters from new fans .
Although Reard immediately had copycat across the design earthly concern , he kept his popularity huge by prevent the amount of fabric small . In the 1950s , he declared that it was n’t a on-key bikini “ unless it could be pulled through a wedding tintinnabulation . ”
The bikini was named after the Bikini Atoll , where a series of atomic weapon system tests called Operation Crossroads ( that ’s a July 25 , 1946 , test pictured ) had just set forth at the Atoll not long before the introduction of the as explosive bikini , so Reard key out his invention in its honor . Had he known just how wild and unsafe the atomic testing was , peradventure Reard would have thought twice about the name : thanks to the danger of radiation , the Bikini Atoll remains uninhabited to this mean solar day . It has been deemed good enough for exploration andtourism , although it ’s recommend that you avoid eat on any of the produce get there .
See Also : The Quick 10 : Itsy - Bitsy , Teeny - Weeny Trivia About Bikinis
[ Bernardini photo credit ]
