Jul 5, 1946: Bikini introduced

[iceprince]

On July 5, 1946, French designer Louis Reard unveils a daring two-piece swimsuit at the Piscine Molitor, a popular swimming pool in Paris. Parisian showgirl Micheline Bernardini modeled the new fashion, which Reard 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 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. Meanwhile, in Europe, fortified coastlines and Allied invasions curtailed beach life during the war, and swimsuit development, like everything else non-military, came to a standstill.

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 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. As an allusion to the headlines that he knew his swimsuit would generate, he printed newspaper type across the suit that Bernardini modeled on July 5 at the Piscine Molitor. The bikini was a hit, especially among men, and Bernardini received some 50,000 fan letters.

Before long, bold 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. 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 en masse to U.S. beaches. It was immortalized by the 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. Since then, the popularity of the bikini has only continued to grow.


Source: http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/bikini-introduced

[jamesbond]

aba ayos talaga ang imbensyon na yan hehehe... i think James Bond's first movie, Dr. No, had Ursula Andres wearing the first s3xiest bikini at that time that really changed the phase as far as bikini is concerned... lupit naman talaga...

[tonistork]

buti naimbento ang bikini, kung hindi wala sanang adult section dito sa PT, ha ha ha.

[iceprince]

buti naimbento ang bikini, kung hindi wala sanang adult section dito sa PT, ha ha ha.

Lalo na ngayong umiinit ang panahon...

Puro nakabikini sa may beach...
 

[razorsharp]

forget da beach, dito sa may amin kahit sa mcdo o sa mga grocery may bumibili na naka-bikini lang minsan e. pag nakapila ka sa likod nila kaputi at medyo balbon pa, awooooo!!!

[erol123]

ayos talaga yang imbention na yan ahaha .. pero ano mas gusto nyo yung one piece or two piece bikini? hehe

[iceprince]

ayos talaga yang imbention na yan ahaha .. pero ano mas gusto nyo yung one piece or two piece bikini? hehe

Puedeng puede kahit alin sa dalawa...

May panalo naman kapag two piece...

Karaniwan naman kapag one piece...

Madalas bumabakat...

Dun ako sa kung saan mas magiging seksi tingnan yung babae...
 

[razorsharp]

ayos talaga yang imbention na yan ahaha .. pero ano mas gusto nyo yung one piece or two piece bikini? hehe

ako gusto ko yung one piece, na naka topless nye-hehehe. ayus.

[iceprince]

ako gusto ko yung one piece, na naka topless nye-hehehe. ayus.

Okay din yan sir rezorsharp...

Malupit nga yung one piece na naka topless...
 

[icarus]

ako gusto ko yung one piece, na naka topless nye-hehehe. ayus.

aba malupit ang suggestion mo sir,

pahirit din ako

one-piece din ako syempre

pero pwede bang yung taas lang ang one piece, wala ang baba?

[Heathcliff]

Aha yun pala ang storya ng nagniningning na mga bikini ha..hmnnn...

Nice info Sir IcePrince.

.. Haha! Naughty ang suggestion ni Sir Razor ah!

 

[naruto789544]

it should be fashion's one of the best innovative invention of the 21st century...