It wasn't until 1946 that the bikini would be officially born. Louis Réard, a French engineer and clothes designer had taken over his mother's Paris lingerie shop in 1940. While spending time in Saint Tropez, Réard noticed women folding their swimming costumes up to get a better tan.Jul 5, 2023



Where did the bikini originate from?

On 5 July 1946, a Frenchman called Louis Réard unveiled a “bikini” at the Piscine Molitor, a Parisian swimming pool. Featuring a print of newspaper pages, the forerunner of today's string bikinis comprised four triangles.Jul 4, 2022


The World's First Bikini: When Was It Invented? - HistoryExtra

\Evidence of bikini-style women's clothing has been found as early as 5600 BC, and the history of the bikini can be traced back to that era. Illustrations of women wearing bikini-like garments during competitive athletic events in the Roman era have been found in several locations, the most famous of which is at Villa Romana del Casale.[1]

Although two-piece bathing suits were being used by women as early as the 1930s, the bikini is commonly dated to July 5, 1946, when, partly due to material rationing after World War II, French engineer Louis Réard introduced the modern bikini, modeled by Micheline Bernardini. Reard named his design for the Bikini Atoll, where the first post-war tests of the atomic bomb were taking place.

French women welcomed the design but the Catholic Church, some media, and a majority of the public initially thought the design was risqué or even scandalous. Contestants in the first Miss World beauty pageant wore them in 1951, but the bikini was then banned from the competition. Actress Brigitte Bardot drew attention when she was photographed wearing a bikini on the beach during the Cannes Film Festival in 1953. Other actresses,


including Rita Hayworth and Ava Gardner, also received press attention when they wore bikinis. During the early 1960s, the design appeared on the cover of Playboy and Sports Illustrated, giving it additional legitimacy. Ursula Andress made a huge impact when she emerged from the surf wearing what is now an iconic bikini in the James Bond movie Dr. No (1962). The deer skin bikini worn by Raquel Welch in the film One Million Years B.C. (1966) turned her into an international sex symbol and was described as a definitive look of the 1960s.

The bikini gradually grew to gain wide acceptance in Western society. According to French fashion historian Olivier Saillard, the bikini is perhaps the most popular type of female beachwear around the globe because of "the power of women, and not the power of fashion". As he explains, "The emancipation of swimwear has always been linked to the emancipation of women."[2] By the early 2000s, bikinis had become a US$811 million business annually, and boosted spin-off services like bikini waxing and sun tanning.[3]

In antiquity[edit]

Pre-Roman[edit]

Leather thong bottom from the time of Roman Britain

In the Chalcolithic era of around 5600 BC, the mother-goddess of Çatalhöyük, a large ancient settlement in southern Anatolia, was depicted astride two leopards while wearing a bikini-like costume.[4] Two-piece garments worn by women for athletic purposes are depicted on Greek urns and paintings


dating back to 1400 BC.[5] Active women of ancient Greece wore a breastband called a mastodeton or an apodesmos, which continued to be used as an undergarment in the Middle Ages.[6] While men in ancient Greece abandoned the perizoma, partly high-cut briefs and partly loincloth, women performers and acrobats continued to wear it.[7]