Bikini Trivia
If the thought bikinis were risky in your granny's day imagine this - pictures from ancient Greece show female Greek athletes, dressed in two piece bikini style garments. Bikinis spotted in ancient Egypt suggests that even your granny is ultra modern!
100 years ago, nothing but a complete cover up on the beach would do - preferably wearing an entire wooden bathing machine!
It is unimaginable to think that in the 1900's a bathing suit consisted of 8 yards of fabric and weighed as much as 20 pounds when wet. The suit consisted of a black body stocking which was then covered in frills. The Victorians had your best moral interests at heart but as the swimsuits got wet they clung to the body, and outlined every lump and bump most fetchingly.
The 1920's were the era of the more athletic looking Tank Suits which accompanied an increase in the popularity of swimming for leisure and sport, particularly for women. The risqué figure hugging suits liberated women from their long skirts but were still made from wool jersey, and had leg openings which ended around mid thigh - not a flattering look. Bathing Suits were often in dramatic abstract patterns or stripes and the more self conscious could cover up with a wrap.
As fashions moved into the 1930's more feminine cotton swimsuits became de rigeur, with skirts and frills around the hips and a cut more in style with modern swimwear.
The modern bikini, the beachwear of choice for most women, arrived in the 1940's. It was invented by two Frenchmen - In 1946, Jacques Heim, a clothing designer, fashioned a two-piece bathing suit that he named the 'Atome'. Engineer Louis Reard in Paris then introduced to the world on 5th July 1946 his own version of this two piece bathing suit. He named his new design 'Bikini' after the Bikini Atoll the site of U.S nuclear weapons testing in the Marshall Islands. Reard reasoned that the burst of excitement his bikini would cause was not unlike a nuclear explosion. Finding someone willing to model his saucy swimwear took some time but eventually he persuaded a nude dancer from the Casino de Paris to act as his model.
First Bathing Suit
The Bikini still had some way to go before it was generally accepted and even suffered a ban at the 1951 Miss World Contest. However, with a little help from Bridgette Bardot in the 1957 film, 'And God Created Woman', the 'Itsy Bitsy Teeny Weeny Yellow Polka Dot Bikini' was becoming a star in its own right. 'This bikini made me a success' was Ursula Andre's comment following her classic performance on the beach in the original James Bond film, 'Dr No'and Halle Berry successfully recreated the look in the 2002 James Bond film, 'Die Another Day'.
From such tentative beginnings we now have such wonders as the Monokini - one piece, you decide which one, Tankini, String Bikini and of course the infamous Brazilian Thong Bikini featuring a string back section which...well you get the idea.
So beware bikinis are getting smaller, the warning signs are all around, have you perhaps heard of the Slingshot bikini, the Mini, the Teardrop, Minimini, Micro or Micromini? Heaven help us all - I can't wait for the Victorian backlash, hiding in a tent of wool jersey sounds quite tempting!
...and pause for thought with these bikini sound bites.
"A bikini is not a bikini unless it can be pulled through a wedding ring" Louis Reard.
"It is hardly necessary to waste words over the so called bikini since it is inconceivable that any girl with tact or decency would ever wear such a thing" Modern Girl Magazine 1957
Read our 'Bikini briefings' (here) pages for some helpful hints on buying a bikini.
Check out our beach wear and swim wear here..
