On June 30, 1946, 18 days after the atomic bomb exploded on Bikini Island in the Pacific Ocean, a Frenchman named Louis Reard introduced bra-style tops and trunks swimsuits. He hired a call girl to model his creations that day and displayed them at a public **** pool. A week later, bikinis took Europe by storm.
Models daunted as strippers try on their first bikinis
Before 1946, the bikini was just a place name -- the name of the island where President Harry Truman authorized nuclear bomb tests. For the first half of the year, women dared to swim in "bathing suits" that wrapped tightly around their bodies with stand-up collars and flat feet, and the beach was a dark, dark place.
On the 18th day after the atomic bombing of Bikini Bottom in the Marshall Islands, Frenchman Louis Reard launched a swimsuit in Paris on July 18, 1946, made of three pieces of cloth and four straps. This swimsuit, the smallest in the world in terms of the area of the body covered, protects the breasts through a bra, the back is almost completely naked except for the rope straps, and the crotch of the triangular pants is raised as far as possible, revealing the crotch of the buttocks and legs to the greatest extent possible. It was simple and compact in form, using just under 30 inches of fabric, and could fit in a matchbox when kneaded.
Before then, swimsuits were conservative, covering much of the body. Rilde's design, on the other hand, exposed much of the upper abdomen. The swimsuit was made from fabric that was printed with the content section of a newspaper, the savvy designer hinting that his bold design would take up a lot of space in the world's newspapers. Many of the professional fashion models in Paris at the time were intimidated by the idea of being nearly nude. However, a stripper named Michal Bernardini bravely challenged convention by wearing a bikini by a swimming pool for journalists to take photographs of, and another bikini on a plastic model's body.
Bikinis cause trouble on beaches around the world
The introduction of the bikini shocked the world as much as the explosion of that one atomic bomb. The ingenious Reed made a fortune by capitalizing on the effects of the Bikini bomb by deciding to call the two-piece, three-point swimsuit the "bikini. Despite the controversy surrounding the new style, it was welcomed in France by "those naughty girls who decorate the beaches". After the early excitement died down, bikinis quickly replaced one-piece swimsuits as the swimwear women wore on the beach and while swimming.
In fact, the bikini, as it was named, shook the world. It was banned in Italy, the Spanish coastguard expelled bikinis, and even the United States arrested people for wearing them.
Australian designer Paula Stafford caused an uproar when she introduced the bikini swimsuit to Australia in 1952. Beach inspector John Moffat immediately grabbed a model wearing a short swimsuit designed by Paula. "Too short!" He screamed at the top of his lungs as he escorted the model off the beach. Paula was not deterred. She had five other girls put on bikini swimsuits, notified the local newspaper and invited the mayor, a pastor and the police chief to the scene. Nothing happened as a result, but she achieved amazing publicity.
"Slutty" swimsuits were once banned by legislation, and swimmers were arrested for them
A range of reasons have been used to prevent women from swimming or even bathing since the Middle Ages, and in the 17th century a number of medically related baths increased women's access to bathing. But women had to wear ankle-length shirts and hats to stay decent. As soon as they got out of the water, attendants would dress them in robes. People wore these bathing costumes as late as the 19th century.
By the 19th century, the shirred bathing suit was replaced by a belted, knee-length bathing suit. Women wore pants and stockings underneath these swimsuits. They wore swimming caps on their heads and lace-up slippers that resembled ballet slippers on their feet. Thus, swimsuits finally made their way into fashion magazines and store catalogs in the 1880s. But the skirts of the new women's swimsuits were so wide that they could weigh up to 30 pounds wet.
From 1870 to 1900, a turning point in the history of women's bathing suits, styles remained the same but became simpler, and women still wore a corset underneath their bathing suits -- a one-piece garment with sleeves and leggings that resembled a child's nightgown. Some governments have passed laws strictly prohibiting the wearing of "slutty" clothing, stipulating that bathing suits must cover the body from the neck to the knees. Some women have been fined for not wearing stockings, shoes or long skirts.
Women's swimming first became an Olympic sport in 1912. Fanny Dulac, who wore sleeveless one-piece swimsuits with half-length legs, dominated many events. Australian-born female swimmer Annette Kellerman also broke the mold when she was arrested by police in Boston in 1907 for wearing a daring one-piece swimsuit.
The more they wore, the hotter they got, and simply didn't
By the 1930s, non-competitive swimwear styles had been revolutionized. Straps replaced sleeves, pant legs became shorter, and necklines became lower. The most fundamental revolution in women's swimwear was the advent of the bikini swimsuit. As soon as the bikini craze spread, it hit the entire world's popular culture and morality with a forceful force.
The bikini was only popular in Europe at the time, and it wasn't until 15 years later that it reached the United States. One of the most iconic bikinis of all time was the strapless polka-dot bikini swimsuit worn by French actress Brigitte Bardot in the 1952 movie The Girl in the Bikini. To this day, this design is still being put on the runway by many fashion brands to evolve into a new fashion.
In 1964 Rudy fired on the bastion of public ethics with the Toplesssuit, a bra-less bikini. Kohl's introduced swimsuits that covered the front and waist with fishing nets.
What followed were those unstructured swimsuits of the '70s and '80s. These swimsuits covered almost nothing but the bottom. Topless swimming and skinny-dipping began to appear, although those who took up this form of swimming were still in the minority.
Return of the 1990s puts hips back in women's swimsuits
During the 1990s, there was a return to "discreet" swimsuits, which covered more of the body and reintroduced some of the original stitching and body contouring. Model Jerri Hall launched a line of swimsuits in 1989 that were designed to "put the hips back into women's swimsuits," and in 1992 Cole developed an inflatable bikini ("TopSecret") in response to the popular prediction that "boobs are coming back. In 1995, with the entry of high-tech materials into the fashion world, the bikini once again became the object of many international fashion designers, using high-tech materials with retro style to recreate the image of the 50's bikinis, bikinis adorned with rhinestones, strap bikinis and so on have been introduced. There are also bikinis that use straps instead of fabric to wrap around the body's three points, topless bikinis, mini bikinis, and a bikini called the "savage" bikini that has only three tiny strips of fabric fastened to the body's shyness.
The development of swimsuits is closely related to people's changing attitudes and social culture, and no matter what kind of "treatment" it received at the beginning, swimsuits have now become an irreplaceable part of the clothing world.
Links: 1600 BC someone thought of "bikini"
The inventors of the bikini are two Frenchmen --- Jacques Heim and Louis Reard. But they weren't the first to come up with the idea of the bikini. As early as 1600 B.C., there were murals of bikini-style swimsuits. Heim, a female fashion designer from Cannes, France, designed a very small bathing suit and named it "Atome". She hired an airplane to advertise her design in the air with smoke writing that said, "Atome - the world's smallest swimsuit." Three weeks later, Reard, a mechanical engineer, also used an airplane to write in the air, "Bikini - smaller than the world's smallest swimsuit."
For women, really.