Your Daily Facts about the Bikini
The bikini or two piece is a women’s swimsuit with two parts, one covering the breasts, the other the groin and, optionally, part or all of the buttocks, leaving an uncovered area between the two. It is often worn in hot weather, while swimming or sunning. The shapes of both parts of a bikini resemble women’s underwear, and the lower part can range from revealing thong or g-string to briefs and modest square-cut shorts. Merriam–Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary (11th edition) describes the bikini as “a woman’s scanty two-piece bathing suit”, “a man’s brief swimsuit” and “a man’s or woman’s low-cut briefs”.
While two-piece bathing suits had been worn on the beach before, the modern bikini was invented by French engineer Louis Réard in 1946. He named it after Bikini Atoll in the Pacific, the site of the Operation Crossroads nuclear weapon tests in July that year.
Louis Reard’s original bikini consisted of only 30 square inches of fabric.
When Reard planned to showcase his swimsuit creation at a Paris fashion show, he was unable to find any Parisian models who would be seen in the skimpy garment. Finally, he hired Micheline Bernardini, a model who also worked as a nude dancer in a Paris nightclub to debut the bikini to the fashion world.
The release of the popular song, “Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini” in 1960 rocketed the bikini swimsuit into a position of popular culture icon.
In 1964, the bikini made it to the cover of Sports Illustrated for the first time. The bikini pictured was a relatively modest, white swimsuit with brief-style bottoms and a bra-like top.
The bikini became the official beach volleyball uniform for women when the Olympic Committee officially recognized the sport in 1993. American athletes Misty May and Kerri Walsh served to greatly widen the popularity of the sport, and its bikini uniform, with their stunning gold medal victory in the 2004 Olympic games.
The bikini is perhaps the most popular female beachwear around the globe, according to French fashion historian Olivier Saillard due to “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.” By the mid 2000s bikinis had become a US$811 million business annually, according to the NPD Group, a consumer and retail information company. The bikini has boosted spin-off services like bikini waxing and the sun tanning industries