A 1950s high-waisted bikini can be considered retro or vintage, but that wasn’t always the case. The modern bikini is an invention of the 20th century brought about by changes in society and fashion. Women’s swimwear at the beginning of the 20th century was very different from today. The change accelerated in the middle of the century with the advent of the bikini that shook the fashion world with the power of the atomic bomb that gave it its name.
Throughout history, swimming and bathing were often done in the nude. There are examples from the Greek period, such as the murals in Pompeii of the Roman goddess Venus, or other areas around that time, where you’ll see women wearing what appears to be the high-waisted bathing suit of 1969. Then, throughout Over the centuries, wearing clothing while swimming went out of style until the 18th century, when women wore swimsuits made of long gowns called “bathrobes” that had weights as parts of the hems so the robes would not float in the water. . By 1910, attitudes towards women’s bathing suits were changing and tight-fitting one-pieces became popular, but only after Annette Kellerman, an Australian swimmer and artist, was jailed after wearing a tight-fitting one-piece in a Boston beach in 1907. The inclusion of women’s swimming in the Olympics and the changes in fashion it inspired was one of the reasons why women’s swimwear, including high-waisted swimwear, became more and more revealing and practical over the years.
In the summer of 1946, two Frenchmen dropped the equivalent of the atomic bomb on the world of fashion. Jacques Heim, a Parisian fashion designer introduced in May 1946 a two-piece bathing suit that he advertised by hiring sky writers to write in the skies of the Mediterranean that “Atom” was the “smallest swimsuit” in the world. Another Frenchman, Louis Réard, an automobile engineer who at the time ran his mother’s lingerie boutique in Paris, came up with a slightly modified design and called his creation the bikini. in honor of the Bikini Atoll in the South Pacific, where nuclear tests were taking place, Rear publicized his creation by having sky writers write above the skies of Paris that the bikini was “smaller than the smallest bathing suit.” little”.
Reard named her creation the bikini because she knew it would cause excitement in the world of fashion and gossip as explosive as the atomic bomb. He was correct. What he didn’t predict was that at first no model wanted to wear the bikini, so he hired a nude dancer named Micheline Bernardini, who was 19 at the time and worked at the Casino de Paris, to model it on July 5, 1946 in Piscine Molitor, a public swimming pool, in Paris. This publicity stunt catapulted the bikini to success; Bernardini also did well, and she received more than 50,000 fan letters.
In the 1950s, the high-waisted bikini became very popular and was seen on many beaches. In the 1960s, designs began to feature floral motifs. In addition, the rebellious attitudes of those times redesigned the bikini to be more skimpy and provocative. This has sparked a revolution in bikini design that has created see-through bikinis or even very minimalist bikinis. Wearing a bikini became a form of sensual self-expression and became popular culture in movies, magazines, and fashion pageants. The bikini as a symbol of fashion was immortalized by setting world records. The most expensive bikini, unfortunately not a high waisted bikini, was made in 1977 by Mappin and Webb of London with platinum for Miss UK for that year’s Miss World beauty pageant. After it raised US$9,500 at auction, it won the Guinness World Record for the most expensive bikini. The bikini is still quite young and has plenty of time to set more world records.