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The origin of the bikini name

The origin of the bikini

On June 30, 1946, an atomic bomb was exploded on the Pacific island of Bikini. 18 days later, a Frenchman named Louis Reard launched the Bra style top and briefs swimsuit. That day he hired a call girl to be a model and displayed his work in a public swimming pool. Within a week, the bikini was taking Europe by storm.

The model was intimidated by the stripper trying on the first bikini

Before 1946, bikini was just a place name - the name of the island where President Truman approved the nuclear bomb test. In the first half of that year, women only dared to swim at the beach wearing "swimming suits" with stand-up collars and flat feet that hugged the body tightly. The beach scene was pitch black.

On July 18, 1946, Frenchman Louis Reard launched a bag consisting of three pieces of cloth and four straps in Paris, 18 days after the atomic bombing of Bikini Island in the Marshall Islands. swimsuit. This swimsuit covers the smallest body area in the world. The breasts are protected by a bra. The back is almost naked except for the rope straps. The crotch of the briefs is lifted as much as possible, exposing the buttocks, legs and crotch to the maximum extent. It is simple, small and exquisite, using less than 30 inches of fabric, and can be crumpled into a ball and fit into a matchbox.

Before then, swimwear was conservative and covered most of the body. Reard's design, on the other hand, left most of her midriff bare. The swimsuit is made of fabric printed with newspaper sections, and the savvy designer hinted that his bold design will occupy a lot of space in the world's newspapers. Many professional fashion models in Paris at that time were intimidated by this kind of swimsuit because it was almost completely naked when worn. However, a stripper named Michal Bernardini bravely challenged conventional wisdom by wearing a bikini by a swimming pool and letting reporters take photos. Another bikini was worn on a plastic mannequin.

Bikini caused trouble on beaches around the world

The appearance of the bikini shocked the world as much as the explosion of an atomic bomb. The ingenious Reard took advantage of the impact of the atomic bomb explosion on Bikini Island and decisively named this two-piece and three-point swimsuit "Bikini", thus making a fortune. Although the new style caused much controversy, it was welcomed in France by "naughty girls who adorned the beaches." After the early buzz died down, the bikini quickly replaced the one-piece swimsuit as the swimsuit worn by women on the beach and while swimming.

In fact, this swimsuit named "Bikini" really shocked the world. Countries along the Mediterranean regard it as a plague, Italy has banned it, the Spanish Coast Guard has expelled people wearing bikinis, and even the United States has arrested people for wearing bikinis.

Australian designer Paula Stafford caused an uproar when she introduced the bikini to Australia in 1952. Beach patrol John Moffat immediately caught a model wearing one of Paula's short swimsuits. "Too short!" he shouted at the top of his lungs as he escorted the model off the beach. Paula was undeterred. She had five other girls put on bikinis, notified the local newspaper and invited the mayor, a priest and the police chief to the scene. Nothing happened, but she achieved amazing publicity.

"Slutty" swimwear was once banned by legislation and swimmers were arrested for it

Since the Middle Ages, people have used a series of reasons to prevent women from swimming or even bathing. In the 17th century, some medical-related bathing methods increased women's bathing opportunities. But women had to wear thick ankle-length shirts and a hat to maintain their appearance. As soon as they emerge from the water, attendants dress them in robes. People still wore this bathing suit until the 19th century.

In the 19th century, shirt-style swimsuits were replaced by knee-length swimsuits with belts. Women also wear pants and stockings underneath this swimsuit. They wore swimming caps and strappy slippers that resembled ballet slippers. In this way, swimwear finally entered fashion magazines and store catalogs in the 1880s. But new women's swimsuits have very wide skirts and can weigh up to 30 pounds wet.

The period from 1870 to 1900 was a turning period in the history of women's swimwear. The styles remained the same, but became simpler and simpler, and women still wore corsets underneath their swimwear—— - A one-piece garment with sleeves and leggings that resembles children's pajamas. Some national governments have passed laws strictly prohibiting the wearing of "loose" clothing, stipulating that swimsuits must cover the human body from the neck to the knees. Some women were fined for not wearing stockings, shoes or long skirts.

Women's swimming became an Olympic event for the first time in 1912. Fanny Dulac dominated many events in a sleeveless one-piece swimsuit with half-leg legs. 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 wear you wear, the more you will become more popular.

By the 1930s, the style of non-competition swimwear had undergone revolutionary changes. Brass replaced sleeves, trouser legs became shorter and shorter, and necklines became lower and lower. The most fundamental innovation in women's swimwear was the emergence of the bikini. As soon as the bikini craze spread, it impacted the popular culture and moral concepts of the entire world with overwhelming force.

At that time, bikinis were only popular in Europe and did not spread to the United States until 15 years later. One of the most classic bikinis is a strapless polka dot pattern bikini worn by French movie star Brigitte Bardot in the movie "Girl in a Bikini" in 1952. To this day, this design is still put on the runway by many fashion brands and has evolved into a new fashion.

In 1964, Rudy designed a bikini without a bra (Toplesssuit) that opened fire on the bastion of public ethics. Cole launched a swimsuit with fishnets covering the front and waist.

With that came the unstructured swimsuits of the 1970s and 1980s. These swimsuits cover almost nothing except the lower body. Topless swimming and nude swimming began to appear, although the number of people who practiced this method of swimming was still a minority.

The return of the 1990s puts the butt back into women's swimwear

In the 1990s, swimwear styles returned to being "discreet" and they covered more of the body area, and re-adopted some of the original stitching methods and body adjustment methods. Model Jerry Hall launched a line of swimwear designed to "put the butt back into women's swimwear" in 1989. In 1992, Cole developed the inflatable bikini (TopSecret) based on the popular prediction that "breast enlargement will return". In 1995, as high-tech materials entered the fashion industry, bikinis once again became the favorite design object of many international fashion design masters. High-tech materials and retro styles were used to recreate the image of the 1950s, bikinis decorated with rhinestones, and bikinis. String bikinis and so on were introduced one after another. In addition, there are bikinis that use belts instead of cloth to wrap around three points of the human body, topless bikinis, mini bikinis, and a bikini with only three tiny strips of cloth fixed on the shameful part, which is called "savage" bikini.

The development experience of swimwear is closely related to changes in people's ideas and social culture. No matter what kind of "treatment" it received at the beginning, swimwear has now become an irreplaceable part of the clothing industry.

Link: Someone came up with the "bikini" in 1600 BC.

The inventors of the bikini were two Frenchmen - Jacques Heim and Louis Reard. But they weren't the first to think of the bikini idea. As early as 1600 BC, there were murals of bikini-style swimsuits. Haim is a female fashion designer from Cannes, France. She designed a very small swimsuit and named it "Atome". She hired a plane to advertise her design by releasing smoke and writing in the air. The plane wrote in the air: "Atome - the smallest swimsuit in the world." Three weeks later, mechanical engineer Reard also used a plane to advertise her design. The air wrote: "Bikini - smaller than the smallest swimsuit in the world."