What's the Bikini have that those two piece swimsuits don't? Naval What?
The bikini made its debut appearance at a Paris Fashion show on July 25th in 1946. In the 1940s as Kelly Killoren Bensimon illuminates in The Bikini Book, attractive women were known as "bombshells," and anything fiercer was "atomic." So, when two Frenchmen designed skimpy alternatives to the two-piece in the summer of 1946, both suits got nuclear nicknames. The first designer, Jacques Heim, created a tiny suit called the atome. The second, Louis Reard, introduced his design on July 5, four days after the United States had begun atomic testing in the Bikini Atoll. In a rather gutsy marketing ploy, Reard named his creation le bikini, implying it was as momentous an invention as the new bomb.
The two-piece swimsuit which consisted of a structured halter top and modest bottom that covered the bellybutton, hips, and derriÃre arrived with much less criticism than the bikini. By the early '40s, film stars including Ava Gardner, Rita Hayworth, and Lana Turner were all wearing the two-piece, and it was seen frequently on American beaches.
It wasn't until the 60's we actually saw the bikini gracing the pages of magazines, like Sports Illustrated. Fspicyicey 007 films to hot Miami style, we have watched the bikini metamorphose through the decades.
No matter how hard I try though, whenever I hear the word Bikini, I instantly think of the 1960 Brian Hyland song Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini. It never fails.
