The world's smallest bathing suit – a brief history

The world's smallest bathing suit a brief history

Pretty much a holiday staple for every girl at some point in their lives, the bikini made its first appearance in the modern world on French beaches in the 1940s. Although there are archaeological indications that as far back as 1600 B.C women were wearing two-piece cloths, it was designers Jacques Heim and Louis Reard who both launched the striking modern two-piece in the summer of 1946. First came Cannes couturier designer Heim, catapulting his scintillating two-piece to fame by skywriting over Cannes beach that the world's smallest bathing suit was now available to buy. He called his design the Atome' after the recently discovered atom this tiny bathing suit was designed to shock the world!

However, only three weeks later another very revealing design of just two pieces of material was being showcased along the French Riviera by Louis Reard, a French mechanical engineer who was running his mother's lingerie business at the time. He too used a skywriter to disclose that he had invented the bikini smaller than the world's smallest bathing suit.' His was made of a mere 30 inches of fabric! Reard named his design the Bikini' after Bikini Reef, a small island in the South Pacific where the U.S Military were carrying out tests for a new atomic bomb. He thought this hot topic would be sure to get him noticed and in the end it was Reard who was known as the inventor of the smallest bathing suit in the world, although it would be at least another fifteen years before the bikini would really take off.

The bikini was quite scandalous when it was first introduced. It was the summer after the end of World War II, and the revealing design whilst nothing as small as the Brazilian bikinis we see today certainly shocked the public. It was only during the sexual revolution of the 1960s that bikini sales soared, and since then they really haven't stopped selling. From the more modest tankini, through to the micro bikini, Rio tanga phenomenon and body boosting liquid gels, the bikini symbolises an age of frivolity, freedom and sex appeal. The bikini has also had a knock on effect on beauty industries including waxing boutiques and tanning shops.

The bikini as an iconic movie image has also been evident since the 1960s, with one of the earliest and most acclaimed images being the illustrious shot of Ursula Andress emerging from the sea in the Bond movie "Dr No" in 1962. Other influential and famous images of movie stars in bikinis include Raquel Welch in "One Million Years BC" (1966), Brigitte Bardot in "God Created Woman" and more recently Halle Berry in her chic orange two-piece in the Bond movie, "Die Another Day" (2002).

From Brian Hyland singing "Itsy Bitsie Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini" in 1960 through to women parading this saucy design on exotic Caribbean holidays and at poolside Las Vegas parties, the bikini has been titillating fashion circles for more than sixty years. Somewhat of a cultural icon, the timeless, effortless design of the two-piece is certainly here to stay.

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