A high-waisted bikini from the 1950s can be considered retro or vintage, but it wasn’t always that way. The modern bikini is an invention of the 20th century brought about by changes in society and fashion. The women’s swimsuit at the beginning of the 20th century was very different from today. The change accelerated in the middle of the century with the arrival 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 era, like 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 along Over the centuries, wearing clothes while swimming went out of style until the 18th century, when women wore bathing suits made of long dresses called “bathrobes” that had weights as parts of the hems so the robes wouldn’t float in the water . By 1910, attitudes toward women’s swimwear were changing and tight-fitting single 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 that women’s swimwear, including high-waisted bathing suits, became becoming more revealing and practical over the years.
In the summer of 1946, two Frenchmen dropped the equivalent of the atomic bomb on the fashion world. Jacques Heim, a Parisian fashion designer introduced in May 1946 a two-piece bathing suit which he publicized by hiring sky writers to write in the Mediterranean skies 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 Bikini Atoll in the South Pacific, where nuclear testing was taking place, Rear publicized his creation by having sky writers write over the skies over Paris that the bikini was “smaller than the smallest bathing suit.” little”.
Reard called 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 was working at the Casino de Paris, to model it on July 5, 1946 at 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 diminutive and provocative. This has caused a revolution in bikini design that has created transparent 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 contests. 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 London’s Mappin and Webb platinum for Miss United Kingdom for that year’s Miss World beauty pageant. After it fetched 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.
