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N0KFQ > TODAY 05.07.12 18:36l 69 Lines 3285 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : 24735_KB0WSA
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Subj: Today in History - Jul 5
Path: IZ3LSV<IK2XDE<ON4HU<CX2SA<N0KFQ<KB0WSA
Sent: 120705/1605Z 24735@KB0WSA.MO.USA.NA BPQK1.4.51
Jul 5, 1946:
Bikini introduced
On July 5, 1946, French designer Louis Reard unveils a daring
two-piece swimsuit at the Piscine Molitor, a popular swimming
pool in Paris. Parisian showgirl Micheline Bernardini modeled the
new fashion, which Reard dubbed "bikini," inspired by a
news-making U.S. atomic test that took place off the Bikini Atoll
in the Pacific Ocean earlier that week.
European women first began wearing two-piece bathing suits that
consisted of a halter top and shorts in the 1930s, but only a
sliver of the midriff was revealed and the navel was vigilantly
covered. In the United States, the modest two-piece made its
appearance during World War II, when wartime rationing of fabric
saw the removal of the skirt panel and other superfluous
material. Meanwhile, in Europe, fortified coastlines and Allied
invasions curtailed beach life during the war, and swimsuit
development, like everything else non-military, came to a
standstill.
In 1946, Western Europeans joyously greeted the first war-free
summer in years, and French designers came up with fashions to
match the liberated mood of the people. Two French designers,
Jacques Heim and Louis Reard, developed competing prototypes of
the bikini. Heim called his the "atom" and advertised it as "the
world's smallest bathing suit." Reard's swimsuit, which was
basically a bra top and two inverted triangles of cloth connected
by string, was in fact significantly smaller. Made out of a scant
30 inches of fabric, Reard promoted his creation as "smaller than
the world's smallest bathing suit." Reard called his creation the
bikini, named after the Bikini Atoll.
In planning the debut of his new swimsuit, Reard had trouble
finding a professional model who would deign to wear the
scandalously skimpy two-piece. So he turned to Micheline
Bernardini, an exotic dancer at the Casino de Paris, who had no
qualms about appearing nearly nude in public. As an allusion to
the headlines that he knew his swimsuit would generate, he
printed newspaper type across the suit that Bernardini modeled on
July 5 at the Piscine Molitor. The bikini was a hit, especially
among men, and Bernardini received some 50,000 fan letters.
Before long, bold young women in bikinis were causing a sensation
along the Mediterranean coast. Spain and Italy passed measures
prohibiting bikinis on public beaches but later capitulated to
the changing times when the swimsuit grew into a mainstay of
European beaches in the 1950s. Reard's business soared, and in
advertisements he kept the bikini mystique alive by declaring
that a two-piece suit wasn't a genuine bikini "unless it could be
pulled through a wedding ring."
In prudish America, the bikini was successfully resisted until
the early 1960s, when a new emphasis on youthful liberation
brought the swimsuit en masse to U.S. beaches. It was
immortalized by the pop singer Brian Hyland, who sang "Itsy Bitsy
Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka-Dot Bikini" in 1960, by the teenage
"beach blanket" movies of Annette Funicello and Frankie Avalon,
and by the California surfing culture celebrated by rock groups
like the Beach Boys. Since then, the popularity of the bikini has
only continued to grow.
73, K.O. n0kfq
N0KFQ @ KB0WSA.MO.USA.NA
E-mail: n0kfq@winlink.org
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