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History of the Teeny Weeny Bikini
An itsy-bitsy history of the
teeny weeny bikini 1946-2003: from the
voluptuous screen stars of yesteryear to today's
toned and buff surfer girls, a retrospective of
our bodies and the bikini - Essential Guide to
Summer
It's hard to imagine you can attribute so much
meaning to so little fabric, but it's true --
the bikini has spent the last 57 years showing
off the female body in all its glory, from the
hourglass figures of the '50s to the athletic
abs of the '90s and beyond. "Since the
beginning, the bikini has represented freedom,
fun and a sense of liberation," says New York
City-based swimsuit designer Malia Mills.
That sense of fun was just what French engineer
Louis Reard decided his countrymen needed after
the grim years of World War II. In 1946 he had
the simple but scandalous idea of splitting the
swimsuit in two. Needing a name as explosive as
his creation, Reard borrowed "bikini" from the
Pacific atoll where the United States was
testing early atomic bombs. The bikini wasn't
immediately embraced -- in fact, Reard had to
hire a nude dancer to debut it, since no
reputable French fashion model would.
Scandalous though it was, the sexy suit slowly
infiltrated American beaches and pool parties,
and by the late '50s and '60s the soft, curvy
figures of Marilyn Monroe, Gina Lollobrigida and
Brigitte Bardot were the idealized bikini
bodies. In 1964 the bikini made its first
appearance on the cover of Sports Illustrated;
that same year, mod designer Rudi Gernreich took
the two-piece concept one step further with his
topless "monokini." A minor hit in Europe, the
R-rated suit never made a big splash on American
shores.
By the '70s, American women were catching up
with the Europeans' more daring attitudes. At
the same time, swimsuit designers were
discovering Lycra, a stretch fiber that allowed
them to stitch tinier pieces of fabric, yet
still provide support. The result: The string
bikini -- with more string than fabric -- was
born. The daring young women of Rio de Janeiro
and St Tropez went even further -- forgoing all
rear-view coverage to show off their assets in
the "Tonga" (what we Americans know as the
thong).
From Curves to Crunches
The fitness boom of the '80s led
to one of the biggest leaps in the evolution of
the bikini, Mills observes: "The leg line became
super high, the front was super low, and the
straps were super thin. That was the era of
aerobics and Jane Fonda, and women really wanted
to show off their bodies."
But as skin-cancer awareness grew and a sleeker,
simpler aesthetic defined fashion in the '90s,
the skimpy bikini practically dropped off the
radar. By that time, the voluptuous figure that
looked so good in tiny triangles was out;
athletic, toned bodies became the ideal, as
epitomized by surf star Malia Jones, who
appeared on Shape's June 1997 cover wearing a
halter-top two-piece built for rough water.
Today, bikinis are back with vengeance: Just
witness Halle Berry's bikini moment in the 2002
James Bond film Die Another Day, an homage to
her Bond Girl predecessor, Ursula Andress, in
1962's Dr. No. This time around, though, there's
no one ideal "bikini figure." Mills says that
women of all shapes are discovering that two
pieces just fit better, no matter their body
shape. "We find that very few women come into
our stores and say, '1 can't wear a two-piece,'"
says Mills, who sells tops and bottoms
separately to provide the perfect fit. "Women
today are very liberated in how they feel about
their bodies and comfortable with who they are,
and they want to show it!"
COPYRIGHT 2003 Weider Publications
COPYRIGHT 2003 Gale Group |
