As bikini turns 81 this year, it’s time to recollect how this very hot and sexy avatar came into popular culture. A woman in a bikini is nothing short of style and glamor. Bikini is a two-piece swimsuit which has a history of being criticized by many yet worn by any and every age.
Simply designed by an Automobile Engineer, Yes! You read it right an automobile engineer named Louis Reard saw women rolling their swim wore on the St Tropez beach back then and decided to come up with something more hot and sexy. He took over his mother’s lingerie business and came out with his version of a women’s almost bare all swim suit and called it Bikini.
A bikini captures everyone’s attention, especially bombastic influence on men. Not just at the beaches but in beauty pageants, bikini round has become a very popular part. The intimacy and intensity it brings out of a woman are beyond regular style.
Many variants have come in but the original two piece; with two triangles covering the breasts in a bra and two triangles for the pelvic region.
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Some interesting facts about bikini:
Bikini is available in many forms including two piece, thong and even more revealing versions for your athletic body. There are some really cool and interesting facts on how bikini came in and became so popular. These facts include:
1- Bikini is actually a name of a place:
Bikini Atoll is a part of Marshall Islands in the Pacific Ocean, which came in the news on July 1st, 1946 for first hydrogen bomb testing by the US. Four days after this peace-time bomb testing Louis Reard names the swimwear he made to bikini. Reard wished for an explosive cultural and commercial reaction to his designer swim outfit by naming it a bikini.
2- Bikini was designed by a mechanical engineer:
A French mechanical engineer Louis Reard, who took over his mother’s lingerie business designed this popular swimsuit called bikini. While working on some option to help women looking out for beach tan, he came out with this rather unconventional (then) swimsuit. And named it bikini just after the hydrogen bomb testing at Bikini Atoll, to create a stir in the society.
3- Most expensive bikini in the world is priced at $30 million:
The $30 million bikinis designed by Susan Rosen Steinmetz diamonds is made with over 150 carats of D Flawless diamonds. All these diamonds are set in platinum. It is all diamonds and no fabric. Model Molly Sims wore this diamond-studded bikini for the centerfold of 2006 sports illustrated swimsuit issue.
4- Fashion models refused to wear it back then:
Reard could not get any fashion model to approve for wearing the bikini for a photoshoot. He then hired a nude dancer for sporting the picture in a bikini. Micheline Bernardini wears the bikini designed by Reard, and the picture has ever since been extremely popular. In the picture, Micheline holds a 2 by 2 box which Reard claims can fit the bikini into it.
5- World’s largest bikini parade:
The world’s largest bikini parade Guinness record is of 1085 women in bikini in China in 2012. This parade covered a distance of 1.8 km and women in age group 6-60 parading in a bikini at their annual swimwear festival in Huludao to promote business and tourism
6- Bikini was banned in some countries initially:
French Atlantic coastline, Italy, Portugal, Florida, Australia and many other countries banned bikini calling it inappropriate at first. Predominantly Catholic countries banned the bikini at first.
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7- Largest bikini photo shot is also held by China:
Around 3090 bikini clad women posed for a photo shoot at China’s longwan beach around Huludao. Ages 4-69 local residents from the place participated in the photo shoot which took 3 months of planning and around 40k volunteers. This was attempted by the municipal government to promote tourism there.
8- Bikini and Miss world pageant:
The first Miss world content in 1951 was organized as a promotion for swimwear at the Festival of Great Britain. The winner Kiki Hakansson was crowned the title in a bikini which caused immense stir and controversy. Many countries threatened to leave Miss world, so this was removed from the pageant. So bikinis were removed and evening gowns came in.
9- Tyra Banks and bikini:
Tyra Banks is the first African-American to appear in a bikini on popular sports illustrated swimsuit edition model in 1997 and Beyonce in 2077 is the second African American women
10- Barbie doll debuted in a swimsuit:
When Barbie doll debuted in 1959, it was in a black and white striped bikini. And no one can condemn or contemplate it wasn’t or isn’t popular.
11- Reard declared for a swimsuit to be called a bikini it should be able to pull through a wedding ring. This shows how small and tiny a bikini was made.
12- Bikini like garments are not the 20th century creation:
Many old paintings from oldest centuries suggest bikini like outfits were in culture back then too. One of the earliest discovered illustration of a bikini is Villa Romana Del Casale in Sicily from 1400 BC.
13- Cannes film festival came to popularity with bikini-clad model:
Brigitte Bardot’s photograph wearing a bikini at 1953 Cannes film festival garnered immense publicity for Cannes and also the model. This picture made Saint-Tropez as the bikini capital of the world
14- Bikini became the official uniform for women’s Olympic beach volleyball in 1994. This went through mixed reviews and was dropped in 2012.
15- La Femme is the only women’s beach in Egypt where men and camera can’t reach. Here Muslim women can wear a bikini without feeling sinned or guilty.
The above compilation of Some astonishing facts about bikini is to share how the bikini is named and how it came into popular culture. Share ahead and keep writing us, we love hearing from you!
Minu Manisha
