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| .:: A bikini or two-piece |
is a type of women's swimsuit, characterized
by two separate parts—one covering the breasts, the other the groin
(and optionally the buttocks), leaving an uncovered area between the
two garments. The shapes of both parts of a bikini closely resemble
women's underwear, and the lower part of a bikini can therefore range
from the more revealing thong or g-string to briefs and the more modest
square-cut shorts. Two-piece garments worn by women for athletic purposes
have been observed on Greek urns and paintings, dated as early as
1400 BC. Sometimes the term bikini is used to describe the type of
man's swimsuit also known as speedos.
The bikini was
invented by Louis Reard and Jacques Heim, in Paris in 1946. However,
due to its skimpiness, hardly anyone had the courage to wear a bikini
until the late 1950s, when actress Brigitte Bardot created a splash
by wearing a bikini in the film, ‘And God Created Woman.’ The bikini
revolution subsequently became a rage, and even got its own song:
‘Itsy Bitsy Teeny Weeny Yellow Polka Dot Bikini'.
Modern origin According
to the official version, the modern bikini was invented by French
engineer Louis R?ard and fashion designer Jacques Heim in Paris in
1946 and introduced on July 5 at a fashion show at Piscine Molitor
in Paris. It was a string bikini with a g-string back. It was named
after Bikini Atoll, the site of nuclear weapon tests a few days earlier
in the Marshall Islands, on the reasoning that the burst of excitement
it would cause would be like the thermonuclear device. However, women
in Paris were wearing bikinis one year before the bikini was "invented".
This fact is documented with pictures in the July 16, 1945 issue of
Life. Film of holidaymakers in Germany in the 1930's show women wearing
two-piece bathing suits.
Of course the magazine article did not attach
the name "bikini" to the swimsuit. At that time the atomic bomb test
was a year in the future and virtually no one had ever heard of Bikini
Atoll. The article instead spoke of the "French Bathing Suits". But
although the name had not yet been adopted, the swimsuits that the
Parisian women were wearing are clearly recognizable as bikinis in
style and coverage. Coincidentally, the date of publication of the
magazine, July 16, 1945, was the very same day that the first atomic
bomb was detonated in the desert outside Alamogordo, New Mexico. Reard's
suit was a refinement of the work of Jacques Heim who, two months
earlier, had introduced the "Atome" (named for its size) and advertised
it as the world's "smallest bathing suit". Reard split the "atome"
even smaller, but could not find a model who would dare to wear his
design. He ended up hiring Micheline Bernardini, a nude dancer from
the Casino de Paris as his model.
Bikinis in modern culture It
took fifteen years for the bikini to be accepted in the United States.
In 1951 bikinis were banned from the Miss World Contest. In 1957,
however, Brigitte Bardot's bikini in And God Created Woman created
a market for the swimwear in the US, and in 1960, Brian Hyland's pop
song "Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini" inspired a
bikini-buying spree. Finally the bikini caught on, and by 1963, the
movie Beach Party, starring Annette Funicello (emphatically not in
a bikini, by mentor Walt Disney's personal request) and Frankie Avalon,
led a wave of films that made the bikini a pop-culture symbol.
Evolution of the bikini In
recent years, the term monokini has come into use for topless bathing
by women: where the bikini has two parts, the monokini is the lower
part. Where monokinis are in use, the word bikini may jokingly refer
to a two-piece outfit consisting of a monokini and a sun hat. The
term was coined by Rudi Gernreich. The tankini is a swimsuit combining
a tank top and a bikini bottom. The string bikini is a renovation
of the traditional bikini that generally consists of the barest minimal
fabric coverage for the top and bottoms, both are reduced to triangles
of cloth connected by strings. For some women, the string bikini may
actually be the most flattering bikini style. The string bikini style
looks best on women with small busts or boyish shapes. Because women
with small breasts do not need a large amount of bra-style support,
a traditional triangle top can serve to add more shape and curve to
the breasts. In addition, triangle tops with built-in under wires
can work similarly to a push-up bra to maximize the breasts. The lower
part of the bikini was further reduced in size in the 1970s to the
Brazilian thong, where the back of the suit is so thin that it disappears
into the buttocks. Female athletes who play beach volleyball professionally
are required to wear two-pieces.
Article Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bikini
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