Product Code Database
A bikini is a two-piece swimsuit that features one piece on top that covers the , and a second piece on the bottom: the front covering the pelvis but usually exposing the navel, and the back generally covering the intergluteal cleft and some or all of the buttocks. The size of the top and bottom can vary, from bikinis that offer full coverage of the breasts, pelvis, and buttocks, to more revealing designs with a thong or G-string bottom that covers only the mons pubis, but exposes the buttocks, and a top that covers only the . Bikini bottoms covering about half the buttocks may be described as "Brazilian-cut".
The modern bikini swimsuit was introduced by French clothing designer Louis Réard in July 1946, and was named after the Bikini Atoll, where the first public test of a nuclear bomb had taken place four days before.
Due to its revealing design, the bikini was once considered controversial, facing opposition from a number of groups and being accepted only very slowly by the general public. In many countries, the design was banned from beaches and other public places: in 1949, France banned the bikini from being worn on its coastlines; Germany banned the bikini from public swimming pools until the 1970s, and some communist groups condemned the bikini as a "capitalist decadence". The bikini also faced criticism from some feminists, who reviled it as a garment designed to suit men's tastes, and not those of women. Despite this backlash, however, the bikini still sold well throughout the mid to late 20th century.
The bikini gained increased exposure and acceptance as like Brigitte Bardot, Raquel Welch, and Ursula Andress wore it and were photographed on public beaches and seen in film. The minimalist bikini design became common in most Western countries by the mid-1960s as both swimwear and underwear. By the late 20th century, it was widely used as sportswear in beach volleyball and bodybuilding. There are a number of modern Bikini variant of the design used for marketing purposes and as industry classifications, including monokini, microkini, tankini, trikini, pubikini, skirtini, thong, and g-string. A man's single piece Swim briefs may also be called a bikini or "bikini brief", particularly if it has slimmer sides. Similarly, a variety of men's and women's underwear types are described as bikini underwear. The bikini has gradually gained wide acceptance in Western world. By the early 2000s, bikinis had become a US$811 million business annually, and boosted spin off services such as bikini waxing and sun tanning.
In May 1946, Parisian fashion designer Jacques Heim released a two-piece swimsuit design that he named the Atome ('Atom') and advertised as "the smallest swimsuit in the world". Like swimsuits of the era, it covered the wearer's belly button, and it failed to attract much attention. French automotive engineer Louis Réard introduced a design he named the "Bikini", adopting the name from the Bikini Atoll in the Pacific Ocean, which was the colonial name the Germans gave to the atoll, borrowed from the Marshallese name for the island, Pikinni. Four days earlier, on 1 July 1946, the United States had initiated its first peacetime nuclear weapons nuclear testing at Bikini Atoll as part of Operation Crossroads. Unlike the prior Trinity test, or most subsequent nuclear test series, the United States allowed both international observers and the global press to observe Crossroads, creating an intense international interest in the new weapon and its testing. Réard never explained why he chose the name "Bikini" for the swimsuit. Various motivations have been attributed to his choosing of the name, including the idea that he hoped it would create "explosive commercial and cultural reaction" similar to the explosion at Bikini Atoll, that it was meant to be associated with the "exotic allure of the tropical Pacific", from the "comparison of the effects of a scantily clad woman to the atomic bomb," and the idea that Reard's design had out-done Heim's design and "split the atome". Réard's advertising slogan was that the Bikini was "smaller than the smallest bathing suit in the world." The swimsuit's name was typically capitalized for several years after its coining.
It has been frequently cited as a major example of a "psychological link between atomic destruction and sexuality" in popular culture, which includes the stenciling of Rita Hayworth onto one of the bombs detonated at Crossroads, and its persistence in language has been argued as having "trivialized and downplayed the reality of nuclear testing," given the contamination done by especially later US thermonuclear tests at Bikini and other Marshall Islands atolls.
By making an analogy with words like bilingual and bilateral containing the Latin prefix "bi-" (meaning "two" in Latin), the word bikini was first Back-derivation as consisting of two parts, bi by Rudi Gernreich, who introduced the monokini in 1964. Later swimsuit designs like the tankini and trikini further cemented this derivation. Over time the " –kini family" (as dubbed by author William Safire), including the " –ini sisters" (as dubbed by designer Anne Cole), expanded into a variety of swimwear including the monokini (also known as a numokini or unikini), seekini, tankini, camikini, (also hipkini), minikini, face-kini, burkini, and microkini. The Language Report, compiled by lexicographer Susie Dent and published by the Oxford University Press (OUP) in 2003, considers lexicographic inventions like bandeaukini and camkini, two variants of the tankini, important to observe." The Language Report: The ultimate record of what we're saying and how we're saying it ", Science News (from Article Archive), August 7, 2004 Although "bikini" was originally a registered trademark of Réard, it has since become genericized.
Variations of the term are used to describe Bikini variant for promotional purposes and industry classifications, including monokini, microkini, tankini, trikini, pubikini, bandeaukini and skirtini. A man's Swim briefs may also be referred to as a bikini. Similarly, a variety of men's and women's underwear types are described as bikini underwear.
In Coronation of the Winner, a mosaic in the floor of a Roman villa in Sicily that dates from the Diocletian period (286–305 CE), young women participate in weightlifting, discus throwing, and running ball games dressed in bikini-like undergarments. The mosaic, found in the Sicily Villa Romana del Casale, features ten maidens who have been anachronistically dubbed the "Bikini Girls".
Other Roman Empire archaeological finds depict the goddess Venus in a similar garment. In Pompeii, depictions of Venus wearing a bikini were discovered in the Casa della Venere, in the tablinum of the House of Julia Felix, and in an atrium garden of Via Dell'Abbondanza.
In 1907, Australian swimmer and performer Annette Kellermann was arrested on a Boston beach for wearing form-fitting sleeveless one-piece knitted swimming tights that covered her from neck to toe, a costume she adopted from England, although it became accepted swimsuit attire for women in parts of Europe by 1910. In 1913, designer Carl Jantzen made the first functional two-piece swimwear. Inspired by the introduction of females into Olympic swimming he designed a close-fitting costume with shorts for the bottom and short sleeves for the top.
During the 1920s and 1930s, people began to shift from "taking in the water" to "taking in the sun", at bathhouses and spas, and swimsuit designs shifted from functional considerations to incorporate more decorative features. Rayon was used in the 1920s in the manufacture of tight-fitting swimsuits, but durability issues, especially when wet, proved problematic.
Women's swimwear of the 1930s and 1940s incorporated increasing degrees of midriff exposure. The 1932 Hollywood film Three on a Match featured a midriff-baring two-piece bathing suit. Actress Dolores del Río was the first major star to wear a two-piece women's bathing suit onscreen in Flying Down to Rio (1933).
Teen magazines of late 1940s and 1950s featured similar designs of midriff-baring suits and tops. However, midriff fashion was stated as only for beaches and informal events and considered indecent to be worn in public. Hollywood endorsed the new glamor in films like 1949's Neptune's Daughter in which Esther Williams wore provocatively named costumes such as "Double Entendre" and "Honey Child".
Wartime production during World War II required vast amounts of cotton, silk, nylon, wool, leather, and rubber. In 1942, the United States War Production Board issued Regulation L-85, cutting the use of natural fibers in clothing and mandating a 10% reduction in the amount of fabric in women's beachwear. To comply with the regulations, swimsuit manufacturers removed skirt panels and other attachments, while increasing production of the two-piece swimsuit with bare midriffs. At the same time, demand for all swimwear declined as there was not much interest in going to the beach, especially in Europe.
Soon after, Louis Réard created a competing two-piece swimsuit design, which he called the bikini.Adam Sage, " Happy birthday: the 'shocking and immoral' bikini hits 60", The Times, April 16, 2006 He noticed that women at the beach rolled up the edges of their swimsuit bottoms and tops to improve their tan. On 5 July, Réard introduced his design at a swimsuit review held at a popular Paris public pool, Piscine Molitor, four days after the first test of a US nuclear weapon at the Bikini Atoll. The newspapers were full of news about it and Réard hoped for the same with his design. Réard's bikini undercut Heim's atome in its brevity. His design consisted of two side-by-side triangles of fabric forming a bra, and two front-and-back triangular pieces of fabric covering the mons pubis and the buttocks, respectively, connected by string. When he was unable to find a fashion model willing to showcase his revealing design,
Photographs of Bernardini and articles about the event were widely carried by the press. The International Herald Tribune alone ran nine stories on the event.
Heim's atome was more in keeping with the sense of propriety of the 1940s, but Réard's design won the public's attention. Although Heim's design was the first worn on the beach and initially sold more swimsuits, it was Réard's description of the two-piece swimsuit as a bikini that stuck.Weisgall, Jonathan (1994), Operation Crossroads: The Atomic Tests at Bikini Atoll, pages 264–265, Naval Institute Press, As competing designs emerged, he declared in advertisements that a swimsuit could not be a genuine bikini "unless it could be pulled through a wedding ring." Modern bikinis were first made of cotton and jersey.Valerie Steele, Encyclopedia of Clothing and Fashion, page 253, Charles Scribner's Sons, 2005,
In 1951, Eric Morley organized the Festival Bikini Contest, a beauty contest and swimwear advertising opportunity at that year's Festival of Britain. The press, welcoming the spectacle, referred to it as Miss World, a name Morley registered as a trademark. The winner was Kiki Håkansson of Sweden, who was crowned in a bikini. After the crowning, Håkansson was condemned by Pope Pius XII, while Spain and Ireland threatened to withdraw from the pageant.Kevin Rawlinson, " Three Miss Worlds and one (rugby) World Cup ", The Daily Telegraph, June 26, 2010 In 1952, bikinis were banned from the pageant and replaced by . As a result of the controversy, the bikini was explicitly banned from many other worldwide.
Paula Stafford was an Australian fashion designer credited with introducing the bikini to Australia;Sara Hicks, " The mother of all cheeky bikinis ", ABC Gold Coast, 23 May 2008Greg Stolz, " Bikini queen Paula Stafford turns 90 ", Courier-Mail, 10 June 2010 in a famous incident in 1952, model Ann Ferguson was asked to leave a beach in Surfers Paradise because her Paula Stafford bikini was too revealing." Bikini Cops " (Transcript), ABC (Australia), 6 September 2004Janet Campbell, " Paula Stafford (b 1920) ", Brisbane Modern magazine, Issue 3 The bikini was banned in Australia, on the French Atlantic coastline, in Spain, in Italy, and in Portugal, and was prohibited or discouraged in a number of US states.Lena Lanček and Gideon Bosker, Making Waves: Swimsuits and the Undressing of America, page 90, Chronicle Books, 1989, The United States Motion Picture Production Code, also known as the Hays Code, enforced from 1934, allowed two-piece gowns but prohibited the display of navels in Hollywood films. The National Legion of Decency, a Roman Catholic body overseeing American media content, also pressured Hollywood and foreign film producers to keep bikinis from being featured in Hollywood movies. As late as 1959 one of the United States' largest swimsuit designers, Anne Cole of the Anne Cole brand, said, "It's nothing more than a G-string. It's at the razor's edge of decency." The Hays Code was abandoned by the mid-1960s, and with it the prohibition of female navel exposure, as well as other restrictions.Jeanne Nagle, Violence in Movies, Music, and the Media, page 23, The Rosen Publishing Group, 2008, The influence of the National Legion of Decency also waned by the 1960s.Keith M. Booker, Historical Dictionary of American Cinema, page 65, Scarecrow Press, 2011,
In Europe, 17-year-old Brigitte Bardot wore scanty bikinis (by contemporary standards) in the French film Manina, la fille sans voiles ("Manina, the girl unveiled"). The promotion for the film, released in France in March 1953, drew more attention to Bardot's bikinis than to the film itself. By the time the film was released in the United States in 1958, it was re-titled Manina, the Girl in the Bikini. Bardot was also photographed wearing a bikini on the beach during the 1957 Cannes Film Festival. Working with her husband and agent Roger Vadim, she garnered significant attention with photographs of her wearing a bikini on every beach in the south of France.
Similar photographs were taken of Anita Ekberg and Sophia Loren, among others. According to The Guardian, Bardot's photographs in particular turned Saint-Tropez into the beachwear capital of the world, with Bardot identified as the original Cannes bathing beauty.Cari Beauchamp & Henri Béhar, Hollywood on the Riviera: The Inside Story of the Cannes Film Festival, page 165, W. Morrow and Co., 1992, Bardot's photography helped to enhance the public profile of the festival, and Cannes in turn played a crucial role in her career.Vanessa R. Schwartz, It's So French!: Hollywood, Paris, and the Making of Cosmopolitan Film Culture, page 79, University of Chicago Press, 2007,
Brian Hyland's novelty-song hit "Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini" became a Billboard No. 1 hit during the summer of 1960: the song tells a story about a young girl who is too shy to wear her new bikini on the beach, thinking it too risqué. Playboy first featured a bikini on its cover in 1962; the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue debut two years later featured Babette March in a white bikini on the cover. This has been credited with making the bikini a legitimate piece of clothing.
Ursula Andress, appearing as Honey Ryder in the 1962 British James Bond film, Dr. No, wore a white bikini, which became known as the "Dr. No bikini". It became one of the most famous bikinis of all time and an iconic moment in cinematic and fashion history. Andress said that she owed her career to that white bikini, remarking, "This bikini made me into a success. As a result of starring in Dr. No as the first Bond girl, I was given the freedom to take my pick of future roles and to become financially independent."
The bikini finally caught on, and in 1963, the movie Beach Party, starring Annette Funicello and Frankie Avalon, led a wave of films that made the bikini a pop-culture symbol, though Funicello was barred from wearing Réard's bikini unlike the other young women in the films. In 1965, a woman told Time that it was "almost square" not to wear a bikini; the magazine wrote two years later that "65% of the young set had already gone over".
Raquel Welch's fur bikini in One Million Years B.C. (1966) gave the world the most iconic bikini shot of all time and the poster image became an iconic moment in cinema history.Cambridge Film Trust. (2016). One Million Years B.C. Cambridge Film Festival. Retrieved December 5, 2016. Her deer skin bikini in One Million Years B.C., advertised as "mankind's first bikini", (1966) was later described as a "definitive look of the 1960s". Her role wearing the leather bikini made Welch a fashion icon and the photo of her in the bikini became a best-selling pinup poster.
Stretch nylon bikini briefs and bras complemented the adolescent boutique fashions of the 1960s, allowing those to be minimal.Amy De La Haye, The Cutting Edge: 50 Years of British Fashion, 1947–1997, page 183, Overlook Press, 1997, DuPont introduced lycra (DuPont's name for spandex) in the same decade. Spandex expanded the range of novelty fabrics available to designers which meant suits could be made to fit like a second skin without heavy linings.Valerie Steele, Encyclopedia of Clothing and Fashion, page 255, Charles Scribner's Sons, 2005, "The advent of Lycra allowed more women to wear a bikini," wrote Kelly Killoren Bensimon, a former model and author of The Bikini Book, "It didn't sag, it didn't bag, and it concealed and revealed. It wasn't so much like lingerie anymore." Increased reliance on stretch fabric led to simplified construction. This fabric allowed designers to create the string bikini, and allowed Rudi Gernreich to create the topless monokini. Alternative swimwear fabrics such as velvet, leather, and squares surfaced in the early '70s.
By 2017, the global swimwear market was valued at US$18,5 billion with a compound annual growth rate of 6.2%.Kiran Sable, Market , Allied Market Research, June 2018 Part of the increased consumption of bikinis and swimwears can be attributed to influencers who promote and endorse various brands around the year.Kellie Ell, Swimwear industry 'on fire' as Instagram's year-round summers fill feeds with string bikinis and exotic beach posts , CNBC, July 12, 2018 Soccer player and best selling author Mo Isom describes it as, "We're flooded with Instagram bikini pics."Mo Isom, Sex, Jesus, and the Conversations the Church Forgot, page 59, Baker Books, 2018, It was estimated in 2016 that in 2019 the USA would be the largest swimwear market (US$10 billion), followed by Europe (US$5 billion), Asia–Pacific (US$4 billion) and Middle East and Africa (about 1 billion). Global Swimwear Market to Exceed USD 20 Billion by 2020, According to Technavio, Business Wire, March 24, 2016
Indian women generally wear bikinis when they vacation abroad or in Goa without the family. But, despite the conservative ideas prevalent in India, bikinis also become more popular in summer when women, from Bollywood stars to the middle class, take up swimming, often in a public space." Are Indian girls bikini ready?", Hindustan Times (New Delhi, India), March 25, 2012Rachel Lopez, " From Bollywood to middle class India, no one is afraid of wearing bikini", Hindustan Times, May 15, 2016 A lot of , shorts and maillot are sold in the summer, along with real bikinis and . The maximum sales for bikinis happen in the winter, the honeymoon season. For more coverage, designers Shivan Bhatiya and Narresh Kukreja invented the bikini-saree popularised by TV anchor Mandira Bedi.Shobita Dhar, Freedom in a two-piece: Indian women now rock their bikinis , Times of India, Jan 7, 2020
Bikinis can and have been made out of almost every possible clothing material, and the fabrics and other materials used to make bikinis are an essential element of their design. Modern bikinis were first made of cotton and jersey, but in the 1960s, Lycra became the common material. Alternative swimwear fabrics such as velvet, leather, and Crochet bikini squares surfaced in the early 1970s.
In a single fashion show in 1985, there were two-piece suits with Crop top instead of the usual skimpy bandeaux, suits that resembled bikinis from the front and one-pieces from the back, Suspenders, ruffles, and deep navel-baring cutouts.Fashion Correspondent, " Swimsuits take some inspiration from the past", Philadelphia Inquirer, November 10, 1985 Metal and stone jewelry pieces are now often used to dress up look and style according to tastes. To meet the fast pace of demands, some manufacturers now offer made-to-order bikinis ready in as few as seven minutes.Siobhan Morrissey, " Bikinis made in teeny-weeny time , The Palm Beach Post, page 1D, August 28, 1991 The world's most expensive bikini was designed in February 2006 by Susan Rosen; containing of diamond, it was valued at £20 million.Jayne Dawson, " Sexy at 60 ", Yorkshire Evening Post, July 25, 2006
The uniform made its Olympic debut at Bondi Beach, Sydney during the 2000 Summer Olympics amid some criticism.Mary Zeiss Stange, Carol K. Oyster and Jane E. Sloan (ed.), Encyclopedia of Women in Today's World (Volume 1), page 134, SAGE, 2011, It was the fifth-largest television audience of all the sports at the 2000 Games. Much of the interest was attributed to the sex appeal of bikini-clad players, along with their athletic ability.Stuff Writer, " Beach volleyball a popular spectator sport ", ESPN, August 16, 2004 Bikini-clad dancers and cheerleaders entertain the audience during match breaks in many beach volleyball tournaments, including the Olympics. Volleyball costumes followed suit, becoming smaller and tighter.
Some sports officials criticized the FIVB uniform as exploitative and impractical in colder weather. It also drew the ire of some athletes. At the 2006 Asian Games at Doha, Qatar, only one Muslim country – Iraq – fielded a team in the beach volleyball competition because of concerns that the uniform was inappropriate. They refused to wear bikinis.Associated Press, In Doha, beach volleyball bikinis create cultural clash , Ynet News, March 12, 2006. Retrieved March 12, 2008. The weather during the evening games in 2012 London Olympics was so cold that some players wore shirts and leggings. Earlier in 2012, FIVB had announced it would allow shorts (maximum length above the knee) and sleeved tops at games. Richard Baker, the federation spokesperson, said that "many of these countries have religious and cultural requirements so the uniform needed to be more flexible".
The bikini remains preferred by most players and corporate sponsors.Patrice A. Oppliger, Girls Gone Skank: The Sexualization of Girls in American Culture, page 182-4, McFarland, 2008, The US women's team has cited several advantages of bikini uniforms, such as comfort while playing on sand during hot weather. Competitors Natalie Cook and Holly McPeak support the bikini as a practical uniform for a sport played on sand during the heat of summer. Olympic gold medal winner Kerry Walsh said, "I love our uniforms." According to fellow gold medalist Misty May-Treanor and Walsh, it does not restrict movement.
One feminist viewpoint sees the bikini uniform as objectification of women athletes. US beach volleyball player Gabrielle Reece described the bikini bottoms as uncomfortable with constant "yanking and fiddling."Jeanne Moos, " Bikini blues – Beach volleyball makes the swimsuit standard ", CNN, Jan 13, 1999 Many female beach volleyball players have sustained injuries by over-training the abdominal muscles while many others have gone through augmentation mammoplasty to look appealing in their uniforms. Australian competitor Nicole Sanderson said about match break entertainment that "it's kind of disrespectful to the female players. I'm sure the male spectators love it, but I find it a little bit offensive."
Sports journalism expert Kimberly Bissell conducted a study on the camera angles used during the 2004 Summer Olympics beach volleyball games. Bissell found that 20% of the camera angles were focused on the women's chests, and 17% on their buttocks. Bissell theorized that the appearance of the players draws fans attention more than their actual athleticism. Sports commentator Jeanne Moos commented, "Beach volleyball has now joined Go-go dancing as perhaps the only two professions where a bikini is the required uniform."JG Daddario and BJ Wigley, " Gender Marking and Racial Stereotyping at the 2004 Athens Games ", Journal of Sports Media (vol 2), University of Nebraska Press, 2007 British Olympian Denise Johns argues that the regulation uniform is intended to be "sexy" and to attract attention. Rubén Acosta, president of the FIVB, says that it makes the game more appealing to spectators.
Costumes are regulation "posing trunks" (bikini briefs) for both men and women.Francois Fortin, Sports: The Complete Visual Reference, page 360, Québec Amerique, 1996, Female bodybuilders in America are prohibited from wearing thongs or T-back swimsuits in contests filmed for television, though they are allowed to do so by certain fitness organizations in closed events. For men, the dress code specifies "swim trunks only (no shorts, cut-off pants, or Speedos)."
String bikinis and other revealing clothes are common in surfing, though most surfing bikinis are more robust with more coverage than sunning bikinis.Andrea McCloud, The Girl's Guide to Surfing, page 52, Chronicle Books, 2011, Surfing Magazine printed a pictorial of Kymberly Herrin, Playboy Playmate March 1981, surfing in a revealing bikini, and eventually started an annual bikini issue.Matt Warshaw, The History of Surfing, page 417, Chronicle Books, 2011, The Association of Surfing Professionals often pairs female surf meets with bikini contests, an issue that divides the female pro-surfing community into two parts.Douglas Booth, Australian Beach Cultures: The History of Sun, Sand and Surf, page 139, Routledge, 2012, It has often been more profitable to win the bikini contest than the female surfing event.Mark Stranger, Surfing Life: Surface, Substructure and the Commodification of the Sublime, page 40, Ashgate Publishing, Ltd., 2011,
In 2021, the Norway women's national beach handball team was fined €1500 for being improperly dressed after the women wore Cycling shorts instead of bikini bottoms at a European championship match in Bulgaria. Critics derided the fine and the underlying rule. Norway's minister for culture and sport Abid Raja described the fine as being "completely ridiculous". Former tennis champion Billie Jean King supported the team tweeting "The sexualisation of women athletes must stop". Although the Norwegian Handball Federation announced they would pay the fines, pop singer Pink offered to pay for them. Later, in November 2021, the International Handball Federation changed their dress rules to allow female players to wear some kinds of shorts, specifying "Female athletes must wear short tight pants with a close fit".
The fitness boom of the 1980s led to one of the biggest leaps in the evolution of the bikini. According to Mills, "The leg line became superhigh, the front was superlow, and the straps were superthin." The Bikini turns 60! from the Lilith Gallery of Toronto . Retrieved February 9, 2009. Women's magazines used terms like "Bikini Belly",Alex Kuczynski, " Looking for Health News? A Bikini Belly? There's More to Read", The New York Times, June 21, 2001 and workout programs were launched to develop a "bikini-worthy body".Jennifer Nicole Lee, " Get A Bikini-Worthy Body ", CBS News, Feb 1, February 1, 2007 The tiny "fitness-bikinis" made of lycra were launched to cater to this hardbodied ideal.Stuart B. Chirls, " Americans head for the water – in, on and under", Daily News Record, July 31, 1989 Movies like Blue Crush and TV like Surf Girls merged the concepts of bikini models and athletes together, further accentuating the toned body ideal.Claudia Mitchell and Jacqueline Reid-Walsh, Girl Culture: An Encyclopedia (Vol. 1), page 183, Greenwood Publishing Group, 2007, Motivated by yearly Spring Break festivities that mark the start of the bikini season in North America,Jacklyn Zeman, Jackie Zeman's Beauty on the Go, page 70, Simon & Schuster, 1986, many women diet in an attempt to achieve the ideal bikini body; some take this to extremes including self-starvation, leading to eating disorders.
In 1993, Suzy Menkes, then Fashion Editor of the International Herald Tribune, suggested that women had begun to "revolt" against the "body ideal" and bikini "exposure." She wrote, "Significantly, on the beaches as on the streets, some of the youngest and prettiest women (who were once the only ones who dared to bare) seem to have decided that exposure is over." Nevertheless, former professional beach volleyball player Gabrielle Reece, who competed in a bikini, claimed that "confidence" alone can make a bikini sexy. One survey commissioned by Diet Chef, a UK home delivery service, reported by The Today Show and ridiculed by More magazine, showed that women should stop wearing bikinis by the age of 47.Lesley Kennedy, " Are You Too Old to Rock a Bikini? ", More, March 13, 2011
Swimwear and underwear have similar design considerations, both being form-fitting garments. The main difference is that, unlike underwear, swimwear is open to public view.Jennifer Craik, The Face of Fashion: Cultural Studies in Fashion, page 133, Routledge, 1993, The swimsuit was, and is, following underwear styles,Christine Schmid, The Swimsuit: Fashion from Poolside to Catwalk, page 6, A&C Black, 2013, and at about the same time that attitudes towards the bikini began to change, underwear underwent a redesign towards a minimal, unboned design that emphasized comfort first.Dan Parker, The Bathing Suit: Christian Liberty Or Secular Idolatry, page 170, Xulon Press, 2003,
By the 1960s, the bikini swimsuit influenced panty styles and coincided with the cut of the new lower rise jeans and pants. In the seventies, with the emergence of skintight jeans, thong versions of the panty became mainstream, since the open, stringed back eliminated any tell-tale panty lines across the rear and hips. By the 1980s the design of the French-cut panty pushed the waistband back up to the natural waistline and the rise of the leg openings was nearly as high (French Cut panties come up to the waist, has a high cut leg, and usually are full in the rearLisa Cole, Lingerie, the Foundation of a Woman's Life, page 45, Choice Publications, 2005, ). As with the bra and other type of lingerie, manufacturers of the last quarter of the century marketed panty styles that were designed primarily for their sexual allure. From this decade sexualization and eroticization of the male body was on the rise. The male body was celebrated through advertising campaigns for brands such as Calvin Klein, particularly by photographers Bruce Weber and Herb Ritts.Christine Schmidt, The Swimsuit: Fashion from Poolside to Catwalk, page 19, Bloomsbury Academic, 2012, Male bodies and men's undergarments were commodified and packaged for mass consumption, and swimwear and sportswear were influenced by sports photography and fitness. Over time, swimwear evolved from weighty wool to high-tech skin-tight garments, eventually cross-breeding with sportswear, underwear and exercise wear, resulting in the interchangeable fashions of the 1990s.Christine Schmid, The Swimsuit: Fashion from Poolside to Catwalk, page 102, A&C Black, 2013,
As popularity of bikinis grew, the acceptability of pubic hair diminished.David L. Hanlon, Geoffrey Miles White, Voyaging Through the Contemporary Pacific, page 99, Rowman & Littlefield, 2000, But, with certain styles of women's swimwear, pubic hair may become visible around the crotch area of a swimsuit. With the reduction in the size of swimsuits, especially since the advent of the bikini after 1945, the practice of bikini waxing has also become popular. The Brazilian style which became popular with the rise of thong bottoms.
Depending on the style of bikini-bottom and the amount of skin visible outside the bikini,Heinz Tschachler, Maureen Devine and Michael Draxlbauer (ed.), The EmBodyment of American Culture, page 62, LIT Verlag Münster, 2003, pubic hair may be styled into several styles:Helen Bickmore; Milady's Hair Removal Techniques: A Comprehensive Manual; Thomson Delmar Learning; 2003; American waxing (removal of pubic hair from the sides, top of the thighs, and under the navel), French waxing (leaving only a vertical strip in front), or Brazilian waxing (removal of all hair in the pelvic area, particularly suitable for thong bottoms).Milady, Milady Standard Cosmetology 2012, page 22, Cengage Learning, 2011,
As bikini-style swimsuits leave most of the body exposed to potentially dangerous ultraviolet radiation, overexposure can cause sunburn, skin cancer, as well as other acute and chronic health effects on the skin, eyes, and immune system. As a result, medical organizations recommend that bikini wearers protect themselves from UV radiation by using broad-spectrum sunscreen, which has been shown to protect against sunburn, skin cancer, wrinkling and sagging skin.
A 1969 innovation of tan-through swimwear uses fabric which is perforated with thousands of micro holes that are nearly invisible to the naked eye, but which let enough sunlight through to produce a line-free tan.
Etymology and terminology
While the two-piece swimsuit as a design existed in classical antiquity, the modern design first attracted public notice in Paris on July 5, 1946.
History
In antiquity
According to archaeologist James Mellaart, a mural from the Chalcolithic era (around 5600 BCE) in Çatalhöyük, Anatolia depicts a mother goddess astride two leopards wearing a costume somewhat like a bikini. (1998). 9780299163204, University of Wisconsin Press. ISBN 9780299163204 The two-piece swimsuit can be traced back to the Greco-Roman world, where bikini-like garments worn by women athletes are depicted on urns and paintings dating back to 1400 BCE.
(1979). 9780884021001, Dumbarton Oaks. ISBN 9780884021001
Precursors in the West
Swimming or bathing outdoors was discouraged in the Christian West, so there was little demand or need for swimming or bathing costumes until the 18th century. The bathing gown of the 18th century was a loose ankle-length full-sleeve chemise-type gown made of wool or flannel that retained coverage and modesty.
(2025). 9780130254436, Prentice Hall. ISBN 9780130254436 Jersey and silk were also sometimes used. By the 1930s, manufacturers had lowered necklines in the back, removed sleeves, and tightened the sides. With the development of new clothing materials, particularly latex and nylon, swimsuits gradually began hugging the body through the 1930s, with shoulder straps that could be lowered for tanning.Bronwyn Labrum, Fiona McKergow and Stephanie Gibson, Looking Flash, page 166, Auckland University Press, 2007,
Modern bikini
In the summer of 1946, Western Europeans enjoyed their first war-free summer in many years. French designers sought to deliver fashions that matched the liberated mood of the people. Fabric was still in short supply,Tim Gunn, Tim Gunn's Fashion Bible: The Fascinating History of Everything in Your Closet, page 25, Simon & Schuster, 2013, and in an endeavor to resurrect swimwear sales, two French designers – Jacques Heim and Louis Réard – almost simultaneously launched new two-piece swimsuit designs in 1946.Patrik Alac, Bikini Story, page 31, Parkstone International, 2012, Claudia Mitchell and Jacqueline Reid-Walsh, Girl Culture: An Encyclopedia (vol. 1), page 182, Greenwood Publishing Group, 2007, Heim launched a two-piece swimsuit design in Paris that he called the atome, after the smallest known particle of matter. He announced that it was the "world's smallest bathing suit."Rod E. Keays, The Naturally Good Man , page 109, Trafford Publishing, 2012, Although briefer than the two-piece swimsuits of the 1930s, the bottom of Heim's new two-piece beach costume still covered the wearer's navel.James Gilbert Ryan and Leonard C. Schlup, Historical Dictionary of the 1940s, page 50, M.E. Sharpe, 2006, Bobby Mercer, ManVentions, page 194, Adams Media, 2011, Kelly Killoren Bensimon, The Bikini Book, page 18, Thames & Hudson, 2006,
(2025). 9781780429519, Parkstone International. ISBN 9781780429519 Réard hired Micheline Bernardini, an 18-year old Striptease from the Casino de Paris. He announced that his swimsuit, was "smaller than the world's smallest bathing suit".Paula Cocozza, " A little piece of history ", The Guardian, June 10, 2006 The Bikini Turns 60 , 1946 to 2006: 60 Years of Bikini Bathing Beauties, Lilith E-Zine Réard said that "like the atom bomb, the bikini is small and devastating".Judson Rosebush, Fashion writer Diana Vreeland described the bikini as the "atom bomb of fashion". Bernardini received 50,000 fan letters, many of them from men.
(2025). 9780313084447, Greenwood Press. ISBN 9780313084447 French newspaper Le Figaro wrote, "People were craving the simple pleasures of the sea and the sun. For women, wearing a bikini signaled a kind of second liberation. There was really nothing sexual about this. It was instead a celebration of freedom and a return to the joys in life."
Social resistance
Despite the garment's initial success in France, women worldwide continued to wear traditional one-piece swimsuits. When his sales stalled, Réard went back to designing and selling orthodox knickers. In 1950, American swimsuit mogul Fred Cole, owner of mass market swimwear firm Cole of California, told Time that he had "little but scorn for France's famed Bikinis."Christine Schmidt, The Swimsuit: Fashion from Poolside to Catwalk, page 2, Bloomsbury Academic, 2012, Réard himself would later describe it as a "two-piece bathing suit which reveals everything about a girl except for her mother's maiden name."Louise Southerden, Surf's Up: The Girl's Guide to Surfing, page 14, Allen & Unwin, 2008, Fashion magazine Modern Girl Magazine in 1957 stated that "it is hardly necessary to waste words over the so-called bikini since it is inconceivable that any girl with tact and decency would ever wear such a thing".
(2025). 9780896586901, MVP Books. ISBN 9780896586901 Although some regarded the bikini and beauty contests as bringing freedom to women, they were opposed by some as well as religious and cultural groups who objected to the degree of exposure of the female body.
Rise to popularity
Increasingly common glamour shots of popular actresses and models on either side of the Atlantic played a large part in bringing the bikini into the mainstream. During the 1950s, Hollywood stars such as Ava Gardner, Rita Hayworth, Lana Turner, Elizabeth Taylor, Tina Louise, Marilyn Monroe, Esther Williams, and Betty GrableSuzy Menkes, " Runways: Remembrance of Thongs Past", The New York Times, July 18, 1993 took advantage of the risqué publicity associated with the bikini by posing for photographs wearing them—Pin-up girl of Hayworth and Williams in costume were especially widely distributed in the United States. In 1950, Elvira Pagã walked at the Rio Carnival, Brazil in a golden bikini, starting the bikini tradition of the carnival.Colin M. MacLachlan, A History of Modern Brazil: The Past Against the Future, page 184, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 1993,
Mass acceptance
Réard's company folded in 1988, four years after his death. Meanwhile, the bikini had become the most popular beachwear around the globe. According to French fashion historian Olivier Saillard, this was due to "the power of women, and not the power of fashion". By 1988 the bikini made up nearly 20% of swimsuit sales, more than any other model in the US, though one-piece suits made a comeback during the 1980s and early 1990s. In 1997, Miss Maryland Jamie Fox became the first contestant in 50 years to compete in a two-piece swimsuit at the Miss America Pageant. Actresses in like Blue Crush (2002) and (2003) made the two-piece "the millennial equivalent of the Power dressing", according to Gina Bellafonte of The New York Times. in Helsinki, Finland, in 2014.|left|212x212px]]According to Beth Dincuff Charleston, research associate at the Costume Institute of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, "The bikini represents a social leap involving body consciousness, moral concerns, and sexual attitudes." By the early 2000s, bikinis had become a $811 million business annually, according to the NPD Group, a consumer and retail information company, and had boosted spin-off services like and the sun tanning industries. The first bikini museum in the world is being built in Bad Rappenau in Germany. The development of swimwear from 1880 to the present is presented on 2,000 square metres of exhibition space.
Outside the Western world
South Asia
The 1967 Bollywood film An Evening in Paris is mostly remembered because it featured actress Sharmila Tagore as the first Indian actress to wear a bikini on film.Stuff Reporter, " Being Sharmila, all through life ", The Hindu, April 3, 2006Lalit Mohan Joshi & Gulzar, Derek Malcolm, Bollywood, page 20, Lucky Dissanayake, 2002, She also posed in a bikini for the glossy Filmfare magazine.B. K. Karanjia, Blundering in Wonderland, page 18, Vikas Publishing House, 1990, Sharmila Tagore , First Indian actress to wear bikini The costume shocked a conservative Indian audience,Various writers, Rashtriya Sahara, page 28, Sahara India Mass Communication, 2002 but it also set in motion a trend carried forward by Zeenat Aman in Heera Panna (1973) and Qurbani (1980), Dimple Kapadia in Bobby (1973), and Parveen Babi in Yeh Nazdeekiyan (1982). Indonesian actress Nurnaningsih's bikini clad photos were widely distributed in early 1950s, though she was banned in Kalimantan.Ramadhian Fadillah, Nurnaningsih, artis yang dicap sebagai bom seks pertama Indonesia (language: Bahasa), Merdeka, 29 Desember 2015Rindi Ayunda, Nurnaningsih, Artis Panas Indonesia Pertama Di Tahun 50-an (language: Bahasa), Sisidunia, 30/12/2015 Nurnaningsih, Legenda Artis Panas Pertama di Indonesia (language: Bahasa), Sooperboy, 12 May 2015
East Asia
By the end of the first decade of the 21st century, the Chinese bikini industry became a serious international threat for the Brazilian bikini industry.Justin Rowlatt, " Brazil's raw materials and the Chinese bikini problem ", BBC, January 8, 2011 Huludao, Liaoning, China set the world record for the largest bikini parade in 2012, with 1,085 participants and a photo shoot involving 3,090 women. Largest Bikini Parade , Official Website: Guinness Book of World Records Largest Bikini Photo Shoot , Official Website: Guinness Book of World Records "Beijing bikini" refers to the Chinese urban practice of men rolling up their shirts to expose their midriff to cool off in public in the summer.Anna Fifield, A mainstay of the Chinese summer, the 'Beijing bikini,' is under threat , Washington Post, July 4, 2019 In Japan, wearing a bikini is common on the beach and at baths or pools. But, according to a 2013 study, 94% women are not body confident enough to wear a bikini in public without resorting to , zip-up , T-shirts, or shorts.Casey Baseel, 94% of Japanese women don't feel confident in a swimsuit, survey reveals , Japan Today, July 21, 2013 Japanese women also often wear a "facekini" to protect their face from .Anna Fifield, Burkini, meet facekini: What women around the world wear to the beach , Washington Post, August 30, 2016
Middle East
In most parts of the Middle East, bikinis are either banned or are highly controversial. On March 18, 1973, when Lebanon magazine Ash-Shabaka printed a bikini-clad woman on the cover, they had to make a second version with only the face of the model.Noha Mellor, The Making of Arab News, page 39, Rowman & Littlefield, 2005, In 2011, when Huda Naccache (Miss Earth 2011) posed for the cover of Lilac (based in Israel), she became the first bikini-clad Arab model on the cover of an Arabic magazine.Amy Kaslow, " Arab Israeli women have been hampered by a society that has accorded Arabs and women, much less Arab women, second-class status ", Fortune, September 22, 2014Shatha Yaish, " Itsy bitsy teen weeny Arab bikini revolution ", The Australian, October 12, 2011Pierre Klochendler, " Arab Magazine Challenges Attitudes About Arab Women ", IPSNews, May 17, 2013 Lebanese-Australian fashion designer Aheda Zanetti created the "burkini" as a modest option to the bikini, which has become very popular among Muslims.Hafsa Lodi, The rise of the burkini: how the modest swimwear has gone global , The National, Oct 10, 2019 Rehab Shaaban, an Egyptian designer, tried an even more abaya-like design, but her design was banned due to safety reasons.Youssra El-Sharkawy, Will this new swimwear for conservative Muslims sink or swim? , OZY, October 11, 2019
Variants
While the name "bikini" was at first applied only to beachwear that revealed the wearer's navel, today the fashion industry considers any two-piece swimsuit a bikini. Modern bikini fashions are characterized by a simple, brief design: two triangles of fabric that form a bra and cover the woman's and a third that forms a panty cut below the navel that covers the groin and the intergluteal cleft.
Major styles
There is a range of distinct bikini styles available — string bikini, (topless or top and bottom connected), trikinis (three pieces instead of two), (Sleeveless shirt, bikini bottom), camikinis (Camisole, bikini bottom), bandeaukinis (bandeau top, bikini bottom), skirtinis (bikini top, skirt bottom), microkinis, Sling swimsuit (or suspender bikinis), thong and g-string bikinis, and teardrop bikinis.
In sport
Bikinis have become a major component of marketing various women's sports.Laura Grae Kilborn, " The Marketing Of Female Athletes", The Denver Post, August 11, 1998 It is an official uniform for beach volleyball and is widely worn in athletics and other sports. Sports bikinis have gained popularity since the 1990s.Gertrud Pfister and Mari Kristin Sisjord, Gender and Sport: Changes and Challenges, page 142, Waxmann Verlag, 2013, However, the trend has raised significant criticism in recent years among people who view it as an attempt to sell sex. Female swimmers do not commonly wear bikinis in competitive swimming.Harvey S. Wiener, Total swimming, page 125, Simon & Schuster, 1981, Barry Wilner, Art Seiden, Sam Freas, and Dan Helms, Swimming, page 12, Raintree Steck-Vaughn, 1996, The International Swimming Federation (FINA) voted to prohibit female swimmers from racing in bikinis in its meeting at Rome in 1960.David Maraniss, Rome 1960: The Olympics That Changed the World, page 75, Simon & Schuster, 2008,
Beach volleyball
In 1994, the bikini became the official uniform of women's Olympic beach volleyball. In 1999, the International Volleyball Federation (FIVB) standardized beach volleyball uniforms, with the bikini becoming the required uniform for women. That regulation bottom is called a "bun-hugger", and players names are often written on the back of the bottom.
Bodybuilding
From the 1950s to mid-1970s, men's bodybuilding contest formats were often supplemented with women's beauty contests or bikini shows. The winners earned titles like Miss Body Beautiful, Miss Physical Fitness and Miss Americana, and also presented trophies to the winners of the men's contest.Maria R. Lowe, Women of Steel: Female Bodybuilders and the Struggle for Self-definition, page 57, NYU Press, 1998, In the 1980s, the Ms Olympia competition started in the US and in the UK the NABBA (National Amateur Body Building Association) renamed Miss Bikini International to Ms Universe. In 1986, the Ms Universe competition was divided into two sections – "physique" (for a more muscular physique) and "figure" (traditional feminine presentation in high heels).Sarah Grogan, Body Image: Understanding Body Dissatisfaction in Men, Women and Children, page 63, Routledge, 2007, In November 2010 the IFBBF (International Federation of BodyBuilding & Fitness) introduced a women's bikini contest for women who do not wish to build their muscles to figure competition levels.Tanya Bunsell, Strong and hard women: an ethnography of female body building, Routledge, 2013,
Sports
Women in athletics often wear bikinis of similar size as those worn in beach volleyball. Amy Acuff, a US high-jumper, wore a black leather bikini instead of a track suit at the 2000 Summer Olympics.Staff Correspondent, " Hype Hopes Today's Olympians need more than athletic prowess to win gold", Fort Worth Star-Telegram, August 6, 2000 Runner Florence Griffith-Joyner mixed bikini bottoms with one-legged tights at the 1988 Summer Olympics, earning her more attention than her record-breaking performance in the women's 200 meters event.Anne Marie Balsamo, Technologies of the gendered body, page 46, Duke University Press, 1996, In the 2007 South Pacific Games, the rules were adjusted to allow players to wear less revealing shorts and cropped sports tops instead of bikinis. At the 2006 Asian Games, organizers banned bikini-bottoms for female athletes and asked them to wear long shorts.
Body ideals
In 1950, American swimsuit mogul Fred Cole, owner of Cole of California, told Time that bikinis were designed for "diminutive Gallic women", as because "French girls have short legs... swimsuits have to be hiked up at the sides to make their legs look longer." In 1961, The New York Times reported the opinion that the bikini is permissible for people who are not "too fat or too thin".Claudia Mitchell, Jacqueline Reid-Walsh, Girl Culture: Studying girl culture : a readers' guide, page 183, ABC-CLIO, 2008, In the 1960s etiquette writer Emily Post decreed that "A is for perfect figures only, and for the very young." In The Bikini Book by Kelly Killoren Bensimon, swimwear designer Norma Kamali says, "Anyone with a tummy" should not wear a bikini. Since then, a number of bikini designers including Malia Mills have encouraged women of all ages and body types to take up the style.Charlotte Williamson and Maggie Davis, 101 Things to Buy Before You Die, page 14, New Holland Publishers, 2007, The 1970s saw the rise of the lean ideal of female body and figures like Cheryl Tiegs. Her figure remained in vogue in the 21st century.Don Johnson, Body: Recovering Our Sensual Wisdom, page 102, North Atlantic Books, 1992,
Bikini underwear
Certain types of underwear are described as bikini underwear and are designed for men and women. For women, bikini or bikini-style underwear is underwear that is similar in size and form to a regular bikini. It can refer to virtually any undergarment that provides less coverage to the midriff than lingerie, panties or knickers,Alison J. Carter, Underwear: The Fashion History, page 111, Batsford, 1992, especially suited to clothing such as . For men, bikini briefs are underpants that resemble women's bikini bottoms, being smaller and more revealing than men's classic briefs. Men's bikini briefs can be low- or high-side that are usually lower than the true waist, often at hips, and usually have no access pouch or flap, nor leg bands at tops of thighs.Shaun Cole, The Story of Men's Underwear, pages 90–93, Parkstone International, 2012, String bikini briefs have front and rear sections that meet in the crotch but not at the waistband, with no fabric on the side of the legs.
History
As the swimsuit was evolving, underwear also started to change. Between 1900 and 1940, swimsuit lengths followed the changes in underwear designs.Muriel Barbier, Shazia Boucher, The Story of Lingerie, page 139, Parkstone International, 2012, In the 1920s women started discarding the corset, while the Cadole company of Paris started developing something they called the "breast girdle".Anthony Napoleon, Awakening Beauty, page 130, Virtualbookworm Publishing, 2003, During the Great Depression, panties and bras became softly constructed and were made of various elasticized yarns making underwear fit like a second skin. By the 1930s underwear styles for both women and men were influenced by the new brief models of swimwear from Europe. Although the waistband was still above the navel, the leg openings of the panty brief were cut in an arc to rise from the crotch to the hip joint. The brief served as a template for most variations of panties for the rest of the century.Daniel Delis Hill, As Seen in Vogue: A Century of American Fashion in Advertising, page 158, Texas Tech University Press, 2007, Warner standardized the concept of Cup size in 1935. The first underwire bra was developed in 1938. Beginning in the late thirties, , a type of men's briefs, were introduced, featuring very high-cut leg openings and a lower rise to the waistband. Howard Hughes designed a push-up bra to be worn by Jane Russell in The Outlaw in 1943, although Russell stated in interviews that she never wore the 'contraption'. In 1950 Maidenform introduced the first official bust enhancing bra.
Bikini waxing
Bikini waxing is the hair removal of pubic hair beyond the bikini line by use of waxing. The bikini line delineates the part of a woman's pubic area to be covered by the bottom part of a bikini, which means any pubic hair visible beyond the boundaries of a swimsuit.Heinz Tschachler, Maureen Devine, Michael Draxlbauer; The EmBodyment of American Culture; pp 61–62; LIT Verlag, Berlin-Hamburg-Münster; 2003; . Visible pubic hair is widely culturally disapproved, considered to be Embarrassment, and often removed.
Bikini tan
The tan lines created by the wearing of a bikini while tanning are known as a bikini tan. These tan lines separate pale breasts, crotch, and buttocks from otherwise tanned skin. Prominent bikini tan lines were popular in the 1990s,Stephanie Mitchell, " Tan lines belong in the 90s with boob tubes and flared jeans", Stuff, January 17, 2019 and a spa in Brazil started offering perfect bikini tan lines using in 2016.Talia Lakritz, " Women in Brazil are using masking tape to get the perfect tan lines", Insider, November 29, 2016
See also
External links
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