65 Year Old Bikini: A Magnificent History Of Evolution (III)

It's only a week since bikini was introduced to Europe

On June 30, 1946, the atomic bomb exploded on Bikini Island in the Pacific Ocean. 18 days later, a Frenchman named Louis Reard launched a bra style jacket and briefs Swimwear 。 That day he hired a call girl as a model and showed his works in a public swimming pool. A week later, bikini became popular in Europe.

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French engineer Louis designed a suit "smaller than the smallest swimsuit in the world"

Models are afraid to try on the first bikini for strippers

Before 1946, bikini was just a place name - the name of the island where President Truman approved the nuclear bomb test. In the first half of that year, women only dared to swim at the beach in a "swimsuit" with a stand collar and flat feet tightly wrapped around their bodies. The beach scene was dark.

On July 18, 1946, the 18th day after the atomic bombing of Bikini Island in the Marshall Islands, French Louis Reard launched a swimsuit composed of three pieces of cloth and four belts in Paris. This swimsuit, which covers the smallest body area in the world, protects the breast through the bra, and the back is almost naked except for the rope belt. The crotch of the triangular underpants is raised as far as possible, exposing the hip, leg and crotch to the greatest extent. It is simple in form and small and exquisite. It only uses less than 30 inches of cloth. It can be rolled into a ball and put into a match box.

Before that, swimwear was conservative, covering most of the body. Lild's design exposes most of the upper abdomen. The swimsuit is made of fabric printed with newspaper content. The smart designer implied that his bold design would occupy a large number of pages in the world's newspapers. Many professional fashion models in Paris were afraid of this swimsuit because they were nearly naked after wearing it. However, a stripper named Michal Bernatini bravely challenged the traditional concept by putting on a bikini beside a swimming pool for reporters to take photos, while another bikini was put on a plastic model.

Bikinis make trouble for beaches all over the world

The appearance of bikini shocked the world as much as that of the atomic bomb. The ingenious Lild lost no time in taking advantage of the impact of the atomic bomb explosion on Bikini Island and resolutely named the two two-piece three-point swimsuit "Bikini", thus making a fortune. Although this new style caused great controversy, it was still welcomed by "those naughty girls who decorated the beach" in France. After the early sensation subsided, the bikini swimsuit quickly replaced the one-piece swimsuit as the swimsuit worn by women on the beach and when swimming.

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In fact, this swimsuit named "Bikini" really shocked the world. Countries along the Mediterranean Sea regard it as a plague, which is banned by Italy. The Spanish Coast Guard deports bikini wearers, and even the United States has arrested people for bikini.

Australian designer Paula Stafford introduced bikini swimwear to Australia in 1952, which caused a great stir. John Moffat, the beach inspector, immediately caught a model wearing Paula's short swimsuit. "Too short!" he shouted at the top of his voice as he escorted the model away from the beach. Paula was not frightened. She asked five other girls to wear bikini swimsuits, notified the local newspaper and invited the mayor, a priest and the police chief to the scene. As a result, nothing happened, but she achieved amazing publicity results.

The more you cross the border, the hotter you get, the less you wear it

By the 1930s, the style of non competition swimwear had undergone revolutionary changes. Straps have replaced sleeves, and the trouser legs have become shorter and shorter, and the neckline has become lower and lower. The most fundamental innovation of women's swimwear is the emergence of bikini swimwear. As soon as the bikini fever spread, it hit the mass culture and moral concept of the whole world with a momentum of overwhelming.

In the 1960s, movie star Kirk Douglas and French actress Brigitte Bardot in bikini frolicked on the beach of Cannes, making a sensational scandal. Brigitte became famous for wearing sexy bikini, and even made great contributions to French international trade.

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At that time, bikini was only popular in Europe, and it was not introduced to the United States until 15 years later. One of the most classic bikinis is a strapless bikini swimsuit with dot pattern worn by French movie star Brigitte Bardot in the film The Girl Wearing a Bikini in 1952. Today, this design is still put on the overpass by many fashion brands and has evolved into a new fashion.

In 1964, the topless bikini designed by Rudy opened fire on the public ethics fortress. Cole introduced a swimsuit with fishing nets to cover the chest and waist.

Then came the unstructured swimwear of the 1970s and 1980s. These swimsuits cover almost nothing except the lower body. Swimming without jacket and naked swimming began to appear, although the number of people who took this way of swimming was still small.

The return of the 1990s put the hips back in women's swimwear

In the 1990s, the style of swimwear tended to be "cautious" again. They covered more body area and re used some original sewing methods and posture adjustment methods. Model Jerry Hall launched a series of swimwear aimed at "putting the hips back into women's swimwear" in 1989. In 1992, Cole Company developed the inflatable TopSecret according to the popular prediction of "breast enlargement will return". In 1995, as high-tech materials entered the fashion industry, bikinis again became the favorite design object of many international fashion design masters. Bikinis with high-tech materials and retro styles to reproduce the image of the 1950s, bikinis with rhinestones, and banded bikinis came out one after another. In addition, there are bikinis, topless bikinis, mini bikinis and a kind of bikini called "barbaric" bikini with only three very small cloth strips fixed in the shame, which use belts instead of cloth to wrap around three points of the human body.

The development experience of swimwear is closely related to people's concept changes and social culture. No matter what kind of "treatment" it received at the beginning, swimwear has become an irreplaceable part of the clothing industry.

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