Today we raise the cups to toast one of the best inventions of the twentieth century, the bikini! There’s nothing like a beach sunbath wearing women bikinis on the beach, but there’s more to the history of bikinis for girls that you probably didn’t know about!
It’s the garment that scandalized the most purists but came to revolutionize the world of fashion. Two pieces made to cover the intimate skin of the females, the bikini, has had quite a history. Here are some of the most surprising facts that you probably didn’t know about bikinis for girls. Let’s celebrate this sexy swimsuit with some interesting facts.
Origin
The inventor was nothing more and nothing less than a French car engineer, Louis Réard. The reality is that Greeks are the inventors of the bikini. The proof is a mosaic of 1,600 BC decorated with images of women in a two-piece suit. Jacques Heim did the same with a swimsuit called “atom” (because of its small size). However, Réard won the hearts by presenting a suit with much less cloth.
The Name Bikini
This revolutionary and “explosive” garment was named after the Bikini Atoll, a reef on the Marshall Islands that was used by the United States to conduct nuclear tests. Swimmer Gertrude Ederle was the first woman to swim across the English Channel in 1926. To do so, she cut her suit in two parts to have greater freedom in her movements.
The First Bikini Show
Micheline Bernardini, a dancer who undressed at the Casino de Paris, was the first to forget modesty and pose with a bikini. In the 60s, the beloved Lycra appeared, and with it, the first elastic swimsuits. The American actress Esther Williams was known for her role in the tape Bathing Beauty (School of Mermaids), where she wore a swimsuit. However, she was labeled immoral when she wore a pretty tiny bikini.
Bikini Bans
The bikini got a ban in the Miss World contest of 1951. Ursula Andress was also the first to appear in a big-screen bikini in the 007 stories against Dr. No. In 1960, Brian Hyland released the bikini anthem.
The Bikini Shrink
The bikini continued to shrink, and the thong made its appearance in the seventies. Gabrielle Reece, a professional volleyball player, was the sensation with a sporty design bikini in 1993. Claudia Schiffer, Cindy Crawford, and Naomi Campbell put on fashion the panties above the hip to highlight her legs. The song Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini was known for this daring garment.
The Most Expensive Bikini
Thirty million dollars is what the most expensive bikini in the world costs. It has diamonds: one with a heart shape of 51 carats, one with a 30-carat emerald, a pair of 15 carat round diamonds, and another pair of 8-carat pearl diamonds. Also, crystals include platinum. The Molly Sims model had to present this “little gem” to the world in Sports Illustrated magazine in 2006. In April last year, 700 bikini Russians slipped into the snows of Zelena Mountain (at a temperature between 15 and 17 degrees), breaking a Guinness world record in a massive decline in ski boards.
A Lot Of Revenue
Last year, Brazilian women bikinis and swimsuits accounted for a turnover of US $1.9 billion, and exports generated US $10.4 million. The bikini is a bikini designed by the American Andrew Schneider that allows you to charge the battery of your cell phone, camera, or iPod while you sunbathe. You can swim with it, but it should only be dry before connecting any electronic device. Not bad for something so tiny.
July 5th is the World Bikini Day. That day commemorates the date on which the female summers changed forever with the official presentation of this two-piece garment. This year, Miss Mundo will withdraw the women bikinis test out of respect for the Muslim religion professed in Indonesia, host country of the contest next September.
Disputed Origins
Bikini Day commemorates the presentation of the first bikini. It was in Paris 1946 in the Molitor pool. It is not clear who was its inventor. Its creation has a dispute between the French Jacques Heim and Louis Réard.
Louis Réard had trouble finding a model willing to pose with his creation: no woman of the time wanted to appear with such a daring garment, so Michelini Bernardini, a dancer at the Casino de Paris, finally took care of it. The first model got a stamp with newspaper pages as a bikini in honor of the nuclear tests that days before the Pacific atoll with the same name.
A Continued Feud
Heim promoted the creation as “the smallest swimsuit in the world” and his competitor, Réard, counterattacked, it as “smaller than the smallest swimsuit in the world.” The fight between both parents could be left on boards since the appearance of these two French, in the 1930s, women already wore two pieces to enjoy the beach. Of course, with many more centimeters of fabric.
In 1947, one year after her appearance, Lucía Bosé picked up the title of Miss Italia with a brief bikini that helped expand her success in the pizza country. At the beginning of the garment and to maintain the dignity, police officers armed with a meter traveled the beaches, measuring that the bikini was not too scarce.
Conclusion
Through thick and thin, the bikini made it survive, and today it’s a blessing for the ladies, and of course, for some men. Do you have any other interesting facts to share about a bikini?
