Two parters saved fabric during WW2.
In 1946 Louis Reard, auto engineer, and part time designer for his mother's Parisian lingerie store, in an effort to drum up publicity for his mothers shop, created the Bikini, first shown on this date in 1946. The newest fashion in swim wear was so scandalous no model would wear one, so Reard hired Micheline Bernardini, a local ecdysiast.
Named for atom bomb tests on Bikini Atoll in the Pacific 5 days earlier. The first's bikini's fabric was printed with news accounts of the blast. Louis Réard's second, and perhaps greatest innovation was his universal criteria for measuring it: “A bikini is not a bikini unless it can be pulled through a wedding ring.”
Brigitte Bardot was the first celebrity to publicly wear the reviled suit, but not until 1953.
The first American girl to publicly display the suit was famous sex kitten Annette Funicello, in 1963's Beach Party, much to the chagrin of furious Uncle Walt.
Thanks be.
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