Photographs: Anthony Harvey/Getty Images
On July 5, 1946, Louis Reard presented his daring creation that has caught everyone's fancy ever since.
As the modern bikini turns 68 this month, here's some bikini trivia you'd enjoy reading ;-)
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1. It was NOT introduced by a fashion designer!
Photographs: Dinuka Liyanawatte/Reuters
Louis Reard who introduced the design into modern western civilisation was an automobile engineer who had taken over his mother's lingerie business in Paris.
The idea to create a two-piece bikini came to him when he saw women on the beaches of St Tropez beaches rolling up their swimsuits to get a better tan.
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2. It has been named after a place!
Photographs: Evening Standard/Getty Images
As strange as it may sound, it is indeed true.
It takes the name from the Bikini Atoll, part of the Marshall Islands, in the Pacific Ocean where the US had conducted its first nuclear weapons testing on July 1, 1946.
Reard introduced his garment exactly four days later -- on July 5 -- and named it in the hope that it would create an 'explosive commercial and cultural reaction', not unlike the explosion at Bikini Atoll.
More than six decades have passed since then and Reard, we suppose, wasn't entirely off the mark with his hopes.
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3. No fashion model wanted to wear it
Photographs: Getty Images
Since he couldn't find a model to sport it before the cameras, Reard simply hired a nude dancer who happily presented it for him.
That is the lady in the picture -- Micheline Bernardini.
Reard claimed that the bikini was so small it could fit into a two-by-two inches large box that the model is holding in the photograph.
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4. It isn't a modern invention
Photographs: Wikimedia Creative Commons
Women athletes wearing bikini-like garments have been depicted in paintings dating back to 1400 BC
This one is from Villa Romana del Casale in Sicily is one of the earliest discovered illustrations of the garment.
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5. It was banned in several Western countries
Photographs: Ricardo Moraes/Reuters
When the Vatican called it sinful, the bikini was banned in several countries including Spain, Portugal, Italy, Belgium and Australia.
It was also prohibited in several American states.
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6. Miss World started as Festival Bikini Contest
Photographs: Rahman Roslan/Getty Images
And it was supposed to be a one-off event in 1951.
The media seemed to love the idea and referred to as Miss World.
Eric Morley, the organiser, registered it as a trademark and thus began the contest that has given us the likes of Aishwarya Rai and Priyanka Chopra among others.
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7. Cannes has her to thank
Photographs: Getty Images
Brigitte Bardot's photograph wearing a bikini on the beach in Cannes during the 1953 Cannes Film Festival not only helped garner publicity for the festival but also helped boos her own career.
The picture, according to The Guardian, also made Saint-Tropez into the bikini capital of the world.
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8. It was the official uniform for of women's Olympic beach volleyball
Photographs: Charlie Crowhurst/Getty Images
This was thanks to the good folks at the International Volleyball Federation.
The move came in 1994 and received mixed response.
While some believed it was exploitative, others felt it was a practical choice.
However in 2012, the Federation dropped its bikini mandate after coming under pressure from conservative nations.
Have you seen our Glamour section yet? You should! Right here!
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