The Origin of Bikini
Bikini generally refers to the swimsuit that women wear when swimming, that is, bikini swimsuit. However, before 1946, bikini was just a place name — the name of the island where President Truman approved the nuclear bomb test explosion.
In the first half of that year, women only dared to swim by the sea in "bathing suits" with standing collars and long trunk tightly wrapped around their bodies, which make the beach a dense mass of darkness.
After 18 days of the atomic bombing in Bikini Island of Marshall Islands, Louis Rilde, a Frenchman, introduced a swimsuit consisting of three cloths and four belts in Paris on July 18th, 1946. This swimsuit with the smallest covering area in the world protects the breast with a bra, and its back is almost naked except a rope belt, which is convenient to carry and beautiful to wear.
Before that, swimwear was conservative and covered most of the body. Rilde's design exposes most of the upper abdomen. The swimsuit is made of fabric printed with newspaper sections content. The smart designer implies that his bold design will occupy a large number of pages in Le Monde. Because it was almost naked after wearing, many professional fashion models in Paris were afraid of this swimsuit at that time. However, a stripper named Michal Bernardini bravely challenged the traditional idea, wearing a bikini beside a swimming pool to let reporters take pictures, while another bikini was worn on a plastic model.
The appearance of bikini shocked the world as much as that atomic bomb exploded. The ingenious Rilde lost no time to take advantage of the influence of the atomic bombing on Bikini Island, and decisively named the two-piece three-point swimsuits "Bikini", thus making a fortune. Although this new style caused great controversy, it was welcomed by "naughty girls who embellish the beach" in France.
In fact, this swimsuit named "Bikini" really shocked the whole world. Mediterranean countries regard it as a plague, Italy explicitly prohibits it, Spain Coast Guard expels bikini wearers, and even America has caught people relevant to bikinis.
Australian designer Paula Stafford introduced bikinis to Australia in 1952, which caused an uproar. John Moffat, a beach inspector, immediately caught a model wearing a short swimsuit designed by Paula. "Too short!" He screamed at the top of his voice and escorted the model away from the beach. Paula was not intimidated. She asked five other girls to put on bikinis, informed 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. Thus, the age of swimwear came.