A Brief History of the Bikini
A Brief History of the Bikini How the tiny swimsuit conquered America. By JULIA TURNER JULY 03, 2015 3:10 PM TWEET SHARE COMMENT This holiday weekend, Americans will be cavorting on the beach, many of them in swimwear that covers as little as possible. In 2006, Julia Turner traced the history of the bikini to explain its exploding popularity. The article is reprinted below. Micheline Bernardini, 1946. Photo courtesy Wikimedia Commons Sixty years ago, the world’s first bikini made its debut at a poolside fashion show in Paris. The swimsuit is now so ubiquitous—and comparatively so demure—that it’s hard to comprehend how shocking people once found it. When the bikini first arrived, its revealing cut scandalized even the French fashion models who were supposed to wear it; they refused, and the original designer had to enlist a stripper instead. The images below illustrate how the bikini slowly gained acceptance—first on the Riviera, then i...
