MICK RAWPORT

FashionSwimwear

Mar 12

“Bikini Atoll, central Pacific Ocean, July 1, 1946: the US conducts a nuclear bomb test. At this time, attractive women are known as ‘bombshells’ and anything intense is ‘atomic.’ Just four days later, in Paris, on July 5, 1946, French designer Louis Réard decides to name his new creation le bikini, after Bikini Atoll, implying that his invention is as momentous as the new bomb.

No French model dares to wear his skimpy creation, so he hires a stripper to show it off to the press. Réard opens a Bikini Shop, which he runs for decades, but the scandalous bikini is banned in many nations. It gradually comes into vogue after resistance wears down due to movie-stars like Brigitte Bardot flashing bikinis on-screen. Actually, two-piece swimsuits were around in the 1930s, but were high-waisted. None showed the belly-button. That was the grand taboo.

Louis Réard has proven to be right: the Bikini is surely one of the greatest inventions known to Mankind. The most daring bikinis make a Man go ballistic. The average Man has an in-built Bikini Radar that scans tbe beach, homing in on all shapes and sizes displayed in bikinis. Since 1946, the three tiny triangles of cloth have undergone some radical changes, with even more scandalous designs in the billion-dollar bikini business. Here are some fantasy bikinis, dreamed up by the photographer…”