History of the bikini: Bikini history, as fabulous as the bikini

A bikini is a type of women's bathing suit, characterized by two separate parts; one covering the breasts, the other the groin (and optionally the buttocks), leaving an uncovered area between the two garments. The shapes of both parts of a bikini closely resemble women's underwear, and the lower part of a bikini can therefore range from the more revealing thong or g-string to briefs and the more modest square-cut shorts.  The history of the bikini dates as back as 1400BC. Two-piece garments worn by women for athletic purposes have been observed on Greek urns and paintings, dated as early as 1400BC.

For a glimpse of how the super-rich relaxed in ancient times, visit the Villa Romana del Casale, constructed on a terrace about three and a half miles from the town of Piazza Amerina in Sicily. The villa provides us some clues to the bikini history.

The villa was built around 330 AD as a retreat and hunting lodge at the heart of a great landed estate, on the remains of an even older villa. Though the villa suffered damage during the time of the Vandals and Visigoths, it endured through the Byzantine and Arabic eras. The residents finally fled to Piazza Amerina in the 12th century when a landslide of mud covered the villa.

A must-see, well-preserved mosaic, created by African artists, is titled "Coronation of the Winner" and features trim young women exercising with balls, discus, and hand weights. The winner holds a palm leaf and a crown of roses. What’s so special? The insight mosaic provides to the history of the bikini!  The fashionable female athletes are dressed in the same style bikinis worn on the beach by sun-worshippers today.

 

The modern bikini was invented by engineer Louis Reard in Paris in 1946 (introduced on July 5), and named after Bikini Atoll, the site of nuclear weapon tests in the Marshall Islands, on the reasoning that the burst of excitement it would cause would be like the atomic bomb .

The bikini began to be marketed and sold in the United States just one year after its introduction in France.  Reaction to the swimsuit was great, but sales were initially quite slow. Men and women alike assumed that the suit was simply too bare and scandalous for conservative American women to don in public. American women did indeed approach the swimsuit quite cautiously until the revolutionary decade of the 1960s, in which bikini sales soared tremendously. 

The bikini has now become such an entrenched part of swimsuit design that it is a wonder the modern swimsuit is only 60 years old. True to its explosive nature, the bikini has inspired even more shocking innovations in swimsuit design, including the short-lived monokini and the immensely popular thong bikini. It would be interesting to learn if Louis Reard has the foresight to know of the far-reaching implications of the scanty two pieces of cloth that comprised the original bikini.

Now that you know the bikini history, you will enjoy bikini posters even more, every time appreciating a beauty of this heavenly garment along with the one who wears it.