Bikini

This article is about the bathing suit. For the island group, see Bikini Atoll. For other uses, see Bikini (disambiguation).

Mexican actress Dolores del Río posing in a publicity photograph for the film In Caliente (1935). Del Río was a pioneer in wearing a two piece swimsuit.[1]
A woman wearing a black bikini at a beach in 2009

A bikini is a two-piece swimsuit primarily worn by women that features one piece on top that covers the breasts, and a second piece on the bottom: the front covering the pelvis but usually exposing the navel, and the back generally covering the intergluteal cleft and some or all of the buttocks. The size of the top and bottom can vary, from bikinis that offer full coverage of the breasts, pelvis, and buttocks, to more revealing designs with a thong or G-string bottom that covers only the mons pubis, but exposes the buttocks, and a top that covers only the areolae. Bikini bottoms covering about half the buttocks may be described as "Brazilian-cut".

The modern bikini swimsuit was introduced by French clothing designer Louis Réard in July 1946, and was named after the Bikini Atoll, where the first public test of a nuclear bomb had taken place four days before.[2]

Due to its revealing design, the bikini was once considered controversial, facing opposition from a number of groups and being accepted only very slowly by the general public. In many countries, the design was banned from beaches and other public places: in 1949, France banned the bikini from being worn on its coastlines; Germany banned the bikini from public swimming pools until the 1970s, and some communist groups condemned the bikini as a "capitalist decadence".[3] The bikini also faced criticism from some feminists, who reviled it as a garment designed to suit men's tastes, and not those of women. Despite this backlash, however, the bikini still sold well throughout the mid to late 20th century.

The bikini gained increased exposure and acceptance as film stars like Brigitte Bardot, Raquel Welch, and Ursula Andress wore it and were photographed on public beaches and seen in film.[3] The minimalist bikini design became common in most Western countries by the mid-1960s as both swimwear and underwear. By the late 20th century, it was widely used as sportswear in beach volleyball and bodybuilding. There are a number of modern stylistic variations of the design used for marketing purposes and as industry classifications, including monokini, microkini, tankini, trikini, pubikini, skirtini, thong, and g-string. A man's single piece brief swimsuit may also be called a bikini or "bikini brief", particularly if it has slimmer sides.[4] Similarly, a variety of men's and women's underwear types are described as bikini underwear. The bikini has gradually gained wide acceptance in Western society. By the early 2000s, bikinis had become a US$811 million business annually, and boosted spin off services such as bikini waxing and sun tanning.[5]

  1. ^ López, Alberto (August 3, 2017). "Dolores del Río, la primera actriz hispanoamericana que conquistó Hollywood". El País (in Spanish). Retrieved March 5, 2022.
  2. ^ Weisgall, Jonathan M. (1994). Operation Crossroads: The atomic tests at Bikini Atoll. Naval Institute Press. pp. 263–264.
  3. ^ a b Alac, Patrik (2012). Bikini Story (first ed.). Parkstone International. p. 52. ISBN 978-1-78042-951-9.
  4. ^ "Bikini". Merriam-Webster. February 13, 2014.
  5. ^ Edwards, Lorna (June 3, 2006). "You've still got it, babe". The Age. Archived from the original on March 6, 2016. Retrieved April 14, 2023.