Saturday, February 28, 2009

Bikini Features

By Dennis Durrel

The bikini isone of the mostpopularandpossibly the smallest fashions ever created!The bikini was introduced to the public by Louis Rard and Jacques Heim in a 1946 fashion show. The design was so scandalous for the times that only a nude dancerwould agreeto model it!

Louis and Jaccques may have thought the idea for the bikini wasan original one butin fact it really wasn't such a new idea at all.Ancient Roman mosaics exist which show women in two-piece bra and pantieshaped costumes that look surprisingly like the modern-day bikini.

According to somestories Rard and Heim named their new bathing suit a 'bikini' after the site of the recent nuclear weapons test atBikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands. They thought the new bathing suit would have an "explosive" effect! They were certainly right about that!

By the 1960's whilst the first Bond girl, Ursula Andress, came dripping from the sea in her teeny bikini to the appreciationof James Bond himself, the bikini was already one of the most well-known fashions in women's swimsuit. Diffidence be suspended. The bikini had caught on.

Today onbeaches and bypools worldwide you can find a variety of bikinis. The one that started it all in 1946 was actually one of the most 'revealing'. It was astring bikini, with triangles of fabric covering the breasts and genitals and only strings making up the rest. Many string bikinis also offer coverage of the buttocks, though the 1946 one did not. No wonder back then they thought it was scandalous!

Other version of bikini include a bandeau style top which has a rectangular strip of fabric covering up the breasts, one with a top like a push-up bra, and more ordinary bottom pieces like briefs, shorts, or briefs with a tiny skirt attached. Modern brands consist of the tankini which has a tank top and the monokini, scanty one-piece of clothing which resembles the bikini, leaving the midriff ordinarily bare. - 16004

About the Author: