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In Classical antiquity swimming and bathing was most often done nude. In some settings coverings were used. Murals at Pompeii show women wearing two-piece suits covering the areas around their breasts and hips in a fashion remarkably similar to a bikini of c. 1960. After this, the notion of special water apparel seems to have been lost for centuries.
In the 18th century women wore "bathing gowns" in the water; these were long dresses of fabrics that would not become transparent when wet, with weights sewed into the hems so that they would not rise up in the water. The men's swim suit, a rather form-fitting wool garment with long sleeves and legs, similar to long underwear, was developed and would change little for a century.
In the 1980s the thong or "tanga" came out of Brazil, said to have been inspired by traditional garments of native tribes in the Amazon.
| History of the Bikini | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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A Brazilian story: while the backless bikini bottom is widely credited as having been first made popular on the beaches of Rio de Janeiro. The direction can be seen as beginning in the early sixties with the vision of a girl from Ipanema in her 2-piece and the swimsuits competitions at Ipanema that followed in her wake. |
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It was certainly not the first time women clothed themselves in two-piece, midriff bearing attire. The oldest depiction of the two-piece bikini appears at the end of the Roman Empire in. The famous mosaic from the 4th Century AD, found in the Villa Romana del Casale (Piazza Armerina, Sicily), shows ten maidens wearing bandeau tops and bikini bottoms. As public bathing was a common tradition for many ancient civilizations clothing covering private parts would have been common and is found most prominently among the ruins of Pompeii.
Pompeii society shows no sign of bashfulness in its many frescoes and surviving statues.
Still the two piece suit is a relative rarity in our surviving art legacy. The Greeks and later the Romans gave us Aphrodite/Venus who represents the most popular archetype of the beauty from the sea. It is common to find sirens and mermaids in many cultures.
The evolution of swim wear in the 20th century became the course of discarding the uncomfortable corset and the work eroticizing the body was done by exposing more and more skin.
By the late 1930s, bathing suit manufacturers began taking advantage of new developments in fabric technology when Lastex and nylon, a quick-drying elasticized fabric, were developed. By 1934 the swimsuit hugged the body and was constructed to allow shoulder straps to be lowered for tanning. By the end of the decade, molded-fit suits were introduced, featuring the "nude look." The "panel suit" was also popular, retaining a a small skirt Two piece suits weren't new. By the 1940s, two-piece bathing costumes are gaining in popularity but still conceal the belly button. Film stars including Ava Gardner, Rita Hayworth, and Lana Turner were photographed wearing the two-piece swimsuit. A gracefully draped or skirted bottom half was common attire for screen siren Esther Williams.As part of wartime rationing, the U.S. Government, in 1943, ordered a 10 percent reduction in the fabric used in woman's swimwear. Off went the skirt panel, and out came the bare midriff. At beaches across the country, men paid special attention to women doing their patriotic duty. However while Hollywood's Hays production codes allowed two-piece gowns they prohibited exposing the bellybutton on-screen. This meant the naval acquired a forbidden aura setting the stage for sensation. Some fashion historians trace the thongs first public U.S. appearance to the 1939 World's Fair when New York Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia mandated that the city's nude dancers cover themselves but Brazil is given credit for popularizing the thong as a swimsuit. It may actually be humanity's earliest form of clothing. In 1939, E. I. duPont de Nemours & Company developed a nylon called 6.6 polymer that revolutionized the manmade materials industry. In the years to come, other synthetic materials such as Dacron, Orlon, Lycra, and Spandex were invented and were used alone or blended to make swimsuits. During this period, textile manufacturers also began to experiment with woven patterns and bright colors.
In 1946 two Frenchman formally introduced the concept of the bikini to the modern world. Jacques Heim and Louis Reard (ray-YARD) are credited with inventing the name bikini and popularizing it. Reard's suit was a refinement of the work of Jacques Heim who, two months earlier, had introduced the "Atome" (named for its size) and advertised it as the world's "smallest bathing suit".
Reard invented the name and pushed the envelope. He shrunk his suit down to 30 inches of fabric - basically a bra top and two inverted triangles of cloth connected by string - and put the navel on center stage.
Reard'split the "atome"' even smaller, but could not find a model who would dare to wear his design. He ended up hiring Micheline Bernardini, a nude dancer from the Casino de Paris as his model.Reard said the suit was smaller than the world's smallest bathing suit. How small was it? Well...Reard was quoted as saying..."It was so small that it revealed everything about the girl except her mother's maiden name!" Reard's firm did it's part to fan the fantasies by proclaiming that a two piece wasn't a bikini "unless it could pulled through a wedding ring." The world took notice. In Catholic countries - Spain, Portugal, and Italy - The bikini was banned. Decency leagues pressured Hollywood to keep it out of the movies. One writer said it's a "two piece bathing which reveals everything about a girl except for her mothers maiden name." Movie star Esther Williams who probably was seen in a two piece bathing suit by more people than anyone in the world, once said: "A bikini is a thoughtless act".
In 1951 bikinis were banned from the Miss World Contest following the crowning of Miss Sweden in a bikini and subsequent protests with a number of countries threatening to withdraw. The Miss World Contest controversy likely had a lot to do with bikinis becoming all the rage in Europe; just saying no, usually backfires after all. In the '50's Brigitte Bardot did wonders for business- But not in modest America. Here it remained an invitation to scandal. As recently as 1957, Modern Girl magazine sniffed, "It is hardly necessary to waste words over the so called bikini since it is inconceivable that any girl with tact and decency would ever wear such a thing.” |
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| Q:
What is the difference between erotic art and pornography? A: lighting |
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| Fine art, as we know, is respectable. Sex is not. The
reclining nude is where they meet. One of the most fascinating
of fine art's spectator sports is watching the rude removed from
the nude. In art, the admired nude male is upright and active. The horizontal male is a male at his weakest. In classical art, the male reclining nude appears in the form of a vanquished warrior and in western art as the crucified Christ held in his mother's arms or Samson shorn of his strength by the wily Delilah. ---Reclining Nude, by Lidia Guibert Ferrara and Frances Borzello, The Guardian November 2, 2002
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| 1957: Jayne Mansfield with bevy of bikinied water bottles photograph by Allan Grant/Life Magazine | ||
| 1960: | ||
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 1960:
Brian Hyland sings "Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot
Bikini," triggering a bikini-buying spree among American teens.
[click pic for Yoplait commercial @ youtube] |
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| 1962: Girl from Ipanema | ||
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1962: The
Girl from Ipanema
makes Ipanema a magic word for listeners.
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| 1963: The bikini meets a challenge in the generous form of Annette Funicello. The ex-mouseketeer's "Beach Party," with singer Frankie Avalon, leads to six sequels, including the memorably titled "How to Stuff a Wild Bikini" (in 1966) Annette Funicello was not in a bikini exposing her naval, by personal request from Walt Disney himself . | ||
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| In 1964 the two-piece became a fixture on dormitory walls around the country with Babette March's appearance on SI's first swimsuit cover photograph by J. Frederick Smith | ||
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| 1966: Actress Raquel Welch battles dinosaurs wearing a ragged two-piece in "One Million Years B.C." The film catapults comely cavegirl Raquel Welch to stardom despite mixed reviews of the saggy screen saga. In 2008 fossils found in the Atapuerca hills, near Burgos, Spain were reliably dated to at least 1.1 million ago, and probably come from a female who was among the first ancient humans to inhabit Europe. The discovery also included primitive stone tools and animal bones with cut marks, | ||
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| 1969: Goldie Hawn makes her bikini and her all-over graffiti a regular feature on the TV series "Laugh-In.". On the show, she would often break out into high-pitched giggles in the middle of a joke, and deliver a polished performance a moment after. Noted equally for her chipper attitude as for her bikini and painted body, Hawn personified something of a 1960s "It" girl. One of her 3 kids is actress Kate Hudson. | ||
| 1970s: Rio and St. Tropez produce the Tanga suit-- also called the Thong, the string bikini or "dental floss." The uncomfortable design becomes de rigeur for teen posters, muscle car magazines and boxing ring girls who announce the rounds. | ||
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| 1983:As
Princess Leia, Carrie Fisher makes the ornate gold bikini a
fashionable fantasy in 1983's "Return of the Jedi," the
most successful of the George Lucas trilogy. In Return of the Jedi, it is revealed that she is the twin sister of Luke Skywalker, and thus the daughter of Darth Vader. Leia is raised with Winter, who becomes her handmaiden later on in life, as well as her children's nanny. At the age of 18, Leia becomes the youngest member of the Imperial Senate and becomes good friends with Senator Pooja Naberrie of Naboo, her maternal cousin. She also becomes one of the driving forces behind the Rebel Alliance, the New Republic and even later, the Galactic Alliance. She serves the Senate until Emperor Palpatine dissolves it. |
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| Actress Halle Berry, as Jinx in the 20th James Bond feature "Die Another Day," | ||
 Berry is paying homage to this iconic scene featuring Ursula Andress' as Honey Rider from 1962 Bond film "Dr. No" also wearing a hip holster holding a hunting knife. Rider is widely regarded as the first Bond Girl. with the novel, Rider is a very independent woman claiming to not need help from anyone. Resourceful and courageous, she states that she can defend herself against any hostile when she first meets Bond. According to Andress, “This bikini made me into success.” That white bikini has been described as a “defining moment in the sixties liberalization of screen eroticism”. |
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| An even more iconic bikini role for Halle Berry was catwoman which enjoys growing cult status despite limited box office success. The catwoman archetype harkens back to the last high civilization which florified the woman's body more than 3,000 years ago: the Egyptians |
