Today in History—July 5: The Atomic Origins of the Bikini

Would you wear a fashion item named after a nuclear test site? Maybe you already have.

On this day in 1946, a French designer unveiled a bombastic (or bombtastic?) new swimsuit and named it the bikini, after Bikini atoll in the Marshall Islands, the site of recent U.S. nuclear testing.

Both the bomb and the bikini were small but devastating, explained the designer, Louis Réard. The 30 square inches of fabric and its sense of freedom quickly became a symbol of changing attitudes toward self-expression and bodily autonomy.

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Although bikini-esque garments stretch back to Roman times, the 20th century began with a period of great modesty and puritanism. This made the drop of the bikini truly scandalous. No models even wanted to debut the two-piece. That is, except for the 18-year-old dancer Micheline Bernardini, who didn’t mind appearing nearly nude. She made history in Piscine Molitor, a swimming pool in Paris—and received some 50,000 fan letters.

Réard, originally an automotive engineer, was inspired by St. Tropez bathers rolling up their swim costumes to increase their tan exposure. After taking over his mother’s lingerie shop, Réard unveiled the bikini—just days after a competitor, Jacques Heim, launched the “atome,” advertised as the “world’s smallest bathing suit.”

In this swimwear arms race, Réard won, promoting his invention as “smaller than the world’s smallest bathing suit.”

Over subsequent decades, bikinis took center stage on actresses like Brigitte Bardot and Ursula Andress and in lyrics, like the number-one song “Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini.” They helped popularize a fashion that was once condemned by the Vatican and banned by some countries.

Today the bikini is more than a remedy against unflattering tan lines: It is an exploration of one’s agency, expression, and relationship with their body. As fashion icon Diana Vreeland said, “The bikini is the most important thing since the atom bomb.”

Famous Birthdays

1911: Georges Pompidou—French president, teacher, and bank director

1924: Osman Lins—Brazilian novelist and short-story writer

1946: Gerardus ’t Hooft—Dutch physicist and Nobel Prize winner

1994: Shohei Ohtani—Japanese baseball player