National Bikini Day
The Fourth of July may be America's birthday, but July 5 celebrates another important creation—the day in 1946 when designer Louis Réard debuted the bikini swimsuit in Paris. Not long before, in the South of France (naturally), another designer, Jacques Heim, unveiled a two-piece suit he called the "Atome," after the smallest known particle of matter. Réard rose to the challenge of making this small bathing suit even smaller, creating a triangular string swimsuit and calling it a "bikini" after the Bikini Atoll, where atomic bomb tests had recently taken place.
This race to be the raciest was fueled in part by the changing of times, but also by WWII-era cloth rationing, which forced designers to get creative with materials. The result was a scandal, so much so that it was outlawed in many countries—but like any good fashion innovation, it was ahead of its time. In the '50s and '60s, icons like Brigitte Bardot and Sophia Loren were photographed in bikinis, sunning themselves on beaches and shocking the red carpets of the Cannes Film Festival.
Everything took off from there. Brian Hyland's song Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini inspired a bikini-buying spree. Films were made. The Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue was born. The rest is history.
To honor such a pivotal moment in the mythology of swimwear, we've assembled some of our favorite pieces currently on Garmentory. Browse them below while you commemorate the itsy bitsy suit that brought us here.
