On July 5th, 1946, Michelle Bernardini was the only model who dared to parade in the Hotel Molitor’s pool in Paris, in a two-piece swimsuit, designed by the automobile engineer Louis Reard.
Athletes in a two-piece, fragment of the mosaic of the Villa Romana del Casale, Sicily.
Michelle Bernardini said: “This is going to be a blast, like the explosions at Bikini Atoll happening in Oceania”. And that’s how the sexy two-piece was christened.
But in ancient Greece many centuries before, women athletes exercised in two-pieces. And years later so did the Romans, as can be seen in some mosaics, such as those preserved in the Villa Romana del Casale, in Sicily. So the bikini was invented in Greece.
After 1946, the bikini became fashionable and was worn by many actresses, such as Marilyn Monroe, and Brigitte Bardot, in the film ‘The girl in the bikini’, 1952.
It is said that the first bikini was seen in Spain in 1948 on a beach in Santander. At that time the Guardia Civil fined those who wore them due to the public scandal. When the first tourists in bikinis arrived on the beaches of Santander, Benidorm and Marbella, Franco’s censors banned it in 1951, calling it an “indecorous garment”.
For the full article, please visit Diario de Ibiza website here.