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KF5JRV > TODAY 05.07.19 13:39l 8 Lines 3158 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : 10062_KF5JRV
Read: GUEST
Subj: Today in History - Jul 05
Path: IW8PGT<IZ3LSV<F1OYP<ON0AR<VE2PKT<N3HYM<KA3BVJ<AB0AF<KF5JRV
Sent: 190705/1137Z 10062@KF5JRV.#NWAR.AR.USA.NA BPQK6.0.18
On July 5, 1946, French designer Louis Reard unveils a daring two-pieceswimsuit at the Piscine Molitor, a popular swimming pool in Paris.Parisian showgirl Micheline Bernardini modeled the new fashion, whichReard dubbed “bikini,ö inspired by a news-making U.S. atomic test thattook place off the Bikini Atoll in the Pacific Ocean earlier that week.European women first began wearing two-piece bathing suits thatconsisted of a halter top and shorts in the 1930s, but only a sliver ofthe midriff was revealed and the navel was vigilantly covered. In theUnited States, the modest two-piece made its appearance during World WarII, when wartime rationing of fabric saw the removal of the skirt paneland other superfluous material. Meanwhile, in Europe, fortifiedcoastlines and Allied invasions curtailed beach life during the war, andswimsuit development, like everything else non-military, came to astandstill.
In 1946, Western Europeans joyously greeted the first war-free summer inyears, and French designers came up with fashions to match the liberatedmood of the people. Two French designers, Jacques Heim and Louis Reard,developed competing prototypes of the bikini. Heim called his the “atomöand advertised it as “the world’s smallest bathing suit.ö Reard’sswimsuit, which was basically a bra top and two inverted triangles ofcloth connected by string, was in fact significantly smaller. Made outof a scant 30 inches of fabric, Reard promoted his creation as “smallerthan the world’s smallest bathing suit.ö Reard called his creation thebikini, named after the Bikini Atoll.In planning the debut of his new swimsuit, Reard had trouble finding aprofessional model who would deign to wear the scandalously skimpytwo-piece. So he turned to Micheline Bernardini, an exotic dancer at theCasino de Paris, who had no qualms about appearing nearly nude inpublic. As an allusion to the headlines that he knew his swimsuit wouldgenerate, he printed newspaper type across the suit that Bernardinimodeled on July 5 at the Piscine Molitor. The bikini was a hit,especially among men, and Bernardini received some 50,000 fan letters.Before long, bold young women in bikinis were causing a sensation alongthe Mediterranean coast. Spain and Italy passed measures prohibitingbikinis on public beaches but later capitulated to the changing timeswhen the swimsuit grew into a mainstay of European beaches in the 1950s.Reard’s business soared, and in advertisements he kept the bikinimystique alive by declaring that a two-piece suit wasn’t a genuinebikini “unless it could be pulled through a wedding ring.ö
In prudish America, the bikini was successfully resisted until the early1960s, when a new emphasis on youthful liberation brought the swimsuiten masse to U.S. beaches. It was immortalized by the pop singer BrianHyland, who sang “Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka-Dot Bikiniö in1960, by the teenage “beach blanketö movies of Annette Funicello andFrankie Avalon, and by the California surfing culture celebrated by rockgroups like the Beach Boys. Since then, the popularity of the bikini hasonly continued to grow.
73, Scott kf5jrv
KF5JRV @ KF5JRV.#NWAR.AR.USA.NA
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