Is there a more attractive piece of clothing than a bikini? A woman in a bikini - almost naked, but it can appear in it in public without fear of being arrested or convicted. Two tiny pieces of cloth cover the most alluring parts of her body, teasing at the same time emphasizing the hidden secrets of female charms. But it was not always the history of Bikini direct proof.

The invention bikini

The first swimwear more like a veil, rather than what a woman can bathe. These early suits even called bathing, because they were so heavy that swim in them was impossible.

The modern bikini was invented in 1946 by French engineer Louis Reard. He named it after Bikini Atoll in the Pacific Ocean, where the July 1, 1946 is the operation Crossroads - the testing of nuclear weapons. Reard considered that an explosion of joy caused by his new bathing suit, will explode like a nuclear bomb. Contemporary Rearda, Jacques Heim, named his swimsuit preceding bikini atom because of its small size. In response to this Reard said that "the split atom", making it even less. Home Louis Rearda innovation lay in the fact that he opened a female navel, which closed earlier swimwear consisting of two parts.

However, the bikini is not immediately received wide acclaim. In 1949 the newspaper "Los Angeles Times" reported that the "Queen of the beach, the 18-year-old beauty blond Bebe Schopp from Minnesota ... was enthusiastically greeted in Paris, but she said she did not change her opinion of the French swimwear. "I do not approve of bikinis for American girls," - said Bebe French correspondents. "French girls can wear them if they want to, but I still do not approve of them to American girls."

But during the next fifty years it has become the most popular bikini beachwear Beach clothing: a bathing season in full dress   worldwide. French fashion historian Olivier Salliard attributes the popularity of bikini power of women, not the power of fashion. He explains: "the emancipation of swimwear has always been linked to the emancipation of women." By the first decade of the twenty-first century for sale bikini annually brings 811 million dollars.

Bikini in ancient times

Do you want to - believe it or - no, but originally a bikini appeared in ancient times. Images of women involved in sports, dressed in something like a swimsuit, consisting of two parts, can be found on Greek vases and figures relating to 1400 BC

In ancient Rome, the lower part of the costume, which resembles a bikini, a loincloth made of cloth or leather, had the name subligar, or subligaculum, and bandage fabric or leather, supporting the breast, called strophium or mamillare. Girls-athletes from the island of Sicily put subligaria - tight pants, is a more elegant version of the male loincloth and strophium - bandage to support the breasts, which in the literature is often referred to as the fascia, which may mean the bandage of any kind.

In 1998, the Museum of London has been exposed lower part of the ancient bikini made from the skin. However, there is no evidence that these wore a bikini to swim or sunbathe.

Finds from the Roman city of Pompeii, which was destroyed during the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 AD, the Roman goddess Venus, depicted in a bikini. Several statues of Venus in a bikini were found in different places of the city, buried under lava. Of course, as other statues of Venus portrayed her completely naked, and in the ruins of Pompeii pornography even detect the first century, the image of Venus in a bikini there was something shocking to the Romans of Pompeii.

Artworks Diokletianskoy era (286-305 AD) of the Villa del Casale Romagna, Sicily, portray women in clothes reminiscent bikini. The images on the mosaic floor of ten women dressed in something resembling today's bikini - most frequently copied mosaic of 37 million there are colored tiles.

In ancient literature, there is also mention of the bikini. Ovid, one of the canonical poets of Latin literature along with Virgil and Horace, suggests that the top of the bikini - a good place in which to hide love letters. The Latin poet Martial, who wrote in the years 86-103 AD, mentioned the athlete who played ball in clothes similar to the bikini. In one of the epigrams Martial mentions prostitute who goes to the bath in a bikini, while it would be more natural to go there at all without clothes. Theodora, the empress of the Byzantine Empire in the 6th century, allegedly wore a bikini, an actress before won the heart of the Emperor Justinian I.

Of course, these ancient bikini disappeared into the dark days of the Middle Ages. The revival of the bikini was in the middle of the twentieth century.

Swimsuit of two parts

Annette Kellerman

Bikini in its modern form began his career in 1907, when Australian swimmer Annette Kellerman was arrested for appearing on the beach in Boston cohesive slinky swimsuit. These swimsuits have become common female bathing suits in 1910. Her photographs have been published in the magazine Esquire. In 1913, designer Karl Yanttsen inspired by the advent of the women's Olympic swim team, he created the first swimsuit, consisting of two parts: form-fitting shorts and short-sleeved stamp.

The above Annette Kellerman started acting in movies, and in 1916 became the first actress to appear on the screen naked. The film "Daughter of the Gods", in which she undressed, the first in the history of film has collected a million dollars. Copies of this painting has not survived, but released a shot from the film shows Kellerman in suit bares his chest, similar to today's bikini.

By the 1930s he has opened swimsuit back and sides, and the sleeves are gone. With the advent of new materials such as latex and nylon, by 1934 swimwear steel strap a body and thin straps allowed to sunbathe. In 1932, French designer Madeleine Vionnet predolzhila evening dress with an open middle part of the body.

Esther Williams

Hollywood has picked up a new trend, realizing it in such films as "Neptune's Daughter", where Esther Williams appeared in provocative swimsuits. American designer Adele Simpson, winner of awards of American fashion critics Coty 1947, which held that the clothes should be comfortable and practical, has created a lot of fused costumes that were considered fashionable, even in the early 1980s. At the same time the firm Cole of California began selling candid swimwear, and the company started to produce Catalina Swimwear swimwear with almost open back.

In 1935, the Los Angeles Times published a photograph of 18-year-old actress Jane Wyman, the future wife of Ronald Reagan, in a separate bathing suit on a beach in California.

By the early 1940s swimwear in two parts met frequently on American beaches. Hollywood star Ava Gardner, Rita Hayworth, Lana Turner showed such swimwear. Photos of movie stars like Rita Hayworth and Esther Williams were distributed everywhere. Williams even played Annette Kellerman in 1952 in the film "Mermaid for a million dollars."

Bikini today

Jane Wyman

In the 1980s and early 1990s are back Fused swimwear. In France, in 1988, the firm closed Rearda, four years after his death. By the time the sale of the bikini is about 20% from the sale of swimsuits. As intensified prevention of cancer, and simple aesthetics began to define the fashion of the 1990s, selling swimwear bikini dropped significantly. New sample Swimwear Set surfing star Malia Jones, who in June 1997 appeared on the cover of Shape Magazine in a separate bathing suit with a noose around his neck. However, after the 1990s, bikinis are back.

US market research company NPD Group reported that sales increased separate swimwear two years by 80%. According to researchers, bikini symbolizes social leap, which includes confidence in his own body, the moral aspects, and sexual aspect, as an actress in such films as "Charlie's Angels" made swimsuit bikini suit equivalent of the new millennium.

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