Itsy, bitsy teeny, weeny…
National Bikini day was July 5th. They are still shooting fireworks at my house in celebration. The bikini was born in 1946 along with a number of very important people. The bikini gets its name from the Bikini Atoll, the site of the first U.S. nuclear weapons tests. Réard was inspired to use the name “bikini” because he wished his swimwear would have an “explosive commercial and cultural reaction” comparable to a nuclear bomb. You will not be surprised that it was shown off in Paris to create a scandal in the newspapers of the time. Curiously, when Monsieur Réard introduced his bikini, he needed models — but none of the usual models of the time wanted to wear the bikini. They considered it way too scandalous. What was Réard to do? Well, he hired Micheline Bernardini, a 19-year-old stripper at Casino de Paris, to model the swimsuit. She didn’t have a problem showing up on stage in skimpy clothing. Actually, calling Monsieur Réard the “inventor” may be more hype than fabric. The first known depiction of a “bikini” has been found in the bronze age settlement of Çatalhöyük in Turkey. A mural dating back to 5600 BCE depicts a goddess riding two leopards, wearing what looks a whole lot like a bikini. The Ancient Romans liked their bikinis as well. Archeologists have discovered mosaic beach scenes of women wearing what are unmistakably bikinis. So Réard was just recycling styles.
You may recall that 1946 was just at the end of WW2 and there were shortages and rationing of everything including fabric for clothes. So the skimpy bikini helped spread the little fabric that was available around to more bathing suits sold. From risqué to ordinary the bikini is now the official uniform for women’s beach volleyball at the Olympics and has been so since 1996. The players themselves vouched for the bikini. Olympian Holly McPeak, for instance, went on record complaining that the previous one-piece uniform just collected sand and made the players uncomfortable. Since 2012, the ladies have been free to choose to also wear a bodysuit or a top and shorts. The most expensive bikini in the world was created by jeweler Susan Rosen in 2012. This outrageously expensive piece of clothing consists of more than 150 carats’ worth of diamonds embedded in platinum. The bikini was worn by model and actress Molly Sims for the 2012 edition of the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue. That created a lot more excitement and magazine sales than the 2023 SI Trans Swimsuit issue. In spite of revealing 90% of the body, a skimpy bikini delivers more than 10% interest.
Bikini Bumps
I watched a documentary about the bikini.
It was a two-part series and it was very revealing.
Stastistics are like bikinis.
What they reveal is interesting; what they hide is critical.
What’s South of Bikini Bottom?
Thigh-land
A recent study has found that women who carry a little extra weight live longer than the men who mention it.
July 10th Birthdays
1988 – Katie Pavlich, 1994 – Carla Jeffery, 1981 – Jessica Simpson, 1972 – Sofía Vergara,
1965 – Urban Meyer, 1989 – Antonio Brown, 1947 – Arlo Guthrie, 1943 – Arthur Ashe