Summer 1946, the bikini bombshell: a short, sulphurous history of women's swimwear

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The swimsuit appeared around 1850, when the French aristocracy became infatuated with sea bathing and invaded the Normandy beaches, or, further south, those of Royan and Biarritz . Hats, veils, gloves, long skirts, petticoats…. In the Victorian era, in high society, modesty demanded that the female body be as little uncovered as possible. Only prostitutes or peasant women showed their skin. For the latter, working in the fields compromised the whiteness of their décolletage and arms, exposing them to the sun. Let us remember that, far from being fashionable, tanning was then a sign of belonging to the working classes.

Six rooms minimum

And if they want to swim, well-born women must do so in a full bathing suit, a heavy and cumbersome garment. The burkini (consisting of three pieces, pants, a tunic, and a cap) can indeed go and get dressed: in the 19th century, the bathing suit consisted of at least six pieces: baggy pants down to the knees, a wide, short-sleeved shirt, a belt, a cap, stockings, and shoes. The swimmers' hygiene and comfort were of little importance: the goal was to conceal their bodies as much as possible.

Morality police patrol the beaches

With the industrial revolution, the bourgeoisie also gained access to the beaches, and the swimsuit became lighter and more democratic. In 1905, Australian swimmer and silent film star Annette Kellerman dared to expose herself on Revere Beach in Boston, wearing a one-piece swimsuit that hugged her curves... While still covering her from neck to toe. Scandal! She was banned from the beach and prosecuted for "indecency." This blatant "outrage against public decency" was, however, a first step towards freedom, and the one-piece swimsuit became popular.

Carl Jantzen's invention of a highly elastic mesh in 1920 accelerated the evolution of women's swimsuits, which were now worn close to the body. Morality police patrolled the beaches of France and America to check that swimsuits were not too short (no more than 5 cm above the knee). Otherwise, they were expelled from the beach and fined.

The Battle of the Bikini, a Revelation of Feminist Struggles

The bikini, then the monokini, would later become the emblem of women's rights, their bodies, and their destinies. By the 1930s, women were less hesitant to bare their clothes. Hollywood stars like Jayne Mansfield, Rita Hayworth, Lana Turner, and Ava Gardner (not to mention the many pin-ups and music hall dancers) appeared in lighter one-piece swimsuits, but also increasingly in two-piece swimsuits, albeit with shorts that reached up to the waist.

The bikini already existed in antiquity

Taking its name from the Bikini Atoll where an atomic test took place in 1946, the famous two-piece swimsuit, born in France after the Second World War, has caused many explosive debates. Yet it didn't invent anything. In ancient times, Greek and Roman women already practiced their sports wearing two-piece swimsuits, as evidenced by the ancient mosaics of the Villa del Casale, where we see two slim, athletic women playing a ball game... Freedom comes and goes.

Let's go back to the 20th century. In 1946, the two-piece swimsuit created by fashion designer Louis Réard was so provocative for the time that models refused to wear it. It was finally the young nude dancer from the Casino de Paris, Micheline Bernardini, 19, who agreed to serve as the model to present this sultry minimalist design at the Molitor swimming pool in Paris. Consisting of a top and a thong patterned with newspaper clippings glorifying her, "the smallest swimsuit in the world" that revealed the navel was marketed in a small iron cube about 6 cm on each side, with the slogan: "The bikini, the first anatomical bombshell." A stroke of marketing genius.

The battle of the bikini raged into the 1970s

When she showed it off in Cannes during a beach photoshoot in 1953, the statuesque 18-year-old starlet Brigitte Bardot caused a scandal. The two-piece swimsuit created by Luis Réard, banned on several beaches, notably in Italy, Spain, and England, didn't really take off until the 1960s, thanks to another series of stars with dream bodies.

In 1962, Ursula Andress emerged from the waves wearing her famous white bikini (and holding a knife) in "Dr. No."

Raquel Welch showed off her dazzling curves in a skimpy animal-skin outfit in "One Million Years B.C." in 1966, and Nancy Sinatra appeared the following year on the cover of the album "Sugar" in a candy-pink bikini. But even though songs were dedicated to her, such as "Itsi bitsi, petit bikini," a French cover of an American hit by Dalida (1960), the bikini continued to shock.

It wasn't until May 1968 and the 1970s, when women advocated for the right to enjoy their bodies and demanded the right to contraception and then to abortion, that the bikini became popular, becoming a symbol of their emancipation. Now commonplace, it has since been worn by all women, regardless of their age, social status, or body type. Over the years, it has even lost its top, becoming a monokini, when it doesn't disappear altogether with the age of full-body tanning, before making its big comeback in the 2010s. Fashion comes and goes.

At 70, the bikini, which had become a timeless staple, had lost its air of scandal when the burkini controversy, during the summer of 2016, brought it back to the heart of political and social debate. Ultimately, this swimsuit only covers the bodies of Muslim women who wear it to bathe, out of modesty, as was the case at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century. The problem, for some, is that the burkini, even if it is also adopted by women who do not wish to reveal their bodies or simply want to protect themselves from the harmful effects of the sun on the skin while continuing to bathe, is worn most of the time for religious reasons.

Isn't it absurd to force women to undress, in the same way that they were forced to dress two centuries ago?

One might still wonder whether we can fight religious fundamentalism without affecting women's rights to control their own bodies. And whether it is not absurd to take measures to force women to undress, in the same way that they were forced to dress two or three centuries ago...

> TO READ “Under the swimsuit - Another story of the body”, by Audrey Millet, Éditions Les Pérégrines, 2022. “Bikini, the legend”, by Ghislaine Royer and Patrice Gaulupeau, Editions Michel Lafon, 2016. “A brief history of swimsuits from 1850 to 1928” , Le Blog Gallica The digital library of the BnF and its partners.