Long before the ‘Biggini shoot,’ by music composer Yashraj Mukhate, took the internet by storm, the bikini was the focal point of public discourse. Time and again, this minimal piece of clothing has raised eyebrows and sparked debates on moral, social and political grounds. Yet, the bikini has managed to turn heads and create a revolution in the fashion and entertainment industry.
The origins of the bikini are rooted in the Cold War era. The minimalist costume design emerged from economic shortages; it did not start with the intention of bringing about a fashion revolution. In 1946, Louis Reard, a French mechanical engineer, first introduced the idea of a bikini. He brought out the first bikini design to a public pool in Paris, called Piscine Molitor.
During the Cold War, the United States War Production Boards issued an order to regulate the use of natural fibres in clothes, and called in for a 10 per cent reduction in the fabric used in women’s swimsuits. This led to the creation of a bikini top, which exposed the midriff of women. This two-piece beachwear sent shockwaves across the western world, for it led women to bare their navels, somehow synonymous with nudity.
Reard presented his invention to the world through a press conference and named it Bikini; the nomenclature was derived from the Bikini Atoll (a coral reef encircling a lagoon) in the Marshall Islands where the USA carried out a nuclear test during the Cold War against the Soviet Union.
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