The itsy bitsy, teeny weeny bikini was invented by a mechanical engineer

SEVENTY years ago today a fashion icon was born. The bikini’s creator had the most unlikely of professions — he was a mechanical engineer.

Marilyn Monroe wears a bikini in one of her early modelling shoots..

SEVENTY years ago today a fashion icon was born. The bikini’s creator had the most unlikely of professions — he was a mechanical engineer.

Louis Reard, an engineer who had taken over his mother’s lingerie business in 1940, unveiled the two-piece swimsuit at a popular Parisian swimming spot, Piscine Molitor, on July 5, 1946. He had wanted to outdo Jacques Heim, who two months earlier had launched the Atome, the “world’s smallest bathing suit”.

Reard’s swimsuit, named the bikini after Bikini Atolll, the site where the US had tested the atomic bomb, was in direct competition to Heim’s Atome. Reard boasted his bikini was “smaller than the world’s smallest bathing suit.” It would soon change the nature of female swimwear.

It was so daring that he found it hard to convince models to wear it at the unveiling, instead hiring Micheline Bernardini, a nude dancer from the Casino de Paris.

It was so daring he found it hard to convince models to wear it at the unveiling, instead hiring exotic dancer Micheline Bernardini. It was a red-letter day in the evolution of swimwear which dates back to ancient times.

Micheline Bernardini models Louis Reard’s bikini on July 5, 1946.

The 4th century mosaic of Roman women wearing bikini-like garments performing various exercises.

ROMAN BIKINI

Historians in 1959-60 uncovered a 4th century AD mosaic at a villa in Sicily showing young women wearing bikini-like garments performing various exercises. The find made people wonder why women had been covering up for so many centuries.

NECK TO KNEE

Through much of the 19th century swimming at beaches during daylight hours was banned in many places.

However in Australia in 1903 many bans were lifted but authorities insisted clothing cover the body from neck to knee (and sometimes legs and arms), to preserve dignity and the moral order.

Two women wearing bathing costumes in 1907.

Annette Kellerman models one of her more practical swimwear designs.

ANNETTE KELLERMAN

Swimmer Annette Kellerman, Australia’s “million dollar mermaid”, pioneered more practical swimwear that didn’t hinder movement.

Kellerman was arrested in Boston in 1907 for wearing her bathing costume, which failed to hide the female contours. Her case helped bring about changes in swimwear.

SHRINKING SWIMMERS

After World War I, women pushed for more freedom, becoming more daring with fashions. Dresses got shorter and swimming costumes briefer.

Although influenced by more practical garments worn by sportspeople, swimming costumes also became fashion statements.

Austerity brought on by the stock market crash of 1929 and the Great Depression resulted in the use of even less material. Buit two-piece swimsuits in the ’30s still modestly covered the navel. Rationing during World War II made swimsuits even smaller.

A 17-year-old Brigitte Bardot in the 1952 film Manina, la fille sans voiles.

Marilyn Monroe models a bikini.

BRIGITTE BARDOT

In 1952, a 17-year-old Brigitte Bardot starred in French film Manina, la fille sans voiles (Manina The Girl Unveiled).

It was released in the US in 1958 retitled Manina, The Girl in the Bikini, and got around censorship laws banning bared midriff on film because it was foreign.

MARILYN MONROE

The bikini soon became popular for pin-up photographs. Young model and soon-to-be movie star Marilyn Monroe often wore bikinis in her early photo shoots.

Ursula Andress emerged from the surf in that white bikini in Dr No in 1962.

Bondi Beach inspector Aub Laidlaw ensured bikini wearers on Bondi Beach met with council requirements in the 1960s and ’70s.

URSULA ANDRESS

Ursula Andress became a star, and gave a major boost to the bikini industry, by emerging from the surf wearing a striking white bikini in the film Dr No in 1962.

BIKINIS ON BONDI

In 1962 beach inspector Aub Laidlaw made headlines by ordering women off the beach at Bondi for wearing costumes deemed too skimpy. To make sure, Laidlaw measured them with a ruler.

Jane Priest kisses Prince Charles on Perth beach in 1979.

Lillian Gasinskaya the Russian defector was also known as the Red Bikini Girl in 1979.

PRIEST KISSED A PRINCE

A bikini-clad Jane Priest kissed Prince Charles on the cheek on a Perth beach during his 1979 tour of Australia. The model would later reveal it was a publicity stunt to make the prince look less stuffy and more accessible.

RED BIKINI GIRL

In 1979 Russian waitress Lilian Gasinskaya jumped off a Soviet cruise ship into Sydney Harbour, to defect to the west. She claimed asylum and, despite protests, become an Australian citizen. Dubbed the Girl in the Red Bikini, she became a centrefold and an actor before fading into obscurity.

DAME HELEN MIRREN

When Helen Mirren wore a red bikini while on a holiday in Italy in 2008 it made world headlines.

The 63-year-old looked stunning and encouraged women around the world to get their bikinis out of mothballs.

Originally published as The itsy bitsy, teeny weeny bikini was invented by a mechanical engineer