Welcome to the worlds greatest guide to women's bikini swimwear. Are you actually looking to learn more about ladies bikini swimwear? We certainly hope you are because the reality is that you have found our women's swimsuit guide on the subject.
A bikini is a women's two-piece swimsuit with a bra top for the chest and underwear cut below the navel.
The bikini design became common in most Western countries by the mid-1960s as beachwear, swimwear and underwear. Due to its controversial and revealing design, the bikini was slow to be adopted. In many countries it was banned from beaches and public places. While still considered risqué, the bikini gradually became a part of popular culture when beautiful film stars such as Brigitte Bardot, Raquel Welch, Ursula Andress and others began wearing them on public beaches and in film.
The basic design is simple: two triangles of fabric on top cover the woman's breasts and two triangles of fabric on the bottom cover the groin in front and the buttocks in back. The size of a bikini bottom can range from full pelvic coverage to a revealing thong or G-string design depending on the women's modesty and sense of fashion.
By the late 20th century it had become common as sportswear in sports such as beach volleyball and bodybuilding. Variations of the term are used to describe stylistic variations for promotional purposes and industry classifications, including monokini, microkini, tankini, trikini, pubikini, and skirtini.
Where & when did this famous swimsuit design get its name?
While the two-piece swimsuit as a design existed in classical antiquity, the modern design first attracted public notice in Paris on July 5, 1946. French mechanical engineer Louis Réard introduced a design he named the "bikini", taking the name from the Bikini Atoll in the Pacific Ocean.
Is it a two piece bathing suit or a bikini?
While the name "bikini" was at first applied only to beachwear that revealed the wearer's navel, today the fashion industry generally considers any two-piece swimsuit a bikini. Modern bikini fashions are characterized by a simple, brief design: two triangles of fabric that form a bra and cover the woman's breasts and a third that forms a panty cut below the navel that covers the groin and the buttocks.
There is a range of distinct bikini styles available — string bikinis, monokinis (topless or top and bottom connected), Trikinis (three pieces instead of two, tankinis (tank top, bikini bottom), camikinis (camisole top, bikini bottom), bandeaukini (bandeau top, bikini bottom), skirtini (bikini top, skirt bottom), "granny bikini" (bikini top, boy shorts bottom), hikinis (also hipkini), seekinis (transparent), minikinis, microkinis, miniminis, slingshots (or suspender bikinis), thong bottoms, tie-sides (a variety of string bikini) and teardrops.
Modern bikinis were first made of cotton and jersey. DuPont's introduction of Lycra (spandex) in the 1960s completely changed how bikinis were designed and worn. Bikinis can and have been made out of almost every possible clothing material. Alternative swimwear fabrics such as velvet, leather, and crocheted squares surfaced in the early 1970s.
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