July 5 last year bikini is 77 years old, an important birthday, especially when you think about the impact it had on women’s rights claims and sex battles.
Its birth takes place in 1946, in a seemingly unthinkable post-war climate: although one would think that the world had something to think about, the desire for a new revival and cultural and political organizational reorganization was very widespread, which prompted creatives and scientists, to get more involved.
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Fashion Bomb: Bikini
Louis Reird is the father bikinibut in front of him Jacques Heimcreated in 1932 first swimsuit smaller compared to existing models, advertising it with the slogan “world’s smallest swimsuit» and calling it atom. At the time it was considered outrageousalthough the fabric was enough to cover even the navel.
However, more than a decade later, the time came and Réard did something even more daring, exposing the belly and therefore the navel, in response to women who were used to rolling up their bathing suits to look better. large body parts on the beaches of Saint-Tropez.
The effect was stunning and provocative, and Réard, to reinforce the concept, dubbed it bikiniinspired Atoll of the Marshall Islands, which the United States has chosen as a target for testing its atomic bombs. According to Reid, his invention was so important that it could compete with the event in question, so it was considered metaphorical bomb in the field of fashion of that time.
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Provocative review
However, his path to success was not simple and linear: among the first obstacles were find a model ready to wear a bikinichallenging convention and common sense.
Micheline Bernardinidancer and stripper from Casino de Paris offered to parade in a bikini, performing in the Molitor pools of the French capital and making it even more provocative. Reard gained worldwide fame and received many orders for a new costume model and more. 50,000 thank you letters (but written by men). Instead, Bernardini received 50 marriage proposals. In 1953, Reard made new changes to his bikini, inventing a version flying saucer bikini, whose bra was strapless and panties rebranded as “sexyform” created a push-up effect on the buttocks. However, for a long time the bikini was frowned upon. ostracized: it was banned on various European and American beaches, and in some places its use was even punished as an insult to modesty.
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Film and bikini
It was cinema that introduced it into the collective imagination, and it spread more and more among women who recognized the actresses who wore it as role models. It was bikinis that spread bikinis around the world. movie starwho have incorporated it into their professional and personal wardrobes: there are many cinematic scenes made immortal by the bikini and the actresses who flaunted it, making it exclusive and coveted. The cinema helped to spread it, but it turned the female body into an object, and the bikini – from a tool for asserting freedom, which until now was denied – soon turned into an ideal means to enhance the forms, making them more sensual and attractive. The female body has always been at the center of visual representations that have often exploited it, but it is also true that if we look at the issue more optimistically, we must recognize how much this invention and its dissemination gave. To women’s demand to call themselves free beingsable to use their body absolutely freely, under the cry of the slogan The body belongs to me and I decide.
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Here’s an overview of the cinematic scenes that made the bikini (next) iconic.
Among the iconic women who were the first to showcase the bikini, turning it into an iconic piece of clothing, Brigitte Bardotwho in 1952, at the age of only 17, in Manina, an open girl, throughout the film starred in beachwear. This film was not an immediate commercial success, but after gaining notoriety for “Too many people like it“, returned to the cinema to relive a second youth and give even more impressive fame to a new provocative swimsuit model.
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In women’s wardrobes and suitcases, a laconic and innovative model, designed for the film, was captured. Agent 007 – License to Kill, in which Ursula Andress he interpreted Honey Ryderfirst bond girl from the film series. The costume in question was white bikini aka Doctor No Bikini, to which was added a belt with a knife that entered the general imagination, becoming one of the most memorable in the history of cinema, turning the actress into sex symbol.
Sue Lyon translated Lolita From stanley kubrick, protagonist of one of the most iconic and unsettling moments in film history: the first meeting of a very young girl in a bikini (but with her navel covered!) and Humbert Humbert.
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IN Slowly, slowly, don’t be discouraged! since 1967, Sharon Tate in an apple green bathing suit with fuchsia palazzo trousers and matching bracelets, a symbolic look that reflects the vibrant aesthetic of the sixties.
One of the most chic swimwear in movie history is the one worn by Tina Parks to the cinema Diamonds are forever 1971, the seventh in the 007 series. Paired with matching accessories, the canary yellow bikini has become iconic.
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IN Star Wars – Return of the JediPrincess Leia’s slave costume, which is played by Carrie Fisher, is one of the most controversial in cinema. Her famous bikini was intended to provide visual pleasure to her captor (and viewers), turning into a highly erotic costume that entered pop music in a very short time.
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It’s not a bikini, it’s a swimsuit Pamela Anderson V Malibu safeguards 1992 is one of the most iconic in history.
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The suit that was worn Rachel McAdam red and purple in Notebook2004, surprises us with a film overflowing with emotions.
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Although in the film Redemption the most iconic piece of 2007 was a green tailored suit worn by Keira Knightley, even a white one-piece swimsuit with a matching cap should be considered a cult item that makes this scene infinitely sophisticated. This is not a bikini, but very memorable.
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IN spring Breakers From Harmony Korin, Throughout the film, four girls wear provocative bikinis in an eternal struggle between feminism and male fantasies.
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Movie Greta Gerwig, Barbiereleased in 2023, presents us with the first example of a doll in a one-piece swimsuit: she takes us back in time and reminds us how iconic she was.
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Beachwear and bikinis have evolved throughout history, but even today, symbols of the past continue to be important sources of inspiration and reflection in a constant return to the past looking to the future.