When you coerce into your Speedo , you ’re not just baring your peel — you’re celebrate one C of technological breakthrough .
3RD CENTURY CESicilian mosaics depict women wearing bikini - alike outfits to exercise , but all Romanist swim is done in the nude .
18TH CENTURYWomen hit the beach in long formless gabardine that shroud their shapes . Some women run up lead weight in their hem to make certain the fabric does n’t rise up and extend a shocking glimpse of their calves .
1860English waters ban man from swimming in the buff , give procession to the stripy knit washup costume .
MID–19TH CENTURYLadies start splashing around in baggy flannel pant over loose flannel dresses .
1880The first commemorate “ bathing smasher ” pageant is held in Rehoboth Beach , Del. Thomas Edison is a judge !
1907Australian synchronized natator Annette Kellerman appear in Boston outwear a saucy formfitting one - piece suit with a high neck , knee - length shorts , and unretentive arm . She is promptly arrested for indecent vulnerability . Kellerman counters , “ I ca n’t float wearing more stuff than you give ear on a clothesline . ” A jurist agrees that she needs a suit that offers “ unexclusive movement when swim . ”
1912Australian Fanny Durack wears just such an unrestricted wooing while breaking the 100 - meter domain record and winning the first ever atomic number 79 in adult female ’s Olympic swimming . The fashionable Durack goes on to become the female Michael Phelps of her twenty-four hours ; at one pointedness , she held the women ’s world record in every effect from the 100 beat to the mi .
1921The first variant of what will become the Miss America Pageant takes home in Atlantic City . Since illustrators are recollect to have inside noesis of the human form , Norman Rockwell judges the swimsuit contest in the 1920s .
1946French auto engineer and fashion designer Louis Reard craft a revealing new two - piece case he dubs the “ two-piece ” after Bikini Atoll , situation of many atomic tests . When no models will concord to wear his creation for its debut , Reard is force to engage an alien professional dancer from a Paris casino . The dancer , Micheline Bernardini , briefly becomes as famous as the swimming costume and receives 50,000 pieces of fan postal service .
1957Brigitte Bardot popularizes the two-piece during the Cannes Film Festival , but it take a few years for the delirium to catch on . In the U.S.,Modern Girlmagazine dismisses the drift , penning , “ It is scarcely necessary to knock off Christian Bible over the so - called bikini since it is inconceivable that any female child with tact and decency would ever wear such a thing . ”
1964Sports Illustrateddebuts its bathing suit upshot . Adolescent boys ’ interest in long - shape variation journalism on the spur of the moment spikes .
1965Jodie Foster makes her performing launching as the Coppertone babe .
1966The first written instance of “ skinny dipping ” work a surprisingly recent entry into the English language .
1996Bangalore , India , host the Miss World pageant , but local scandal forces the swimsuit competitor to be held in the Seychelles instead .
1999The Miss America Pageant changes its swimsuit rules to shun string Bikini and thongs .
2011Sick of find half - naked tourist , Barcelona ban bikinis on streets that are n’t conterminous to the beach . Violators confront a 300 - euro mulct .
All images good manners of Getty Images .
