History of the Bikini: From Outlawed Swimwear to the Chanel Runway

Today, bikinis are one of the most popular forms of swimwear, but they weren’t always considered commonplace. While tiny two-piece swimsuits date back to ancient Rome, the first bikini wasn’t technically invented until the 1940s.

Throughout the conservative ’50s, bikinis caused controversy. They even attracted the attention of the Pope, who shamed them as sinful. As tides changed in the ’60s, however, bikinis went from scandalous to mainstream. Pop culture icons like Brigitte Bardot and Raquel Welch made the new form of swimwear fashionable.

By the ’90s, bikinis began to evolve. New styles like the microkini spawned entire industries as Brazilian waxing and spray tanning took off.

The ongoing endurance of the bikini is proof that shifting social norms have lasting affects on fashion trends. Here, a look at the evolution of the bikini.

Ancient Rome: The Start of the Bikini

Mosaics at Villa Romana del Casale in Sicily, Italy.

Tim Graham

One of the first large-scale depictions of the bikini exists in an ancient Sicilian villa. Dating to the fourth century, the Villa Romana del Casale contains one of the largest collections of Roman mosaics. The mosaic shown above, which depicts women exercising in two-piece garments, has been nicknamed “Bikini Girls.”

Girls on Film

Ginger Rogers in “Gold Diggers of 1933.”

Corbis via Getty Images

In pre-Code Hollywood, midriff-baring swimsuits were featured in musical films including “Footlight Parade” (1933), “Flying Down to Rio” (1933), “Gold Diggers of 1933” and “Fashions of 1934.”

The First Modern Bikini

Micheline Bernardini models one of the first modern bikinis in 1946.

Getty Images

World War II led to rationing of many common goods, including fabrics. In 1942, the War Production Board in the U.S. mandated a 10 percent reduction in fabric used for women’s swimwear. By 1945, two-piece swimsuits became more visible, with Hollywood starlets like Rita Hayworth and Esther Williams sporting them in pin-up magazines.

It wasn’t until 1946, however, that the bikini was technically invented. French fashion designers Jacques Heim and Louis Réard separately released their own versions of what we now know as the bikini. Heim named his design the “atome” after the smallest particle of matter. Pictured above, Réard’s “bikini” got its name from the Bikini Atoll, a nuclear test site near Guam.

Réard debuted the bikini at a poolside fashion show in Paris. Many models turned down the gig, but showgirl Micheline Bernardini proudly displayed the design. The bikini’s revealing cut was simultaneously considered liberating and scandalous, as it showed the wearer’s navel. Future Vogue editor in chief Diana Vreeland called the bikini “the most important thing since the atom bomb.”

Bikini Backlash and Controversy

Kiki Hakansson at Miss World 1951 in London.

PA Images via Getty Images

Bikinis began to catch on with upper-class European women, but were still shunned by the mainstream. In 1951, Eric Morley staged the Festival Bikini Contest, which became known as Miss World. Kiki Hakansson of Sweden, the pageant’s first winner, was crowned in a bikini.

Ireland and Spain threatened to withdraw from the competition, while Pope Pious XII lambasted Hakansson, calling the swimsuit sinful. Subsequently, bikinis were banned at beauty pageants worldwide. Countries including Belgium, Italy, Portugal and Spain also outlawed the swimwear.

In the U.S., the Hays Code, enacted in 1934 prohibited navels from being shown in films. Even as the power of the Code began to weaken in the ’50s, a Catholic group called the National Legion of Decency continued to critique the depiction of bikinis on-screen.

Some refused to bow to conservative social norms. Australian fashion designer Paula Stafford is credited with popularizing the bikini in that country. In 1952, model Ann Ferguson was asked to leave Surfers Paradise Beach in Queensland because her Stafford swimsuit was considered to be too revealing.

The following year, the mayor of Benidorm, Spain, convinced Francisco Franco to make the bikini legal in the beachside town, turning it into a popular tourist attraction.

Going Mainstream

Ursula Andress in “Dr. No.”

Corbis via Getty Images

In 1953, Brigitte Bardot made waves at the Cannes Film Festival by posing for photos on the beach wearing a bikini. A year prior, Bardot starred in “Marina, the Girl in the Bikini,” in which she donned several tiny two-piece bathing suits. Bardot’s Cannes appearance has been credited with popularizing the bikini among European and American women.

Once the ’60s arrived, social norms shifted. Hemlines got shorter, and casual clothing became more widely accepted. As the sexual revolution caught on, bikinis were suddenly ubiquitous — Brian Hyland’s 1960 song “Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini” topped the charts, causing a boom in bikini sales.

In 1962, Ursula Andress made cinematic and fashion history when she sported a white two-piece swimsuit in the first James Bond film, “Dr. No.” The scene became so iconic that it was recreated by Halle Berry 40 years later in “Die Another Day.”

Following the release of “Dr. No,” Sports Illustrated launched its annual Swimsuit Issue in 1964. Model Babette March appeared on the cover, also in a white bikini. By 1965, 65 percent of the “young set” wore bikinis, according to Time magazine.

The Bikini in Pop Culture

Carrie Fisher on the set of “Return of the Jedi.”

Corbis via Getty Images

Raquel Welch’s fur bikini in “One Million Years B.C.” is a prime example of the two-piece’s pop culture impact. Coincidentally, Andress was originally offered Welch’s role in the 1966 film.

Despite only having a few lines in the film, Welch wearing a bikini was featured prominently in the marketing campaign for “One Million Years B.C.” Advertisements referred to Welch’s barely there swimwear as “mankind’s first bikini.” Promotional images of Welch became bestselling pin-up posters.

In the 1980s, bikinis continued to capture the big screen. The 1982 teen comedy “Fast Times at Ridgemont High” featured Phoebe Cates in a tiny red two-piece, while Carrie Fisher’s Princess Leia wore a “slave bikini” made of brass in 1983’s “Return of the Jedi.” Fisher described her costume as “what supermodels will eventually wear in the seventh ring of hell.”

New Styles of the Bikini

Eva Herzigova at Chanel ’s spring 1996 show in Paris.

Getty Images

As bikinis became the norm, styles of the swimsuit evolved. The microkini showed even more skin, popularizing Brazilian waxing and spray tanning. Karl Lagerfeld debuted his own version of the microkini during Chanel’s spring 1996 show. Two years later, swimwear designer Anne Cole introduced the tankini, which features a top that covers the navel.

By the ’90s, bikinis were no longer considered taboo. They became the official uniform of Olympic beach volleyball players in 1996, and the following year, the Miss America pageant repealed its bikini ban, allowing contestants to wear two-pieces during the competition. In 2018, the Miss America organization eliminated the swimwear portion of the contest.

The year 2002 saw the first Miami Swim Week. Major labels like Norma Kamali and Zimmermann cashed in on the bikini craze by launching their own lines of luxury swimwear.

Miami Swim Week in 2006.

AFP via Getty Images