70 Years since the day two-piece swimsuit “bikini '' introduced by French designer Louis Reard July 05,1946 -July 05,2016

 

On July 5, 1946, French designer Louis Reard unveils a daring two-piece swimsuit at the Piscine Molitor, a popular swimming pool in Paris.

Parisian showgirl Micheline Bernardini modeled the new fashion, which Reard dubbed “bikini,” inspired by a news-making U.S. atomic test that took place off the Bikini Atoll in the Pacific Ocean earlier that week.

The first person to wear the bikini was French woman Micheline Bernardini who strutted around in it at a press conference held on July 5, 1946 by Louis Réard at a public pool to launch his creation — the bikini.

In 1951 when the premier Miss World contest was held, the winner, Swedish Kiki Håkansson took the title wearing a bikini. Countries with religious and orthodox conventions stood to withdraw their representatives due to which bikinis were prohibited from beauty pageants across the world. Håkansson was the first, last and only Miss World to be crowned in a bikini.

 A young Brigitte Bardot makes the bikini pose a must for aspiring starlets in 1952

Marilyn Monroe reveals a little roll of flesh that would never do for today’s honed celebrities in 1962

Ursula Andress's curves ruled the waves in the first 007 movie Dr No in 1962

Raquel Welch epitomised the liberated Sixties in 1968

 

 

Charlie's Angel action girl Jaclyn Smith in 1976

Joan Collins in a gold two-piece in the Dynasty era in 1982

 

A boyish Geri Halliwell wore a tiny string bikini in 2001

 

 

 

Helen Mirren, at 62, proved older women can look great in a bikini in 2008

 

Sharmila Tagore wore a bikini in the movie, An Evening in Paris (1967) sending the country into a tizzy. She became the first Indian actress to have worn the bikini for Filmfare’s cover.

  In the early ’90s, The International Volleyball Federation declared the bikini as the mandated uniform for women who played beach volleyball

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals(PETA) sponsored for a bunch of vegetarian ladies to campaign across the globe sporting bikinis made of lettuce leaves only.

The idea was that the Lettuce Ladies as they came to be known would encourage people to turn vegetarian.