Bikini Debut

Bikinis began in a time where women wore skirts below the knee and sex before marriage was scorned upon, the bikini must have seemed daring to say the least. However, the woman who made it possible for us to sport a bikini on the beach, was last weekend praised as an ‘unsung hero’ by The Sunday Times Magazine. The woman was Micheline Bernardini, a 19 year old exotic dancer.

The bikini was designed by French designer Louis Reard and was a tiny two piece with G string briefs and a newspaper print pattern as Reard was certain it would make headlines. It was 1946, and the Americans had just made headlines for testing atomic weapons off an area named the Bikini Atoll in the Pacific, so – naturally - he called his invention the ‘Bikini’!

After having trouble finding a woman to model the bikini, he hired Bernardini who had no concerns over wearing the teeny swimsuit as she regularly appeared nude at the Casino de Paris nightspot. The bikini was a hit in Paris, and it’s thought that Bernardini received 50,000 fan letters.

Of course now we have plenty of choice when choosing a new bikini, and all the best brands are here at Mio Destino. To read more about the first ever bikini and what else happened on that day, click here.