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The World's First Bikini

The World's First Bikini
Even though swimsuits were smaller and more form fitting, they were still one pieces. The world's first modern bikini was revealed on July 5th, 1946 by French engineer Louis Reard and fashion designer, Jacques Heim. Together the duo designed an outfit “smaller than the world’s smallest swimsuit" made from just 30 inches of fabric. Named after the nuclear tests in Bikini Atoll (one of a series of islands in the South Pacific where testing on the new atomic bomb was occurring that summer), the bikini truly shocked the world and prompted thousands of beaches across Europe and the Mediterranean, as well as many Catholic countries, to ban the promiscuous outfit all together. 1946 - Invention of the Modern Bikini
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