Collection 2014

A bikini is a women's two-piece swimsuit with a bra for the chest and panties cut below the navel.^[1] The design is simple: two triangles of fabric on top cover the woman's breasts and two triangles of fabric on the bottom cover the groinin front and the buttocks in back.^[1] What distinguishes the bikini from other swimsuits is its brevity.^[1] The size of the panty can range from full coverage to a revealing thong or g-string design. It is often worn in hot weather and while swimming or sunbathing.

Illustrations of Roman women wearing bikini-like garments during competitive athletic events have been found in several locations. Swimsuits grew increasingly smaller until during the mid-1940s the design halted just short of revealing the woman's navel. These were worn in the 1940s by film stars like Ava Gardner, Rita Hayworth, and Lana Turner and were also common on American beaches. A French engineer introduced a new minimalist swimsuit design in 1946 that for the first time revealed the woman's navel. Mechanical engineer Louis Réard borrowed the name for his bikini design from the Bikini Atoll, where post-war testing on the atomic bomb had begun on July 1, 1946, and his name stuck in the public consciousness.