Louis Reard The man who called the swimsuit bikini Country: France

The Man Who Named the Bikini

French engineer Louis Réard, who inherited a lingerie company from his mother, patented the bikini in 1946. At that time, nuclear tests were being conducted on one of the Pacific Ocean atolls. The outraged public protested against these tests. However, Louis Réard did not participate in any of the protests. Instead, he responded by creating his own explosion - a tiny swimsuit named after the ill-fated Bikini Atoll. Back then, it was not socially acceptable to expose oneself at the beach, and vacationers had to wear multiple layers of clothing, which was both inconvenient and took a long time to dry. Louis Réard came up with a solution to these problems. His shocking swimsuit immediately captured the public's attention, and the ban on wearing it on public beaches only fueled interest in this novelty. The question of "to wear or not to wear" was decisively answered in favor of maximum exposure by daring fashionistas. In 1964, Sports Illustrated magazine featured a cover photo of model Babette March wearing a pristine white bikini. That same year, Brigitte Bardot showcased a miniature bikini in the film "And God Created Woman." This trend was followed by Raquel Welch in "One Million Years B.C." and Ursula Andress in the first James Bond film. By the end of the 1960s, bikinis made from cotton, silk, elastane, and vinyl became a beach sensation in Rio and Nice, and then spread to the rest of the world.