Beach fashion’s shift toward skimpier styles is, in many ways, a return to swimwear’s roots.
From Simple to Complex
In ancient times, people swam nude, and the first swimsuits as a cultural expression appeared in Ancient Greece. Frescoes and drawings on amphorae from 1400 B.C. show female figures wearing early prototypes of bandeau tops (strapless bands) and unexpectedly bikini-like bottoms—open swimwear made from narrow strips of fabric for both top and bottom.
In Ancient Rome, the wives and daughters of patricians bathed in light bathing togas made from a semicircular piece of thin fabric wrapped around the body with a neck opening. The emergence of specialized swimwear among ancient Romans was linked to the development of water sports. The Sicilian Villa Romana del Casale features a mosaic from 300 B.C. depicting people in outfits resembling bikinis.
A Roman woman in an “ancient bikini.” Mosaic at Villa Romana del Casale, 4th century A.D.
With the fall of the Roman Empire, the need for “water attire” faded for a long time. In medieval Europe, bathing gave way to fasting and prayer. Bathing traditions were revived only in the 18th century when the first seaside resorts appeared in England and France. In special bathing houses with separate sections for women and men, people stood in shallow water and hardly swam, so there was little demand for comfortable swimwear.
Swimsuit from 1858
Women waded into the water wearing long dresses with weighted hems—special weights were sewn into the fabric to keep it from riding up. In addition to these weights, bathers wore corsets, thick stockings, textile shoes, and hats. This multilayered “uniform” became even heavier when wet. To make entering the water easier, people used wheeled contraptions called bathing machines.
A man and a woman exiting a bathing machine, circa 1910
Beach Gear
With the rise of rail travel, seaside resorts became more popular, and by the late 19th century special clothing for water recreation began to appear. Compared to the heavy dresses of the Victorian era, these new outfits looked like a fashion breakthrough: women could choose a lightweight tunic with a belt, bathing stockings, and knee-length pantaloons, or a long robe tied at the neck.
While it was still considered improper for women to enter the water barefoot at public beaches, men swam barefoot in striped suits with knee-length legs and elbow-length sleeves. After swimming became an Olympic sport at the end of the 19th century, the athletic bodies of men in triangular red cotton trunks helped set new trends in men’s beachwear.
Radical changes also reshaped women’s swimwear. After the heavy dress split into a jacket and pantaloons in 1860, a lighter model called the “princess” emerged in the 1880s. That design featured wide pants attached at the waist to a blouse, often paired with an upper skirt and a cap as part of the beach ensemble.
In the 20th century, swimsuits transformed alongside society. The upheaval began with Australian swimmer Annette Kellerman. In 1907, she presented a women’s version of a men’s swimsuit: a vaudeville outfit intended for a water performance with synchronized swimming elements called “Venus, the Diver.”
Promotional photo of Annette Kellerman in her own design swimsuit, considered quite daring at the time, circa 1903 – 1913
New Trends
Because exposing the female body was widely considered improper, Kellerman’s stage swimsuit was initially fitted with sleeves, a collar, and stockings. Her act was labeled a breach of public morality, but her example spawned followers and set reform in motion—swimwear fashion was hard to stop.
The beach vacation boom of the 1920s made swimsuits sleeker and more functional. Before synthetic fabrics, natural materials like calico and cotton jersey were popular because they felt comfortable against the skin.
An American woman in a swimsuit, 1920s
The 1925 swim season brought the full exposure of women’s arms and legs. French singer Suzy Solidor’s swimsuit caused a sensation on the Côte d’Azur and outraged moralists. To slow the spread of this new look, morality patrols measured swimmers’ suits on the beach and fined those who violated the rules.
In the 1930s, women’s swimwear tended toward one-piece suits with wide straps or separates made of high shorts that covered the navel paired with modest bras with high backs. Around this time, men’s kayaking shorts—an early precursor to modern swim trunks—appeared as sportswear for an English rower. The knitted wool version could weigh about 11 pounds when wet.
Divide and Conquer
Form-fitting one-piece suits remained fashionable into the late 1930s. “Sheath” swimsuits slimmed the figure and carried a subtle sexuality similar to how such suits are seen today. Later, that look was favored by Marilyn Monroe, who stayed loyal to sheath styles even as new fashions emerged.
Marilyn Monroe in a bikini
The first modern two-piece swimsuit came from fashion revolutionary Coco Chanel in 1934. From that point, swimsuits no longer hid the female body—they encouraged owners to show it off. In 1935, American designer Claire McCardell merged ideas from one-piece and two-piece designs into a model that left the sides exposed for the first time.
Claire McCardell’s swimsuit
By the late 1940s, a popular beach look featured wide shorts that cinched at the waist with a drawstring—a design that reportedly came about by a tailor’s mistake.
Then, on July 5, 1946, the world saw an unprecedentedly revealing swimsuit: a narrow strip of fabric for the top and equally small bottoms that exposed the navel and lower abdomen. The presentation of this scandalous novelty at the fashionable Molinar pool in Paris caused a sensation, and July 5 came to be remembered as Bikini Day.
The “Explosive” Effect
The mastermind behind that design was an automotive engineer. Louis Réard, a French-born American who had started modeling women’s lingerie in his family business in the 1940s, created the new suit.
While at Saint-Tropez, Réard noticed women adjusting their suits constantly to tan better—rolling and tucking fabric—and he decided to solve that problem. He cut the garment down to what he considered the limits of decency.
Although Louis Réard held the patent and presented the suit publicly, another designer, Jacques Heim, is also credited as a co-creator. Heim had developed a similar idea and worked with Réard to bring a mass-market version to life. Heim initially called his tiny suit the “Atom,” referencing the smallest indivisible particle.
Before the new design hit Paris, an event with its own shock value occurred: in early summer 1946 the U.S. military tested a nuclear bomb at Bikini Atoll in the Pacific. Réard, struck by the connection, renamed his creation the “bikini,” reasoning that both events produced an equally explosive reaction.
The first public showing of the bikini by nightclub dancer Micheline Bernardini, Paris, 1946
The “Feats” of a Stripper
Réard expected the bikini to create a global sensation—he even used the advertising slogan “Bikini is a split atom.” The new suit required only one meter of 70-centimeter-wide fabric. Its design consisted of two triangles on top and two on the bottom, each piece threaded through rings.
Finding a model willing to wear such revealing clothing was a challenge; no mainstream model would take the risk. Ultimately, nightclub dancer Micheline Bernardini agreed to appear in the suit. After the debut she reportedly received 50,000 love declarations and marriage proposals.
Critics called the design “a slap in the face to public taste.” The Vatican declared it immoral, and countries influenced by the Catholic Church—Italy, Spain, and Portugal—banned the bikini in public. After Swedish contestant Kiki Håkansson appeared in a bikini at the first Miss World contest, Spain and Ireland protested and considered withdrawing from the pageant.
By 1951, Miss World contestants were banned from parading in bikinis on the grounds that such swimwear gave wearers an unfair advantage. Mass protests over bikinis at Miss World contributed to moving the contest in 1966 from Bangalore to the Seychelles. Protesters probably didn’t foresee that bikinis would later become a staple of beauty pageants.
An Italian policeman fines a girl for wearing a bikini on the beach
The Joy of Life
The bikini’s early popularity in war-torn countries reflected a hunger for simple pleasures: European women wanted carefree beach attire that symbolized freedom. As the bikini spread in the 1950s, stars like Sophia Loren, Marilyn Monroe, and Brigitte Bardot helped cement its victory over conservative critics. American censors initially blocked Hollywood from promoting bikinis onscreen, but that couldn’t slow the suit’s rise.
Brigitte Bardot in a bikini
The 1957 film And God Created Woman, directed by Roger Vadim, sent bikini sales soaring: Brigitte Bardot’s beach look inspired girls everywhere who could pull it off. Bardot wore the suit repeatedly for shoots and films, including Manina, the Girl in the Bikini. Decades later, Pamela Anderson made the white bikini iconic on Baywatch—and reportedly once wore a white bikini at her wedding instead of a dress.
Pamela Anderson’s wedding
The next pivotal change came in 1959 with the invention of elastic fibers by DuPont. That innovation made swimsuits lighter and smaller. Garments made from spandex offered a body-hugging fit, retained color longer, and kept their shape when wet.
Topless tanning and other skimpier styles became symbols of the sexual revolution. In the 1970s manufacturers began selling bikini tops and bottoms separately. The rise of Lycra in 1974 helped fuel a new surge in the bikini’s popularity by making swimsuits more versatile and comfortable.
A Second Wind
Variations on the bikini proliferated: the men’s sling swimsuit, the mankini (from “man bikini”), the monokini (the top-and-bottom connected design by Rudy Gernreich in 1964), the trikini (a more revealing compromise between two-piece and one-piece), the nanokini made of strings, and the burkini (a full-coverage swimsuit designed for Muslim women).
Monokini 1964
The inventiveness didn’t stop. In the 1970s beach fashion included thong swimsuits and the so-called “dental-floss” model—tiny bottoms with thin straps. Swimwear evolved toward greater exposure; today some products are little more than coverings for specific body parts.
The Gillette Venus brand chose plus-size model Anna O’Brien as the face of its advertising campaign.
Designers joke that everything old eventually becomes new again, so it’s only a matter of time before swimwear circles back to ancient levels of exposure. The body-positivity movement, which rejects narrow beauty standards and embraces natural forms, has helped normalize wearing minimal swimwear. Women who might have hesitated in previous generations now feel free to choose what they want to wear.
Is this the reason provocative styles are enjoying a second wind? Marketing research shows two-piece swimsuit sales in the U.S. have increased by 80% in recent years, and more women over 30 are buying bikinis. That level of demand is unprecedented. For many, Bikini Day has become an annual moment to celebrate confidence—and, if we’re being playful, to help men feel a little younger too.
