Itsy bitsy teenie weenie

July 5 1946 – French automotive and mechanical engineer Louis Réard, who is running his mother’s lingerie business near Les Folies Bergères in Paris, unveils an outfit “smaller than the world’s smallest swimsuit” (partly motivated by the material rationing after World War 2). Models wouldn’t wear his bikini, so Réard hired Micheline Bernardini, 18, (pictured left), an exotic dancer at the Casino de Paris, for his press conference at a public pool in Paris – five days after the first nuclear test over the Bikini (the name he borrowed for his design) Atoll during Operation Crossroads. His design, the first to reveal the wearer’s navel, shocks the press and public. Women stick to two-piece swimsuits and Réard goes back to designing knickers to sell in his mother’s shop. Despite controversies, bikinis increasingly appear in movies and on beaches. Brian Hyland’s 1960 hit song “Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow

Polka Dot Bikini” inspires a buying spree and a growing market. But not even the “bikini” is new. Evidence of bikini-style clothing from as early as 5600BC has been found. One of the most famous early illustrations is “(Roman goddess) Venus in a Bikini”, found in the ruins of Pompeii in 1913. The 62cm high statuette (right) is housed in the Naples National Archaeological Museum, which is keen to stress that it actually depicts (Greek goddess) Aphrodite with a small Eros.