STRANGE BUT TRUE

Partly due to material rationing after World War 2, in May 1946, Frenchman Louis Réard unveiled his earth-shattering invention: “the smallest bathing suit in the world“. As the US had just tested a hydrogen bomb over Namu island in the Bikini Atoll, Pacific Ocean, Réard named it “the bikini“in reference to the bomb test, since he assumed the risqué display of flesh would send similar shockwaves across the world.