HISTORY OF THE BIKINI : BRIGITTE BARDOT AND THE PIN UP GIRLS OF THE 1950s

Brigitte Bardot

In 1946, two Frenchmen, engineer Louis Réard, and fashion designer Jacques Heim, were in a strange competition in Paris.

The challenge : make the smallest two-piece bathing suit for women...

But, given the mores of the time, an obstacle stands in this race with minimal dress : the navel !  In the 1940s, showing it was still considered obscene or forbidden.

In fact, many historians consider that Heim already won this race to the tiniest swimsuit in 1932, by creating his prototype called "The Atom" (pictured above).It was a two-piece somewhat similar to the model that will take the name "bikini" after World War II.

What inspired Louis Réard for his own version of the minimalist swimsuit was a phenomenon he had observed on the French beaches of that time.  He had noticed that, in order to get a better tan, some women rolled the edges of their two-pice bathing suit, surreptitiously discovering their "scandalous" navel !

In his engineering head, Réard (pictured above) understood that this need for women to shorten their own bathing suits by rolling the edges, should lead to an adjustment in the making of the garment.

After all, like many scientific inventions, this is how the bikini was born.  First, the observation of a problem, a need, a desire, or a questionable fact.  Then, the imagination gets to work to find a solution.  This solution then takes shape on the drawing board.  And it is carried out with material means and a skin-fine that proceeds by trial and error.

Thus, in 1946, with more or less accuracy, Réard developed the bikini we know today : a top covering most of the breasts; a stocking, with a triangle at the front to hide the inner part, and at the back enough fabrics to cover more or less half of the buttocks.

Once his invention was made, Louis Réard planned to sell it, as he was also a businessman operating his mother's lingerie shop near the Folies Bergères in Paris.  In order to attrack customers or buyers of his new product, the engineer had to show case it, market it and advertise it.

To do this, Réard was looking for a mannequin -an alive one- to make demonstrations in public.  But his bikini was so daring for the manners of the time, that no one wanted to wear it.

Running out of volunteers, Réard takes great measures.  To present his creation to the world, he hires a nude dancer from the Casino de Paris, Micheline Bernardini (pictured above).

On July 5, 1946, she caused a sensation by appearing, almost completely naked, at the Molitor Pool, in front of the public and photographers, in Réard's minimalist bathing suit !  An instant star, Bernardini has a multitude of admirers, especially among men.  In the days following her audacious presentation, she received no less than 50 000 letters !

But Louis Réard is too far ahead of his time.  His bikini is scandalous and he can't sell it.  Worse, his competitor, Jacques Heim, was more successful in selling a more conservative two-piece bathing suit (like the one pictured above), revealing less of the female anatomy.  However, the clientele remains quite marginal.  It is limited to a small number of wealthy and sophisticated Higher-class Europeans.

Esther Williams

For the bikini to return to store shelves, it will take a bang.  And it is a young woman, many considered the most beautiful in the world, who will give this momentum, so desired by Réard, to take off and boost the sales of his invention hitherto sullied by the ordinary people.

Indeed, at the Cannes Film Festival, in 1953, the blonde and very beautiful French actress Brigitte Bardot dazzled the world by posing in a very sexy bikini.  Bardot launched a fashion that then spread to the adjacent beaches of Saint-Tropez, a town on the French Riviera that quickly became the bikini capital of the world.

Ava Gardner

Other movie and show business stars and pin-up girls will emulate Bardot in the 1950s.  These resplendent and illustrious fans of the new bikini include : Esther Williams, Betty Grable, Marilyn Monroe, Anita Ekberg and Sophia Loren.

Marilyn Monroe

But, in several American states, or European countries (such as Italy, Spain and Portugal, the bikini is banned.  Wearing it is illegal.  Violators can be fined.  The Pope also condemns the wearing of the bikini.

Sophia Loren

And if, as we approach the 1960s, some magazines or newspapers are showing people in bikinis, these pictures are retouched or censored so that readers can't look at this outrageous navel that no one should see !

Here are some photos of bikini models of the 1950s on a grestest hit of the year 1953 : «Look at that Girl», by Guy Mitchell !

CHEERLEADERS IN THE 1950s : OH HAPPY DAYS TOGETHER !

FSU  STUDENTS  IN  1954.

After the worst tragedy in mankind history, that was the Second World War, people were eager to forget these horrible years of death, suffering and sacrifices.  They were hungry for peace, love and kindness.  A cure to heal humanity.  They were still afraid of the possibility of an atomic war that could be even worst than World War II, but all they wanted was to be hopeful and happy at home.  And that's what happened !

And love there was !  A lot of it !  With all these young couples founding big families of four to seven children, at least !  This "baby boom" was coupled with a great period of prosperity in America.  In the most powerful country of the planet there was a feeling that the american dream could be fulfilled...

After such hard times of danger and troubles, people seemed to cherish life more than ever before.  And they understood that it was important to take care of each others.  Religious beliefs, sacred family values, a strong sense of unity in the community, and a joyous spirit, animated these young Americans of the 1950s.

Then, moms were still "home queens", they stayed in the family nest, and the happiness of their relatives were their number one priority.  They were dedicated and devoted almost exclusively to their love ones.  That was the key to their own happiness.

But, whit so many children in the family house, mothers often needed help to take care of everyone.  So, the older children would look after the younger ones.  Doing so would prepare themselves to become good parents a few years later.

Family ties were strong.  Divorce was not an option.  Maried couples managed to find solutions to their problems, for the well-being of the family.  Maybee these were the happiest days in the history of America.

A good family life enjoyed by a new comfort provided by modern machines, TV sets, appliances, beautiful furnishings, big cars, etc.

That was the american way of life.  At least for the white middle class families.  It has been illustrated in television series like HAPPY DAYS (see cast, two pictures above) and FATHER KNOWS BEST (Thanksgiving, 1954, picture above).

The dynamics of this joyful life in the Fifties are almost incomprehensible today, in a society where individualism and materialism are so dominant.  Now, divisions are so numerous and profound between races and social classes. 

Maybee it was the same thing, back in the 1950s, but there were a lot less medias to show it.  Actually, in some regions of the United States, households of one person are more common than ones with a family.

Back in the fifties, with all these joyous baby boomers attending school together, friendship was in the air !  There was a strong connection between the students and their "alma mater".  They were very proud to belong to their college or university.

And to show their pride, it happened that a new activity became the rage on the sports fields and gyms of all the american schools : cheerleading !  With uniforms representing their school, these strong boys and beautiful girls were there to direct the cheers to support the "home sport team".

At the same time, doing so was great to promote friendship among all the students of the school; this important and crucial place where you were educated and prepared to become good patriots and good american citizens.

In the fifties, cheerleaders, well...the essentially cheered !  Their routines were simple choreographies with yells to incite the spectators to support their sport team.  Stunting, jumps, dance, tumbling would be progressively integrated in these routines a little bit later.

And these more acrobatic moves would require some changes to the Pom Pom girls uniforms.  Or is it the other way around ?  Changes to the uniforms allowed the cheerleaders to do more acrobatic routines !  Who knows ?!  

One thing is for sure : from the second part of the 1940s (picture above) to the end of the fifties (picture below), the length of the cheerleader's skirt was cut by more than a half !  From just above the ankles, it went under the knees, up above them, and finally to mid-thigh.  A revolution !

Even if nothing is impossible today, it would be very surprising to see a teen student going to her classroom wearing a cheerleader outfit !  But it was not the case in the fifties.  Except for a few details, cheerleaders uniforms, at least for the first half of the 1950s, were almost identical to any girl's every day clothes.  Cheerleaders uniforms were still of wool material but slightly shorter.  They were tucked in blouses, or botton up and collared shirts, and cardigans, tackle twill with the school's letters and a megaphone.

The first "professional cheerleaders" appeared at the end of the decade, around 1959, with the Baltimore Colts, of the American Football League.  Some pictures show them with their pom poms, welcoming back the players after a game away form home.  A typical "home coming ceremony" in these times.  You don't see that nowadays.

Because, as I already said it, in the 1950s, people cared for each others.  To see the players back after a safe plane trip, in an another city, was a good reason to celebrate.  It was a proof of love...  

INVENTION OF THE "NEW" BIKINI : NOT UNLIKE SOME GREAT DISCOVERIES OF THE PAST.

In my first post, we saw that two-piece bikini-like garments were worn by women for athletic purposes in Ancient Greece, as far back as 1 400 BC.  It seemed like a natural thing that, even in these times : design followed function.  But it was not as simple as that.  You know the adage : other times, other morals.  What seems natural in some societies is often inadmissible or licentious in others, even in our world that we call the "global village".  The way different peoples see things depends of who (political authorities, interest group, etc) has the power to rule the society.

In occidental countries, the Catholic Church had such a powerful influence up until the middle of the last century, that it could determine what was right and what was wrong.  Kings, dictators, or even democratic leaders could not govern without the advices or the rules imposed by the religious authorities.  In the fist two millenniums of our era, as a citizen or an inhabitant of a christian country, you were not allowed to do or say something that the priests and the Pope would condemn.  They hold the truth and nobody could challenge them on almost any question even for matters, like those related to sciences, they did not have the competence to understand or judge.  They would even threaten, imprison, torture or kill people who did'nt agree with them on some conflicting issues.

For examples, great discoverers like Copernicus and Galileo were forced by the Church to deny their brilliant theories about the earth, because these findings went against the dogmatic views or the superstitions of the christian religion.  Galileo was found guilty of heresy even if he provided evidence for his heliocentric theory by using a telescope.  Later, when Charles Darwin elaborated his theory of the evolution, it was impossible for the Catholic Church to accept that we "were all apes".  It was in complete contradiction of the "official story" told in the Genesis (first book of the Old Testament).

Of course, we can not compare the invention of the "modern bikini" to the great discoveries made by Copernicus, Galileo or Darwin.  But the creation of this new bathing suit in 1946 had a shocking impact too.  And, for the religious authorities, it was a unacceptable scandal !  A monster of indecency !  In many countries, not long after his invention, the bikini was condemned and banned.  His inventor, French engineer Louis Réard (1897-1984), knew that his new creation would be a "bomb" !  That's the reason why he named it after Bikini Atoll, in the Pacific, the site of an atomic bomb test on July 1, 1946.  And, compared to the beachwears of the first 30 years of the century (picture above), the bikini was so small that it seems to "split the Atome", like Réard used to say.  This innovation was to expose the navel.  How shocking !

If Réard did "split the Atome", it was because one of his competitor, fashion designer Jacques Heim (1889-1967), had already created the "Atome" (picture above), which, he claimed, was, in 1932, the smallest bathing suit ever.  Réard, who was running his mother's lingerie boutique near "Les Folies Bergères", in Paris, wanted to challenge this title.  Like all the great inventors, he was a very good observer.  He had noticed that women were rolling up their beachwear to get a better tan.  By doing so, they were expressing a need.  Réard found the solution.  He sliced the top off the bottoms and advertised these new two-piece as "smaller than the smallest swimsuit".

But Réard's invention was so audacious and ahead of his time that he could not find a model to wear his first bikini.  He ended up hiring Micheline Bernardini (picture above), a nude dancer from the "Casino de Paris".  She was first seen, wearing the famous tiny two-piece, on July 5, at Piscine Molitor, a public pool in Paris.  Her bikini was a string one, with a g-string back of 30 square inches (194 cm²) of cloth with newspaper type print.

And yes !  It was quite a hit (a bomb), especially among men.  The beautiful Micheline Bernardini received 50 000 letters, and Réard's business soared !  We can see him (picture above, in 1946) adjusting his popular "polka dot strapless bikini" on another queen of beauty.  But if the bikini was a success on the beaches of France, as early as in 1947, it would take time to be welcomed elsewhere...  We will see that in the next posts...