Louis Reard encyclopedia topics

Invention of bikini

Although Réard was an engineer, he was running his mother's lingerie boutique near Les Folies Bergères in Paris by 1946. Reard and Jacques Heim, his rival designers, were competing to produce the world's smallest swimsuit. Heim developed his swimsuit and called it the "atom" and advertised it as "the world's smallest bathing suit."

In 1946 Réard introduced the bikini. His swimsuit was basically a bra top and two inverted triangles of cloth connected by string and it was significantly smaller. Made out of a scant 30 inches of fabric, he promoted his creation as "smaller than the world's smallest bathing suit." He called his creation the bikini, named after the Bikini Atoll. The idea struck him when he saw women rolling up their beachwear to get a better tan.

Réard named the bikini after the Bikini Atoll, which was the site of a nuclear weapon test called Operation Crossroads on July 1, 1946 in the Pacific. During those days, words like "atomic" were beginning to be used by the media to describe something sensational and Réard reasoned that the excitement the bikini would cause would equal that of the bomb.

Marketing of bikini

Réard's showmanship outgunned the far more reserved Jacques Heim, and it was Réard's bikini that shook the world at the Paris fashion show.

Réard could not find a model who would dare to wear his design. He ended up hiring Micheline Bernardini, a nude dancer from the Casino de Paris as his model. That bikini, a string bikini with a g-string back made out of of clothes with newspaper type printed across, was "officially" introduced on July 5, 1946 at a fashion event at Piscine Molitor, a popular public pool in Paris. The bikini was a hit, especially among men, and Bernardini received some 50,000 fan letters. Heim's design was the first worn on the beach, but the genre of clothing was given its name by Réard. Reard's business soared, and in advertisements he kept the bikini mystique alive by declaring that a two-piece suit wasn't a genuine bikini "unless it could be pulled through a wedding ring."