When Were Two Piece Swim Suits First Worn?

Sportswomen in ancient Greece started wearing bikinis as early as 1400 B.C. These were the first official instances of women wearing bathing suits, and Greek urns and paintings dating back to that era do represent the women who wore the skimpy two-piece garment in a graphic manner.

However, there have also been instances of holiday-makers who were vacationing in Germany in the 1930's and French women in Paris in 1945 wearing bikinis even before they were officially invented in 1946 and became the rage the world over thereafter. The French engineer Louis Reard created an improved version of the suit created by his compatriot, the fashion designer Jacques Heim in 1945. Heim called his original creation the atome and billed it the smallest bathing suit in the world. He was not able to find a model who was bold enough to wear the skimpy two-piece swimsuit, so he finally managed to convince a nude dancer called Micheline Bernardini who worked in a nightclub called the Casino de Paris to be his model.