Just one very small piece of clothing. This was all it took to lead to anger, banned content and arrests worldwide.
Over many years of battles between covering up and showing skin, the bikini came out both fighting and winning. It was called sinful by popes. The government made it illegal.
So they kept choosing to wear it — and every time they stepped out in a more daring look, they once again changed what was expected of them.
Tailors available on the beach
Back then, the swimsuits we wear today were not yet in fashion. Before, these suits were made from wool and truly covered your whole body, offering protection from the sun. It had nothing to do with fashion; it was meant to honor modesty.
Dressing a certain way was required at beaches in the United States. Kathleen Morgan Drowne and Patrick Huber write in their book about 1920s pop culture that tailors were employed at Chicago’s Clarendon Beach to make quick fixes to swim suits that didn’t cover enough.
Nationally, places like Coney Island followed suit — in 1915, bathing socks could not be worn if they highlighted ladies’ “dimpled knees.” Officers in Washington, DC would measure stretch of sand with tape to check if it met the rule.
Is one shirt your reason for being taken away?
Women in the early 1900s spent a lot of time hiding their bodies. For anyone, whether man or woman, a suit that reached from the neck to the knees was required — nothing else was permitted. Did my arm get any sun? At the time, that was thought to be extremely disgraceful.
There was a shift coming in the manufacturing world. In 1907, swimmer Annette Kellerman performed the famous backstroke in a suit that bowed off society’s traditional main rules.
Often called “the Australian Mermaid” because of her swimming skills, Kellerman invested much of her life in working to change the status quo and shift accepted notions.
According to the actress, she was arrested by police for her ”indecent” look, but there are no official records to prove it. Still, during that era, many people were upset by the way women swam in these exhibitions. Many people learned about the incident and joined the movement.
After wearing a one-piece swimsuit, Kellerman gained attention and before long, girls everywhere wore the same style.
Since so many asked for her styles, she eventually began her own swimwear line and these “Annette Kellermans” formed the base of what modern women’s swimwear would become.
The 1920s were a time when fashion really changed.
By the late 1920s, the flapper look was appearing not only at parties, but also at the beach.
The whole thing started when a group of people from California challenged the rules of their time. These early bathing costume supporters, often called “skirts be hanged girls,” just wanted women to be able to swim in their clothing.
As a result, swimsuits changed to be both more useful and fitted to the wearer’s shape. The ”skirts be hanged girls” showed that Americans were looking for change not just for what they wore but also for how they would function and move.
People might not expect it now, but swimsuits in the 1930s started to show more of the body to allow women the ability to move easily. Yet another huge change still lay ahead.
The bikini was a shocking development.
The year 1946 marked the creation of the bikini. French engineer Louis Réard was responsible for the first bikini which uncovered the navel and much more skin than was believed suitable in public.
Only weeks before the bikini was introduced in 1946, the U.S. carried out a nuclear test at Bikini Atoll that made international news.
Although Réard never shared the reason for the name, many feel he did this as a way to show how much he hoped the swimsuit would change clothing and culture, like the bomb did. Some claim the name was inspired by the Pacific’s mystery or likened seeing a swimsuit being taken off to a powerful explosion.
American attitudes were fast: several beaches banned the bikini and it became considered very bold. It was no easier in Europe either. Bikinis were forbidden on French beaches in 1949 and in Germany they could not be worn at public pools until the 1970s. At the same moment, some communist groups criticized the bikini as an act of capitalist immorality and greed.
After Pope Pius XII called the bikini sinful, Belgium, Italy, Portugal and Spain all banned it nationwide.
In 1952, Surfers Paradise officials asked Australian model Ann Ferguson off the beach, claiming her Paula Stafford bikini was too revealing.
How accurate is the famous picture?
A picture was taken that symbolized the whole argument about where bikinis should be allowed on the beach. It is from Italy that we get pasta.
A photo that has recently become famous on the Internet shows a man in a white uniform standing close to a young woman wearing a bikini at a beach. Many social media users say the shot was taken in Rimini, Italy, during 1957. People have shared the story most often, referring to the man as a police officer who ticketed the woman simply for wearing a bikini.
The Reddit post about the picture that went up April 2023 reached more than 31,000 upvotes and collected 1,400 comments. The caption said: “After receiving a ticket from a police officer for wearing a bikini, a woman walks away, 1957.”
Still, was it all real?
The photo is genuine, but we’re still unclear about the history behind it. The event didn’t reveal any clear evidence the woman was fined for her swimwear. Some argue that the women were models or actors, but others think the officer might have stopped her for an unrelated issue.
It certainly pushed some people’s buttons.
Gianluca Braschi, director of the State Archives of Rimini, told Snopes that Italy had swimwear laws at the time, despite not being able to verify the details of the photo.
According to Braschi, since 1932, it has been forbidden in Italy to bathe publicly in no clothes or with indecent swimming outfits. That statute actually stayed on the books until 2000 and how it was applied varied over the years.
Even with everything we can assume, we’ll probably never know all the truth about that viral picture, but it does represent a real tension of the era, because bikinis didn’t just make heads turn, they could get you into serious trouble.
Hollywood’s impact
It was mainly in the 1960s that the bikini gained its place in popular culture. As communities began to change, more designers introduced daring styles for women’s swimsuits.
Even so, people were divided about what to do. There was much opposition to the tiny two-piece in some parts of society.
A good example is the United States Motion Picture Production Code, the Hays Code which came into effect in 1934. Two-piece costumes were permitted in movies, but never anything that revealed the navel. The Roman Catholic watchdog group, National Legion of Decency, insisted that Hollywood and filmmakers completely avoid showing bikinis in movies.
Marilyn Monroe, Ursula Andress and Brigitte Bardot made the world look differently at beauty and confidence after they rose to fame in Hollywood. They weren’t just wearing swimsuits — people started to think of these icons as swimsuit icons.
A girl was seen wearing a bikini.
Only Brigitte Bardot, a French actress, may have done more to introduce the bikini worldwide.
It wasn’t only about the bikini; she really showed how comfortable she was in it. In that role, Bardot didn’t only appear in a swimsuit; she gave it meaning for the generation. Her body, showing off a bikini top that looked on the verge of collapsing, was the most important part of the movie.
Long, unstyled hair and a casual attitude helped Bardot to move past old movie ideas about women’s roles.
Sure, the film showed her in balance with the ocean and the sun, but it clearly was her body the camera focused on. Although the movie portrayed her like a pin-up, Bardot wasn’t only eye candy, she made the bikini important to the story and added her personal touch.
She might not have come first, yet her portrayal of the bikini in that film made it legendary and U.S. viewers helped her become famous all over the world.
Ursula Andress’s white bikini from Dr. The reason No (1962) became an instant success is that it put together sex appeal, toughness and cinematic appeal in a new way.
Andress was so much more than someone who looked good, she was someone you couldn’t forget because she came across as powerful. She was said to be the ideal Bond woman after this South Pacific scene, with the bikini representing confident women everywhere.
The bikini became a widespread sight by the 1970s. It wasn’t long before bikinis became smaller and more revealing, with thongs being the latest thing on the market. The idea of modesty that influenced men’s swimwear in the early 20th century faded, so swim trunks became smaller.
Today’s swimwear: Focusing on body positivity and diversity
These days, swimwear isn’t just about what society thinks is right anymore. There’s no shortage of options in the swimwear market these days.
Whether you like a one-piece match or daring bikinis and thongs, you’ll find a style to suit your taste. Also, people’s discussions about body types have changed a lot. Men and women now focus on feeling comfortable and confident in their own skin and all kinds of people feel at ease sharing their style at the beach or pool.
Regulating ”decent” swimwear is a thing of the past. Now, people get to choose their style and make it their own. A person might choose almost any kind of swimwear today and the country’s acceptance and welcoming nature reflect this change.
An initial campaign to be modest has turned into a celebration of differences, personal style and liberation. Be mindful that, when you’re at the beach the next time, the swimsuit is only a part of discovering who you are.