Red Bikini

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Did you know that the Bikini was named after the Bikini Atoll, a series of islands in the South Pacific? The atomic bomb was being tested there in the summer of 1946, and Louis Reard, a French engineer, expected his ‘explosive’ bathing suit design to cause the same reaction among people as caused by the bomb! As he could not get any model to wear the design, he had to finally hire a nude red bikini dancer from Paris to model it.

In the years that followed, the sizzling Bikini attained fame and widespread popularity, breaking every known code of Victorian morality. Even as the bikini daringly revealed more and more enticing details of the body, designers began to experiment with the degree of opacity of the bikini, introducing the see through bikinis. The politics of ‘see through’ is quite subtle: even though parts of the body in question are essentially covered, they are, in some way or the other, visible. 

The see through when wet kind of bikinis uses elastics that are transparent when wet.  These bikinis may be loose fitting, but when wet, they inevitably cling to the body revealing intimate details.  Transparent, Translucent and Invisible bikinis are other variants that vary in the degree to which they tantalizingly restrict the view of the body.  Open work barriers like fishnet and crochet provides the designer with a broad canvas. These materials are elastic and hold form ensuring that body parts are covered.  But a strategic fishnet can be used to skillfully expose parts of the breasts, midriffs and rear, still ensuring that body parts are considered covered.  In the 2009 issue of Sports Illustrated, the sizzling hot Bar Rafaeli is seen in a red bikini that uses open work to expose parts of her rear, as a white bed sheet fluttering in the breeze, is used to hide her naked upper body. 

One of the factors that make a bikini seductive is the erotic way in which the wearer plays with the straps of her bikini.  The most common gesture is one where the shoulder strap of a bikini slides off the top of the shoulder, accidentally or intentionally, putting the cleavage at the risk of exposure.  Another familiar untie is with the halter, a bikini which is tied behind the neck.  Here the wearer may untie her straps, apply lotion, lie on her back, all the while controlling how much she exposes, and of course risking unintended ones.  Halters also permit the girl to experiment and retie the straps in different formations. This maneuver is often skillfully done in full public view, sometimes negotiating a pass that gives the keen eye a fleeting view of forbidden parts.  In the 2010 issue of Sports Illustrated, Brooklyn Decker poses on the pristine beaches of Maldives in a red bikini with a halter neck. 

As the bikini evolved in many naughty ways, one might be tempted to assume that the Maillot, or the one piece swimsuit covering both the crotch and the breasts, would go out of fashion.  Although once threatened with extinction, the maillot was revived with various styles like strategic cutouts or holes facilitating exposure.  One creative discovery was the maillot de roule.  The de roule allows the wearer to roll down the maillot and render her self topless. This flexibility in coverage makes the de roule quite popular in topless beaches rescuing women who shy away from perpetual ‘toplessness’ unlike women wearing a normal topless g-string or tanga without the option of covering up. In the 2009 issue of Sports Illustrated, Bar Rafaeli is also photographed on a sandy beach sporting a red bikini that is essentially a maillot.