ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, July 15, 1996 TAG: 9607150120
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-5 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: PARIS
SOURCE: Associated Press
A YEAR AFTER the Nazis were kicked out of France, a two-piece garment, named for the atoll where atom bombs were mushrooming, made its debut. Fifty years later, it's still a hit.
The dark days of World War II had ended, and a liberated France was in the mood to let go.
So when a French automotive engineer sketched a two-piece bathing suit and named it after the South Pacific atoll where the Americans were setting off atomic bombs, the creation became an instant - though controversial - hit.
Fifty years later, the bikini is still a hit.
The naughty little two-piecer made a sensational debut at the fashionable Molitor swimming pool in Paris back in 1946. A year after the Nazis were kicked out of France, it was another liberation of sorts.
``It meant the liberation of the body,'' said Catherine Join-Dieterle, head curator of the Galliera Fashion Museum in Paris.
The bikini has hardly slowed since, and now it has gone high-tech, with some new elasticized models. Allowing for a few blips with the more modest one-piece tank suits fashionable in the late 1980s, the bikini blossoms, or rather recedes, as it bares more flesh than ever.
The swimsuit fashioned of three strategic triangles was the brainchild of Louis Reard, a Renault engineer-designer who named it after the A-bomb test site. The little bikini created its own mini-explosion in the press and with early paparazzi.
Women's navels hadn't been bared in public since the days of Rameses II's slaves of ancient Egypt, and the uproar from churches and other critics was deafening. Bikinis were immediately banned on beaches in some predominantly Roman Catholic countries. Even Hollywood frowned on them at first.
But they were enthusiastically taken up by postwar French women, and soon became a trademark of curvaceous Brigitte Bardot and other nubile beauties.
Americans were late-comers and finally took bikinis to New York's Jones Beach in the late 1950s. The two-piece caught on with the baby boomers, the exploding surf culture, beach music and Hollywood cinema.
The French very often discard tops and turn the whole look into a monokini, wearing bottoms only and baring the breasts.
Relative modesty came back a few years ago with fashionable stretch one-piece tank suits, cut-outs in interesting places, or backless looks. But designers such as Karl Lagerfeld, Donna Karan and Calvin Klein have brought out two pieces again.
``Small as it is, the bikini is a very big item,'' said Annick Huet, a spokeswoman for Rasurel, a top French swimwear manufacturer, now a subsidiary of the American conglomerate Warnaco. ``We're seeing nearly 50 percent bikini sales, vs. one-piece, up considerably over a few years ago.''
She reckons the clinging new fabrics are attractive. They're also secure - gone are the days of diving into the lake and losing your bikini pants, thanks to new stretch fabrics.
LENGTH: Medium: 60 linesby CNB