Illustration by Rachel Idzerda
The bikini turns 75 on July 5—officially recognized as National Bikini Day—just a few months before I’ll open birthday cards that feature bad jokes about turning 70.
The ubiquitous style, not unlike the garb worn for exercise in Ancient Rome and as early as 5600 B.C., made its grand entrance in 1946 at a swimming pool in Paris. French auto engineer Louis Réard designed it and named it, inspired by the nuclear bomb tests in Bikini Atoll, certain that his invention would be equally explosive. Lest his brainchild be confused with any variations, he defined the authentic bikini as little enough material “to be pulled through a wedding ring.”