TIME: July 5, 1946: When the Europeans witnessed their first summer post war in 1946, French designers saw an opportunity to create clothes that would express the very feeling of liberation. Louis Réard and Jacques Heim were two such designers whose versions of new and free clothing served as prototypes of the bikini, as we know it today.
On the 5th of July, 1946, Louis unveiled the bikini at the Piscine Molitor in Paris, modelled on the daring Parisian showgirl Micheline Bernardini. He went on to name the swimsuit after the US atomic testing site, Bikini Atoll, knowing that this new swimsuit would be explosive for sure.
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