[Caught in the Net] Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie
In addition to being National Culinary Arts Month and National Doghouse Repairs Month and Women’s Motorcycle Month, July is National Bikini Month. (Follow the link for a calendar of strange holidays.) Thus it seems only right and proper to honor the noble two-piece bathing suit in all its skimpy glory.
Consider this compilation of various histories of the bikini, exploring the origins of the outfit — from French inventor Louis Reard’s decision to name the swimsuit after the recently-exploded Bikini Atoll in the 1940s, to two-piece swimsuits being banned at the Miss World competition, on through the invention of the thong and beyond. (Except of course bikinis weren’t really invented in the ’40s. As Wikipedia tells us, women were wearing two-piece garments for “athletic purposes” as early as 1400 BC — and we’ve got the Grecian urns to prove it!)
Though interesting, the purely informational pages above lack a certain something . . . namely, photos of famous women in bikinis. Fortunately, the good folks at Entertainment Weekly have put together a list of 18 Iconic Swimsuits, including Halle Berry as a Bond Girl; Ursula Andress (um, also as a Bond girl); Annette Funicello in her Beach Party movie heyday; Raquel Welch in a prehistoric fur bikini; and, of course, Carrie Fisher in her golden slave bikini as Princess Leia.
The human competitive spirit made bikini contests an inevitability, and no spring break would be complete without them. (I had many many choices of possible links documenting the wonder of bikini contests, and chose the link above — the site of a bar I’ve never been to — because of the wealth of recent photographic evidence it provides. A little googling will turn up more bikini contest goodness, if you need more ogling opportunities.)
No discussion of the bikini could be complete without mention of Brian Hyland’s famous 1960 song “Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini.” Thanks to the wonder of YouTube, now we can experience that song along with a montage of photos of skimpy bikinis, thus proving once again that technology is the greatest thing ever.
This entry was posted on Wednesday, 9 July 2008 at 12:00 pm and is filed under Caught in the Net. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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