Choose the Right Bikini for Summer
In 1946, Louis Reard, an engineer-and a Frenchman, of course! -fashioned a two-piece women's swimsuit from 30 inches of fabric. Reard's rival in bikini design, Jacques Helm, was actually the first to create the iconic two-piece swimsuit of the 20th century. Helm called his design the "atome" in a nod to the smallest particle in the world known at the time. A marketing genius, Reard introduced his skimpy two-piece design five days after the United States began atomic tests in the Bikini Atoll and named it "bikini" to suggest that it would have the same explosive impact on society as an A-bomb.






