String bikini in 2006 A
string bikini or
stringkini is scantier and more revealing than a regular bikini. It gets its name from the string characteristics of its design. It consists of two triangular shaped pieces connected at the
groin but not at the sides, where a thin "string" wraps around the waist connecting the two parts. String bikini tops are similar and are tied in place by the attached "string" pieces. String pieces can either be continuous or tied. A string bikini bottom can have minimal to a maximum coverage of a woman's backside. The term
string bikini first came into use in 1974. There is an
urban myth that the Brazilian fashion model
Rose di Primo created the first string bikini when she had to sew one with insufficient fabric available to her for a photo shoot. The first formal presentation of string bikini was done by Glen Tortorich, a public relations agent, and his wife Brandi Perret-DuJon, a fashion model, for the opening of Le Petite Centre, a shopping area in the French Quarter of
New Orleans,
Louisiana in 1974. Inspired by a picture of a
Rio de Janeiro fashion model in an issue of ''
Women's Wear Daily, they had local fashion designer Lapin create a string bikini for the event. Models recruited by talent agent Peter Dasigner presented it by removing fur coats by Alberto Lemon on stage. The presentation was covered by local television stations and the New Orleans Times-Picayune'' newspaper and was sent out via the wire news services of the Associated Press and United Press International. String bikinis are one of the most popular variations of bikinis. Bikinis are also worn at the hips, but the fabric at the sides is narrower. In the string bikini, it disappears altogether to leave the waistband as a "string". The rear coverage of the bikini is not as full as with the brief. Bikini is the most widely worn style among women worldwide. The tied strings can accidentally come undone leading to a
wardrobe malfunction, as happened to Miss
Guárico at the
Miss Venezuela 2008 beauty pageant.
Monokini A
monokini, more commonly referred to as a
topless swimsuit and sometimes referred to as a
unikini, is a women's one-piece swimsuit equivalent to the lower half of a bikini. In 1964,
Rudi Gernreich, an Austrian fashion designer, designed the original monokini in the US. Gernreich also invented its name, and the word monokini is first recorded in English that year. Gernreich's monokini looked like a one-piece swimsuit suspended from two halter straps in the cleavage of bared breasts. It had only two small straps over the shoulders, leaving the breasts bare. Despite the reaction of fashion critics and church officials, shoppers purchased the monokini in record numbers that summer, though very few monokinis were ever worn in public. By the end of the season, Gernreich had sold 3000 swimsuits at $24 apiece, which meant a tidy profit for such a minuscule amount of fabric. Monokini usage is uncommon in the US, where Americans have never accepted it for the beach. Many women who wanted to sunbathe
topless simply wore the bottom part of a bikini. Manufacturers and retailers quickly adapted to selling tops and bottoms separately. Gernreich later created the lesser known
pubikini.
Peggy Moffitt modelled the suit for Gernreich. She said it was a logical evolution of Gernreich's
avant-garde ideas in swimwear design as much as a scandalous symbol of the
permissive society. with designers using fabric, mesh, chain, or other materials to link the top and bottom sections together, though the appearance may not be functional, but rather only aesthetic. In recent years, the term has come into use for topless bathing by women: where the bikini has two parts, the monokini is the lower part. Where monokinis are in use, the word
bikini may jokingly refer to a two-piece outfit consisting of a monokini and a
sun hat. The original monokini is still sold by
Victoria's Secret as a
half-kini.
Microkini A
microkini (or micro bikini) is an extremely minimalist bikini that uses less fabric than a traditional bikini in order to show more skin and create less visible
tan lines. They typically have thong-style bottoms and string straps, covering little more than the nipples and pubic hair.
See-through material is sometimes used for the straps to create the illusion that the triangles of fabric are taped to the body. Some variations of the microkini use adhesive or wire to hold the fabric in place over the genitals. These designs do not require any additional side straps to keep the garment in place. Micro bikini designs for men were introduced at the end of the 1960s consisting of briefs that barely covered the
coccyx and the pubic hair. These micro bikinis for men have continued to be popular in Brazil, particularly in
Copacabana, Rio de Janeiro. Women's micro bikinis first appeared in the 1970s. The term "microkini" was first used in 1995 to describe the increasingly small bikini designs that were becoming popular at that time. In the same year fashion designer
Karl Lagerfeld created a micro bikini for
Chanel's spring 1996 collection. It resembled a string bikini except that the top's triangles were replaced with two small circles resembling nipple
pasties. Other fashion brands including
GCDS and
Dior have since also produced their own versions of the microkini. Celebrities wearing microkinis have included
Emily Ratajkowski,
Kim Kardashian,
Dua Lipa and
Bella Hadid. but it may be considered culturally inappropriate in more conservative societies. Wearing them in public is prohibited in some places by local laws which can carry a fine for infringement.
Tankini in 2011 The
tankini is a swimsuit combining a
tank top, mostly made of spandex-and-cotton or Lycra-and-nylon, and a bikini bottom introduced in the late 1990s. According to author
William Safire, "The most recent evolution of the
-kini family is the tankini, a cropped tank top supported by spaghetti-like strings." to
server architecture (
Tankini HipThread). This type of swimwear is considered by some to provide modesty closer to that of a one-piece suit but with the convenience of a two-piece suit, such as not needing to remove the entire suit in order to use a lavatory. Designer
Anne Cole, described as a godmother of swimwear in the US, was originator of this style. She scored what would be her biggest hit in 1998 when her label introduced the tankini. A two-piece suit with a top half that covered more of the wearer's torso than a standard bikini top, the suit was an instant hit with customers. Variations of the tankini, made of
spandex-and-
cotton or
Lycra-and-
nylon, have been named
camkini, with
spaghetti straps instead of tank-shaped straps over a bikini bottom, and even
bandeaukini, with a
bandeau worn as the top. and athletic outfit good enough for a
triathlon. According to Katherine Betts, ''
Vogue's'' fashion-news director, this amphibious sportswear for sand or sea lets the user go rafting, playing volleyball and swimming without worrying about losing their top. The trikini top comes essentially in two separate parts. The name of this woman's bathing suit is formed from bikini, replacing "bi-", meaning "two", with "tri-", meaning "three". Writer
William Safire wrote in
The New York Times: "Stripping to essentials, if the trikini is three pieces, the bikini two and the monokini one, when will we see the zerokini?"
Dolce & Gabbana designed trikinis for Summer 2005 as three pieces of scintillating fabric that barely cover the wearer. A variation on the bikini in which three pieces are sold together, such as a bikini with a tank top or a bikini with a one-piece suit is also sometimes called a trikini, including a conventional two-piece with a glitzy band of
rhinestones round the waist.
Israeli designer Gideon Oberson, known for his artistically inspired bathing suits, calls a two-piece suit but looks like a tank top that can be worn with a skirt or a pair of shorts designed by him a trikini.
Brazilian designer Amir Slama calls two scraps of silk connected with string he designed for skinny women a trikini.
Sling bikini The
sling bikini is also known as a "suspender bikini", "suspender thong", "slingshot bikini" or just "slingshot". It is a one-piece suit that provides as little or even less coverage (or as much exposure) as a traditional bikini. Usually, a slingshot resembles a bikini bottom, but rather than the straps going around the hips or waist, the side straps extend upwards to cover the breasts and go over the shoulders, leaving the entire sides of the torso uncovered, but the nipples and pubic area covered. Behind the neck, the straps join and reach down the back to become a
thong. There is a variation of the sling bikini called the
pretzel bikini that has the straps simply encircle the neck and another set of straps pass around the midriff, instead of the straps passing over the neck and down the back. and in 1994 they were introduced into mainstream US stores.
Bandeaukini A
bandeaukini, alternatively called a
bandini,
bandkini or
bandikini, is a
bandeau top, with no straps going over the shoulders, worn with any bikini bottom. The appeal of the bandeau grew fast among young women, with bandeau tops edging into the sales of the classic tankini. Sometimes the same design has been called a bandeaukini and a tankini. Actress
Halle Berry wore a skimpy pink bikini top with matching pants to the
2000 MTV Movie Awards, fueling the trend of wearing a bandeau top as an out-of-home dress.
Skirtini in 2012 The
skirtini, a
portmanteau of skirt and bikini, which features a bikini top and a small, skirted bottom, is an innovation for bikini-style clothes with more coverage. In 2007, skirtinis by
Juicy Couture were dubbed as one of the top new trends. In 2011,
The Daily Telegraph identified the skirted bikini as one of the top 10 swimwear design of the season. According to Anne-Marie Blondeau, marketing and communications coordinator for swimwear company Maillot Baltex, "There was a lot of swimsuits that looked like dresses and skirts, so when you think about skirtinis in that sense, yes it seems old... but the skirtini is a bit shorter than the average skirt." Pre-bikini two piece beachwear used aprons, skirts or draped panels to conceal "private areas". Two-piece swimsuits with usual skirt panels were popular in the US before the government ordered a 10% reduction in fabric used in woman's swimwear in 1943 as wartime rationing.
Playsuits were a beachwear popular in the 1950s that featured a "modesty skirt" and a bandeau top. == Styles ==