Bikini Story. Patrik Alac

all”). His next few collections visibly returned toward the conventional dimensions for two-piece costumes and, understandably, toward a more significant, if distant, buying public. So he might have only dreamed up the bikini as a publicity stunt, returning to it afterward simply because it was accepted by a new era.

      However, the fact remains that publicity material for Réard swimsuits at the end of the 1940s and the beginning of the 1950s made no mention of the scandalous two-piece costumes. On the contrary, it showed a line-drawing of a voluptuous blonde in a one-piece costume that accentuated the outline of her body, wearing shoes and stockings, attracting the eye with a mildly lascivious pose, the index finger of her right hand twirling a spiral in her hair. The caption assertively gave it to be understood that “RÉARD costumes have no need for publicity for they are the world leaders. Not everyone can wear a RÉARD.” Not a single word was mentioned about the bikini.