Bikini has turned 75 today. This sexy piece of garment was designed by French designer Louis Réard. Every year, July 5 is celebrated as International Bikini Day, to mark the day the garment was first unveiled.
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So, on this day, here are some interesting facts about bikini:
* Unveiled on July 5, 1946, bikini was named after Bikini atoll, where the US tested hydrogen bomb five days before this piece of garment was first displayed.
* The first woman to don the clothing item was Micheline Bernardini, who was 19 at that time.
* When it was unveiled, the Vatican declared bikini a sinful garment.
* The first Miss World pageant in 1951 was just a swimsuit contest and Sweden’s Kiki Hakansson is the only winner to be crowned in a bikini. However, in 2014, the pageant scrapped the bikini round altogether.
* Although the bikini was first unveiled in 1946, it was more than a decade later that a celeb donned it in public. It was French actor Brigitte Bardot who wore the beach outfit in 1957 at the Cannes Film Festival.
* In India, actor Sharmila Tagore was the first celebrity to wear the outfit. She donned a bikini in the 1967 film ‘An Evening In Paris’.
* It was only in 1962 that Playboy featured a bikini on its cover.
* The bikini was made the official uniform for the women’s beach volleyball by the Olympic committee in 1993.
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* The costliest bikini is made of diamonds and set in platinum. Designed by Susan Rosen, it is priced at $30 million.
* The garment is prohibited on the beaches of a number of countries, such as the UAE, Croatia and Vietnam.