It has been only 200 years since swimsuits were used. before, both men and women would go into the water either naked or in their underwear. The first swimsuits came out in the mid 1800s, and they looked just like ordinary clothes. With a collar, long sleeves, knee length skirt with short pants underneath, they even wore them with black stockings and canvas shoes. When wet, the swimsuit became so heavy that it weighed almost as much as the swimmer. Because of this, there were a lot of drowning accidents in England and America.

In the 1930s, swimsuits were showing more of the arms and legs. Some came out with very thin shoulder straps and no backs. And after a few years, two-piece swimsuits began to come out.

On july 1, 1946, America began nuclear tests and had dropped an atomic bomb at the bikini atoll(»êÈ£¼¶) in the Marshal islands. This incident drew the world's attention. Meanwhile in paris, a designer named Louis reard was getting ready to show his new, bold swimsuit. He wanted to get the world's attention which was now focused on the nuclear tests, so he named his new swimsuit bikini.

On July 5th of that year, four days after the bomb was dropped, Reard's top model Micheline bernardini walked the catwalks(ÆÐ¼Ç¼î ¹«´ë) of Paris wearing the world's first bikini. This swimsuit got more attention and criticism than America's nuclear tests. anyway, reard's purpose to get the world's attention had worked!