Grab your sunscreen — it’s National Bikini Day this July 5, and it’s the perfect opportunity to head to the beach. National Bikini Day celebrates the anniversary of the invention of the two-piece bathing suit.
Owing to its risqué design, the bikini was slow to be adopted — but it gradually gained traction when film stars like Ava Gardner and Brigitte Bardot started to wear bikinis on public beaches and in their films.
The garment was certainly one of the greatest inventions of all time and, due to the supposed ‘explosive’ effect it had created, it was named after Bikini Atoll in the South Pacific where they conducted nuclear testing in 1946.