Micheline Bernardini

Micheline Bernardini (born 1 December 1927) is a French former nude dancer at the Casino de Paris who agreed to model, on 5 July 1946, Louis Réard's two-piece swimsuit, which he called the bikini, named four days after the first test of an American nuclear weapon at the Bikini Atoll.[1]

Micheline Bernardini
Modeling the first bikini on 5 July 1946 at the Piscine Molitor in Paris.
Born (1927-12-01) 1 December 1927
Colmar, France
NationalityFrench
OccupationModel

Réard's bikini

Designer Louis Réard could not find a runway model willing to showcase his revealing design for a two-piece swimsuit. Risqué for its time, it exposed the wearer's navel and much of her buttocks. He hired Bernardini, an 18-year-old nude dancer from the Casino de Paris, as his model.[2][3] He introduced his design, a two-piece swimsuit with a g-string back made out of 30 square inches (194 cm2) of cloth with newspaper type pattern, which he called a bikini, at a press conference at the Piscine Molitor, a popular public pool in Paris in July 1946.[4]

Photographs of Bernardini and articles about the event were widely carried by the press. The International Herald Tribune alone ran nine stories on the event.[5] The bikini was a hit, especially among men, and Bernardini received over 50,000 fan letters.[6]

Later life

Bernardini later moved to Australia. She appeared from 1948 to 1958 in a number of revues at the Tivoli Theatre, Melbourne.[7][8] Footage of her 1946 modeling appearance was featured in an episode of the reality television series Love Lust titled The Bikini, in 2011.[9]

Bernardini posed at age 58 in a bikini for photographer Peter Turnley, in 1986.[10]

References
Notes
  1. "Operation Crossroads: Fact Sheet". Department of the Navy—Naval History and Heritage Command. Archived from the original on 24 October 2012. Retrieved 13 August 2013.
  2. Rosebush, Judson. "Michele Bernadini: The First Bikini". Bikini Science. Archived from the original on 27 September 2007. Retrieved 17 September 2008.
  3. Mitchell, Emily. "The Bikini Turns 50" Time (1 July 1996) (dead link)
  4. "Bikini introduced - Jul 05, 1946 - HISTORY.com". HISTORY.com. Retrieved 16 May 2018.
  5. Mitchell, Claudia A.; Reid-Walsh, Jacqueline (2008). Girl Culture an Encyclopedia. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press. p. 82. ISBN 0-313-08444-0.
  6. "Bikini Introduced". A&E Television Networks. Retrieved 17 September 2008.
  7. McLeod, Alan Lindsey. R. G. Howarth, Australian Man of Letters, Sterling Publishers Pvt. Ltd, 2005, ISBN 1-932705-53-8. p.81
  8. Tivoli Theatres Performing Arts Programs and Ephemera
  9. The Bikini on IMDb
  10. Photo by Peter Turnley/Corbis/VCG via Getty Images.


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