1 00:00:00,160 --> 00:00:03,159 Speaker 1: Okay, why were women wearing thirty pounds of wet wool 2 00:00:03,240 --> 00:00:05,920 Speaker 1: for a dip in the ocean just over a century ago? 3 00:00:06,280 --> 00:00:09,440 Speaker 1: And how do we fast forward to string bikinis, thongs 4 00:00:09,480 --> 00:00:14,040 Speaker 1: and speedos? Ew yuck, speedos. I'm Patty Steele feeling good 5 00:00:14,080 --> 00:00:23,360 Speaker 1: about skin? Next on the backstory, we all know we're 6 00:00:23,360 --> 00:00:25,159 Speaker 1: going to see a lot of naked flesh when we 7 00:00:25,239 --> 00:00:29,400 Speaker 1: go to the beach, right, string bikinis, thongs, speedos. 8 00:00:29,720 --> 00:00:31,200 Speaker 2: Yuck, sorry but yuck. 9 00:00:31,800 --> 00:00:33,800 Speaker 1: Well, I'm going to tell you how the first bikini 10 00:00:33,880 --> 00:00:37,320 Speaker 1: got its look and its name. However, first, there's a 11 00:00:37,320 --> 00:00:40,760 Speaker 1: pretty fascinating backstory to that evolution. Where we were, how 12 00:00:40,800 --> 00:00:43,520 Speaker 1: it changed, and where we are at least for now. 13 00:00:46,720 --> 00:00:48,800 Speaker 1: You know, we weren't always treated to a skin show. 14 00:00:48,920 --> 00:00:51,640 Speaker 1: I mean, swimming has been around for thousands of years. 15 00:00:52,040 --> 00:00:55,800 Speaker 1: Can you believe there are cave drawings that show people swimming. 16 00:00:56,480 --> 00:00:59,080 Speaker 1: Romans and Greeks did it, mostly the men, but sometimes 17 00:00:59,080 --> 00:01:01,320 Speaker 1: the women, And a lot of times. 18 00:01:01,120 --> 00:01:01,760 Speaker 2: They were nude. 19 00:01:01,840 --> 00:01:04,479 Speaker 1: But if they weren't, they were wearing pretty skim be stuff. 20 00:01:04,880 --> 00:01:07,640 Speaker 1: But a lot of that changed as the years went by, 21 00:01:08,000 --> 00:01:11,479 Speaker 1: centuries and centuries and centuries. For some reason, it became 22 00:01:11,680 --> 00:01:14,880 Speaker 1: less popular to show off your skin, and it got 23 00:01:15,040 --> 00:01:18,240 Speaker 1: really intense at the end of the seventeen hundreds and 24 00:01:18,319 --> 00:01:24,560 Speaker 1: on in through the eighteen hundreds. By the late eighteen hundreds, 25 00:01:24,680 --> 00:01:27,880 Speaker 1: women's bathing suits are made of wool or flannel, and 26 00:01:27,920 --> 00:01:31,520 Speaker 1: they weigh as much as twenty pounds while dry. They 27 00:01:31,520 --> 00:01:34,760 Speaker 1: have a jacket top and a skirt with get this, 28 00:01:35,240 --> 00:01:37,800 Speaker 1: lead weights sewn into the hem to keep them from 29 00:01:37,880 --> 00:01:41,720 Speaker 1: floating up. Pantaloons that come to the mid calf, stockings 30 00:01:41,760 --> 00:01:45,000 Speaker 1: all the way up, and swim boots, yeah, boots that 31 00:01:45,120 --> 00:01:47,319 Speaker 1: lace up to your knees. And then there's like a 32 00:01:47,440 --> 00:01:50,960 Speaker 1: huge brimmed hat or even a hood so nobody can 33 00:01:51,000 --> 00:01:55,200 Speaker 1: see your wet face. It sounds so freeing, right, Well, 34 00:01:55,280 --> 00:01:57,600 Speaker 1: a good mannered chick heads to the beach with her 35 00:01:57,800 --> 00:02:03,480 Speaker 1: lawn dress and jacket, her course, petticoats, stockings, hat, gloves, parasol. 36 00:02:04,040 --> 00:02:07,280 Speaker 1: She gets there, she gets inside this thing that's basically 37 00:02:07,360 --> 00:02:08,880 Speaker 1: like a cabana on wheels. 38 00:02:09,200 --> 00:02:11,280 Speaker 2: It's called a bathing machine. Google it. 39 00:02:11,480 --> 00:02:14,280 Speaker 1: Here's see pictures of these things lined up on the shore. 40 00:02:14,680 --> 00:02:17,400 Speaker 1: So she gets in, she changes into that big, heavy 41 00:02:17,440 --> 00:02:19,840 Speaker 1: bathing suit, and she and the machine are pulled by 42 00:02:19,880 --> 00:02:23,399 Speaker 1: a horse or a human right into the water. Once 43 00:02:23,440 --> 00:02:27,680 Speaker 1: in the surf, the doors open wide and make sure 44 00:02:27,760 --> 00:02:30,000 Speaker 1: that she is shielded from the guys on the beach 45 00:02:30,080 --> 00:02:32,880 Speaker 1: trying to take a peek. She's helped down some little 46 00:02:32,919 --> 00:02:37,160 Speaker 1: tiny stairs into the water for that oh so refreshing swim, 47 00:02:37,280 --> 00:02:39,120 Speaker 1: as long as she doesn't mind being tied to the 48 00:02:39,160 --> 00:02:42,640 Speaker 1: cabana by a rope while wearing thirty pounds of soaking 49 00:02:42,680 --> 00:02:43,359 Speaker 1: wet wool. 50 00:02:43,600 --> 00:02:44,880 Speaker 2: Sounds like a torture chamber. 51 00:02:45,200 --> 00:02:47,560 Speaker 1: Got to keep her from getting carried out to sea, right, 52 00:02:47,800 --> 00:02:51,280 Speaker 1: And you wonder why swimming was very popular, But how 53 00:02:51,280 --> 00:02:55,240 Speaker 1: do we get from there to here in our string 54 00:02:55,320 --> 00:02:59,480 Speaker 1: bikinis and our thongs and yeah, those dreaded speedos. We 55 00:02:59,600 --> 00:03:04,359 Speaker 1: head to the nineteen twenties, when women began wanting more freedom, 56 00:03:04,880 --> 00:03:08,919 Speaker 1: shorter hair, shorter dresses, that wore pants, for god's sakes, 57 00:03:08,919 --> 00:03:12,240 Speaker 1: for the first time, cigarettes, they drank gin with pretty 58 00:03:12,280 --> 00:03:16,799 Speaker 1: much anything, and that female independence kind of changes everything. 59 00:03:17,280 --> 00:03:20,320 Speaker 1: Bathing suits still made of wool, but a thinner wool 60 00:03:20,400 --> 00:03:23,200 Speaker 1: jersey are either one piece or they have a long 61 00:03:23,320 --> 00:03:25,880 Speaker 1: tank top that pulls down over shorts that go to 62 00:03:25,919 --> 00:03:30,400 Speaker 1: the mid thigh, and they're sleeveless and clinging. Early on, 63 00:03:30,520 --> 00:03:33,440 Speaker 1: a few women get arrested for wearing them. They make 64 00:03:33,480 --> 00:03:37,360 Speaker 1: the older generation nuts, But the design finally allows women 65 00:03:37,440 --> 00:03:40,680 Speaker 1: to actually swim, and it allows other people to get 66 00:03:40,680 --> 00:03:43,120 Speaker 1: a look at the shape of a woman's body instead 67 00:03:43,160 --> 00:03:46,160 Speaker 1: of just imagining it. Athletes today, in fact, say, being 68 00:03:46,200 --> 00:03:49,640 Speaker 1: comfortable in your uniform, whatever sport you're in, actually makes 69 00:03:49,680 --> 00:03:52,560 Speaker 1: you feel better about yourself. It allows you to perform 70 00:03:52,600 --> 00:03:55,680 Speaker 1: at your best. And that's what women begin to feel 71 00:03:55,960 --> 00:04:01,120 Speaker 1: with these new skimpier bathing suits. The eight nineteen thirties 72 00:04:01,400 --> 00:04:04,680 Speaker 1: and the era of wool bathing suits is over, thank god, 73 00:04:05,040 --> 00:04:10,560 Speaker 1: when rayon or something called elastic cotton replaces all that scratchy, saggy, 74 00:04:10,560 --> 00:04:11,160 Speaker 1: wet wool. 75 00:04:11,640 --> 00:04:14,360 Speaker 2: But here's the real kicker. World War II is. 76 00:04:14,320 --> 00:04:17,960 Speaker 1: On the horizon, and the government, trying to save resources, 77 00:04:18,400 --> 00:04:22,120 Speaker 1: actually orders a ten percent reduction in the amount of 78 00:04:22,160 --> 00:04:26,280 Speaker 1: fabric used to make women's already much skimpier bathing suits 79 00:04:26,320 --> 00:04:26,960 Speaker 1: than their mom's. 80 00:04:27,000 --> 00:04:28,720 Speaker 2: War Yes, put the. 81 00:04:28,680 --> 00:04:32,599 Speaker 1: Pieces together and we can actually thank the government for 82 00:04:32,680 --> 00:04:35,400 Speaker 1: the evolution of the thong. Now, on top of that, 83 00:04:35,480 --> 00:04:39,360 Speaker 1: all that nakedness makes women forget their devotion to protected 84 00:04:39,440 --> 00:04:42,320 Speaker 1: pale skin. And they begin to go after a really 85 00:04:42,360 --> 00:04:46,520 Speaker 1: fabulous golden tan, and that leads to even smaller bathing 86 00:04:46,600 --> 00:04:51,560 Speaker 1: suits to catch more rays. So now it's a post 87 00:04:51,600 --> 00:04:54,719 Speaker 1: war world. As women, we're a lot more comfortable with 88 00:04:54,760 --> 00:04:58,320 Speaker 1: our sexuality and more interested in sharing what we've got. 89 00:04:58,800 --> 00:05:00,320 Speaker 2: But the biggest shock for the. 90 00:05:00,120 --> 00:05:04,599 Speaker 1: Public, yikes, the exposure of the belly button, which wasn't allowed, 91 00:05:04,800 --> 00:05:06,800 Speaker 1: believe it or not, to be shown on TV until 92 00:05:06,880 --> 00:05:07,880 Speaker 1: nineteen eighty three. 93 00:05:08,279 --> 00:05:09,200 Speaker 2: It took some nudging. 94 00:05:09,400 --> 00:05:12,159 Speaker 1: A designer in Paris came up with the first official 95 00:05:12,200 --> 00:05:16,320 Speaker 1: bikini in nineteen forty six. Once again, gotta google it. 96 00:05:16,320 --> 00:05:19,280 Speaker 1: It actually looks like something you'd see on the beach today. 97 00:05:19,720 --> 00:05:23,200 Speaker 1: The problem is he can't find a model willing to 98 00:05:23,279 --> 00:05:26,480 Speaker 1: show it off, so he winds up hiring a chick 99 00:05:26,520 --> 00:05:30,240 Speaker 1: who was a topless showgirl. He invites a ton of 100 00:05:30,240 --> 00:05:32,880 Speaker 1: pop rozzi to come take photos by a big public 101 00:05:32,880 --> 00:05:36,200 Speaker 1: swimming pool in Paris. He names his little bits of 102 00:05:36,279 --> 00:05:40,960 Speaker 1: fabric the Bikini. Why that name because the unveiling comes 103 00:05:41,040 --> 00:05:43,880 Speaker 1: just days after the big test of an atomic bomb 104 00:05:43,880 --> 00:05:46,919 Speaker 1: in the South Pacific in the Bikini Atoll, and he 105 00:05:46,920 --> 00:05:49,960 Speaker 1: says it's a fitting name for this bomb. Show it 106 00:05:50,040 --> 00:05:53,480 Speaker 1: goes viral. What a marketing guy, huh. Anyway, it's a 107 00:05:53,560 --> 00:05:56,440 Speaker 1: huge deal and the eighteen year old stripper gets fifty 108 00:05:56,480 --> 00:06:00,800 Speaker 1: thousand fan letters, mostly from guys and there off and running. 109 00:06:01,400 --> 00:06:05,000 Speaker 1: Unlike those crazy bathing machines, the bikini never goes away. 110 00:06:05,720 --> 00:06:16,120 Speaker 1: Wonder what's next. I'm Patty Steele. The Backstory is a 111 00:06:16,120 --> 00:06:20,280 Speaker 1: production of iHeartMedia and Steel Trap Productions. Our producer is 112 00:06:20,360 --> 00:06:24,800 Speaker 1: Doug Fraser. Our executive producer is Steve Goldstein of Amplified Media. 113 00:06:24,880 --> 00:06:27,880 Speaker 1: We're out with new episodes twice a week. Thanks for 114 00:06:27,960 --> 00:06:31,360 Speaker 1: listening to the Backstory, the pieces of history you didn't 115 00:06:31,400 --> 00:06:32,440 Speaker 1: know you needed to know.