Louis Réard

Louis Réard (* 1897 in France , † September 16, 1984 in Lausanne , Switzerland ) was a French mechanical engineer and is considered the inventor of the bikini .

Réard gave the garment its name and dared to present it by showgirl Micheline Bernardini on July 5, 1946 in Paris at a time when wearing a bikini was a scandal. The shocking thing about the new swimwear was obviously the tension between nudity and concealment. Réard said aptly at the presentation in the swimming pool of Piscine Molitor : "The bikini is so small that it reveals everything about the woman who wears it, except for her mother's maiden name!"

Then he had the new swimsuit protected as a utility model at the French patent office on July 18, 1946 under the number 19431 and the name Bikini . This protection lasted only a few years, because the revolutionary model, which showed more than concealed, was quickly copied by fashion designers worldwide and accepted by women.

Individual evidence