Origin of the String Bikinis

As a piece of underclothing, and a mandatory beachwear especially in sun-kissed places like Florida, Hawaii and the Carolina states where they are as ubiquitous as the almost-naked bodies that wear them, bikinis have become scantier, more daring, and needless to say, more sexier than the styles and cuts of previous years.

And if it cannot get any skimpier, enter the string bikini, the tiniest version of the bikini which consists of mere swatches of textile (four triangles, to be exact, two each for the top and bottom garments), held together on their ends and are tied together to secure them on the delicate parts of the body.

Obviously, string bikinis owe its name to its stringed trappings that replaces the conventional garter belt in the case of panties, and the elastic band in the case of a woman's bra.

A Brazilian fashion model named Rose de Primallio was credited for "inventing" this ultra comfortable piece of undergarment around the late 60s to early 70s. By that time, the skimpy bikini is yet to conquer a wider territory as acceptable public beachwear.

Clothing retailers who saw a goldmine in commercializing bikini fashion for the growing number of beach bums sought to formally introduce the bikini as a modern and trendy beach fashion through magazine launch, cover shoots and the fashion ramps.

The story was that the ingenious Ms. Rose had a photo shoot and needed to wear a bikini. It could be that the one set given to her was lost in transit, simply forgotten or coveted by an underwear fetish fiend. In short, the model had to sew one for herself from an insufficient scarp of fabric given to her. The result was the rebirth of the traditional bikini - two triangular fabric pieces connected to the groin, but not on the sides. Instead, there was an attached string (more realistically, a rope-sized piece of the fabric; string would be too prone to accidental exposure) on the left and right edges to lock the back sides to the front sides.

For the bikini top, the same stringed design was incorporated, making a perfect set of what was to become the first crude pair of string bikinis.

The string bikini was first formally presented to the public during the opening of a shopping center called Le Petite Centre in a French-dominated district in New Orleans, Louisiana, USA in 1974. The name of the newly inaugurated retail haven was very apt for the petite "hot number" that was unveiled in its honor.

This brave attempt to introduce the string bikini to a larger audience was credited to the husband-and-wife team of Glen Tororich and Brandi Peret-Dujon. Glen was a public relations agent while Brandi is a supermodel. The two took a cue from a photograph of a fashion model from Rio de Janeiro laid out on the pages of the popular ladies wardrobe companion, Women's Wear Daily.

Glen and Brandi commissioned a local fashion designer named Lapin to create a special string bikini for the opening of the shopping center. To create a more dramatic entrance, the models wore their string bikinis under fur coats. When the coats were discarded, press photographers had a grand time taking pictures of the new fashion underwear and beach wear, to the excitement of the audience. The event was covered by television stations and photos were published by wire agencies.

After this, there was no stopping the string bikini from conquering not just the wardrobes of ladies everywhere, but also the beaches all over the world.