The first-ever modern day bikini, debuting at Piscine Molitor in Paris, July 5, 1946
The design was so scandalous that the costume’s inventor, Louis Réard, had to hire a nude dancer from the Casino de Paris, Micheline Bernardini to model it because no other model would agree to it. It was a string bikini and the bottom’s back was a shockingly spare 30 inches.