Bikini

Archaeologists have discovered Minoan wall paintings from 1600 B.C. and Roman mosaics from 300 A.D. that depict the bikini; however,the advent of the modern bikini dates to 1946 when a skimpy two-piece swimsuit was designed by Louis Reard.

He marketed the product as “the world’s smallest bathing suit" and named it for the Bikini Atoll, a string of small islands in the Pacific Ocean, which had served as a nuclear test-site.

Today, the bikini is the most popular female beachwear with annual sales in excess of 800 million dollars.