Microkini

Many people on seeing a microkini for the first time, will have a reaction that reads somewhere along the lines of “She’s wearing so little anyway, why doesn’t she just go nude?”. While from some people this will be wishful thinking out loud, from others it may well be a serious question. After all, the microkini is by its very nature, and by definition a very small garment. The question may be considered valid – and in actual fact, makes an interesting and unwitting point of why the microkini was invented in the first place. It is a fascinating story, and one that has to be heard to be believed.

The microkini came into being for the first time in Venice Beach, CA. The time was the early 1970s, and with the permissiveness of the 60s experiencing a backlash nudity was banned on the beaches in the area. Beach regulars in California are pretty much guaranteed to be a little more free-spirited than the legislation wished them to be – but also resourceful and cognisant of the letter of the law, if not the absolute message of it. The beach habitués decided to construct their own beachwear to comply with the law while not going all the way in agreeing with it. Using as little material as they possibly could – often just using remnants of fabric sewn together with fishing line – they created the microkini. Fully legal, but provocative nonetheless, it covered up everything that legally had to be hidden, but only just.

There is, naturally, a large amount of controversy surrounding the wearing of the microkini even today. This is, after all, a mode of swimwear that was designed to be the next best thing to being naked. In a world that still flared up in shock when a pop singer’s breast was partially exposed for a couple of seconds at the Superbowl, there is obviously some way to go before the world can be truly comfortable with the microkini. One has to be amused and a little bit approving of the playful imagination that read legislation denying a person the opportunity to expose certain parts of the body, and decided that they would comply with just that, actually accentuating those parts of the body.

Anyone wanting to feel the freedom of “going commando” while not risking the punishment that comes with such actions can only be delighted by the rise of the microkini. Those innovative minds were the forerunner for an industry that is now doing a tremendous amount of business. In legislating for what they considered common decency, the lawmakers of California have created a whole range of swimwear that would surely give them little reason to be cheerful. Further to that, they have allowed a greater number of people to show off a lot more flesh – people who would feel a little too exposed by going nude but have no problem going nearly-nude. The microkini, love it or hate it, it here to stay – and is making a lot of people very rich.