Your one-piece bathing suit used to free the nipple
The original monokini was not rated PG
Your tan lines have never looked worse — er, more creative.
The monokini is everywhere this summer. Even if you don’t own one yourself, you’ve likely seen a version on the rack and thought, Is that a swimsuit or a rock climbing harness?
On the 70th anniversary of the bikini, invented by Louis Réard, let’s focus on how we evolved to the strappy sensation known as the monokini. Because today’s monokini retains nothing of its original intent.
Ironically, the first monokini was designed for a clientele who wanted to reduce tan lines and free their bodies.
Introduced by Rudi Gernreich in 1964, the first monokini had no top at all. The breasts were intersected by two thin straps that tied around the neck. Basically, the monokini was a pair of halter top underwear.
Gernreich told Vogue, “[Women] drop their bikini tops already, so it seemed like the natural next step.” In fact, he never intended the monokini for commercial production but rather as a statement of sexual liberation — “freedom—in fashion as well as every other facet of life,” he said.
“[Women] drop their bikini tops already, so it seemed like the natural next step.”
His monokini debuted in the June 3, 1964, issue of Women’s Wear Daily in a now iconic photo. Model Peggy Moffitt posed in the suit after numerous other models had refused. Although she posed for free, she asked for complete oversight of the final photograph and where it was published. She chided publications that asked to include the swimsuit only if her breasts were covered, calling it more “dirty” to “[go] along with the whole prudish, teasey thing like a Playboy bunny.”
The sensation reportedly earned Moffitt both praise and death threats.
Nine days after WWD released the photo, the San Francisco Chronicle published an image of a woman in a monokini, breasts exposed, on its front page.
Thousands of monokini orders flooded in. Gernreich sold to multiple department stores. The suit went on sale on June 16, 1964, in New York City, priced at $24. (Later people realized a monokini was essentially a bikini sans top, and the sexual revolution further popularized topless beaches.)
Due to a supply increase and the rise of fast fashion, you can still find “monokinis” at that price point. But unless they’re a particular style of lingerie, today’s monokinis cover the breasts. The remaining similarity is a criss-cross of straps or swath of fabric that link the bottom to the top of the suit.
But aside from the fact that it might still feel empowering, your “monokini” is basically just a one-piece. Should we coin something different? Strappykini? Kardashikini? …Swimsuit?
