“On July 5, 1946, less than a week after the United States detonated an atomic bomb above tiny Bikini Atoll in the South Pacific, a Frenchman named Louis Réard – an automobile engineer moonlighting as a fashion designer – introduced to the sunbathing public the world’s smallest swimsuit. Réard called his creation the bikini, a name inspired, he later said, by the sight of women rolling up their bathing suits in order to acquire a more complete tan.

Two-piece swimsuits had been around for decades before Réard came along. In fact, the concept was even far older than that; Greek urns and mosaics created more than 3,000 years ago depict women athletes wearing two-piece outfits. But Réard’s genius was to devise a garment, out of as little fabric as possible, that one could still legally wear in public. (He marketed his new fashion brilliantly, as well – pronouncing, for example, that a bathing suit wasn’t a true bikini unless both pieces could be pulled through a wedding ring.)

Some of the early photos in this gallery depict two-piece bathing suits that might, at first glance, look like bona fide bikinis. A closer look, however, reveals that while these are, clearly, two-piece suits, there’s far too much material invested in the garments for them to legitimately earn the moniker. After all, one can hardly claim to be wearing a genuine bikini if, say, one’s bellybutton is entirely covered by a swath of nylon, no matter how elegant or tasteful that swath might be”. – LIFE

Young woman in a bikini, Santa Monica, Calif., 1940. (Photo by Peter Stackpole/Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images)

Actress Dona Drake playfully takes aim with a rifle on the balcony of her Los Angeles home, 1942. (Photo by Peter Stackpole/Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images)

Rita Hayworth at home in Los Angeles, 1945. (Photo by Peter Stackpole/Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images)

Actress Linda Christian, the first “Bond Girl”, in 1945. (Photo by Bob Landry/Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images)

French fashion model Christiane Richard wears a bikini while drinking her morning coffee, 1950. (Photo by Nat Farbman/Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images)

Jayne Mansfield poses with hot-water bottle likenesses floating around her, 1957. (Photo by Allan Grant/Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images)

Actress Philomene Toulouse, cradling a pet fox, vies for attention at the Cannes film festival, 1962. (Photo by Paul Schutzer/Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images)

Model Naty Abascal shows off designs on her chest and stomach, Bahamas, 1968. (Photo by Bill Eppridge/Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images)