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The Navel Goes Mainstream Only by the end of the 1950s does the basic premise of bikini, the navel, gain public acceptance in America. Once the belly button is out in the open, the challenge of the 1960s is to continue to lower the waistline. Emerging glamour stars like Raquel Welch work their way from maillot (RW196210) to a true bikini (RW196420); here Elizabeth Taylor avoids the small top but bares her belly (ET6401), and Natalie Woods reveals an extreme amount of pelvis (NW6210).. But the pace is not quick--bikini migrates from the pin-up to public beaches (MD6410-16, TR6410) in a very incremental way--millimeters per year (BSD8820). Navel Warfare Brian Hyland kicks off the Decade of the Bikini with his 1960 hit "Itsy-Bitsy, Teeny-Weenie, Yellow Polka-Dot Bikini." Hyland could have Sandra Dee in mind except her polka-dots are the wrong color (SD6310). In 1962, Sports Illustrated begins its fabled swimsuit special. The movie Dr. No launches the bikini-clad James Bond girls (UA6310), with lower and lower waistlines (MB6510). Hollywood creates the beach movie genre, with Annette Funicello & Frankie Avalon starring in movies like Bikini Beach (AP6420), Beach Blanket Bingo (AP6510), and How To Stuff A Wild Bikini (AP6520). But Hollywood is tame compared to the antics of starlets at the Cannes Film Festival (L196210), European stars like Sophia Loren (SL6310), or the beauties of the French Riviera (PB6210). But at the same time that Life magazine is previewing the European future to America, television is not so kind to the bikini spirit. On television the navel remains banned, and on the TV program I Dream of Jeannie the genie Barbara Eden, is not permitted to bare her belly button (BE6501). The ban on belly buttons does not end until Cher bares her navel in the 1970s and the era of Laugh In. None the less it is the bikini which wins in the end. The shrinking bikini is lead by the young and the brave, but it adopted by women of all ages, with more conservative women following years later (RS7102). Slightly older women sometimes opt for more passé styles (LM6710), and sometime they don't (LD8650). The emergence of the bikini is also matched by more relaxed social mores. Elvis wiggles his hips. Virginity is no longer a prerequisite for marriage. The pill, psychedelic drugs, hippies, breast implants, and the singles culture all change attitudes. Bralessness and the miniskirt take exposures into the office and nightclub. Peggy Moffat is over the edge in 1964 when she models the topless maillot for Life; but by the end of the decade, Bardot is topless at Saint Tropez. And the bikini is in Webster. New Technology New Silhouettes At the beginning of the decade the bikini is made out of cotton, but as the decade unwinds synthetic elastics, particularly nylon and spandex, enable a closer-fitting and less complex garment, one which also reflects sixties attitudes toward the naturalness of the body (RW196510). The bikini of the early 1960s continues to be lined, constructed of many pieces (SS6410), and retain foundation, although the foundation derives more from stiffened construction--plastic replaces steel for a less rigid look. Although the underwired bra remains popular (PB6230) as the decade progresses natural curves gain popularity. By the end of the decade, small Twiggy-style bosoms have appeal. During this reduction, at least before the side straps come into play, briefs tend to be lined, hemmed at the crotch and the sides, and elasticized at the waist and legholes. At the end of the 1960s only the elasticized hems will survive. Minimalist pressures also appear in exotic materials too--particularly crochet and knits, see-through, and even plastic. Cleavage extends out to, but does not include, the nipple. Culotte Nombril The basic bikini brief of the early 1960s has a straight, below-the-navel waistline and a slightly rising legline. This is the basic culotte nombril silhouette (SD6310, SS6410, JW6410). As the waistline lowers this will come to be called the "bikini cut," a silhouette classic that transcends the millennium and come to exist side-by-side with some of its ancestors and children. The waistline's steady march down the pelvis and back leaves the navel permanently exposed. The preening eventually reveals the tips of the pubic bone, the top of the inguinal line, and the sacral dimples and lozenge of Michaelis in the small of the back. The dimples lie on the lower back below the base of the spine, above the posterior rugae, and to the side of the lozenge of Michaelis, the diamond shaped area in the small of the back at the depression of the spine. These previously forbidden erogenous zones become revealed with the culotte nombril. The waistline's diminution will not be fully halted until the next decade, when it collides with the legline, and shoals on the top of the pubic hair and the cleft of the buttocks (RS7501). Unable to go any lower, the fabric at the sides of the brief shrinks to a strap, fastener, knot, or string. The various styles that emerge include the sidering, sidestrap, the sidetie (e.g., PB6210), and string, with fastening becoming a fascination. Even the maillot is not exempt from the pressures of a lowering waistline. Maillots are rare in the 1960s, yet Life magazine is able to find an unusual backless (fig. 17-11) that demonstrates the influences of the lowered waistline. The backside of the suit scallops generous butt cleavage, encircling the sacral dimples and the lozenge of Michaelis. Bra Deconstruction At the beginning of the decade the bra dominates, with cleavage an important element (SD6101). Underwire foundation and the pushup bra mold generous top and center cleavage for sex symbols like Ursula Andress, Raquel Welch and model Suzy Parker (SP6910). The foundation also encourages leanover practice (SS6520, SS6530). Straps are usually narrow (but they are not string straps), widely spaced, detachable, and fasten either to the very outside of the cup (UA6310, RW196420). But the trend away from foundation favors the development of the halter. At first, foundation in both of these species prevails, with molded plastic cups and linings a common feature. Raquel Welch's bikinis are custom-styled to her body (RW196520) and involve a construction with darts and seams to define breast shape and cleavage in a more natural way. The constructed cups often extend well around to the sides of the body (NW6310). By the middle decade the construction falls away to a softer top devoid of innards (JW6410). This soft-top halter is lighter weight, thinner, and less concerned with defining an artificial silhouette. Cleavage, especially between the breasts, is opened, as fabric there and to the sides of the breasts disappears. The center ring, employed to hold the cups together, emerges as a device (fig. 16-6). Straps play an extremely important role during the 1960s. Bra or halter, they narrow (IP6E12, SS6410) and become strings (L196210, NW6310). As the halter shrinks in size not only do the cups get smaller but the back and sides narrow (SS6510), although it is not until the 1970s that the back, or chestband becomes a string also. The final embodiment of this process is the string halter, when all construction within the halter is eliminated and it is reduced to a pair of cloth triangles, one layer thick, suspended from the neck string and connected to the chest string (RS7501). |
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