The precursor to the two piece swimsuit style we know as the bikini was called the “Atome” by its French designer Jacques Heim because of its small size (similar to the atom). The next step was when a French engineer named Louis Reard invented the modern bikini in 1946.

During that summer, when the first bikinis were showing up on fashion runways, the first post-war atomic bomb was tested near a remote island reef in the South Pacific called the Bikini Atoll.

As bikini swimsuits first went on sale to the public in 1947, it caused a burst of excitement amongst both men and women — imagined to be similar to the burst of energy created by the nuclear detonation in the Bikini Islands.

Offshoots of the bikini include the Tankini and the Mankini, which debuted in the 2006 movie, Borat.