![The body of Jewish prisoner Menachem Taffel, his identification tattoo still visible on his forearm, after he was murdered at the Natzweiler-Struthof concentration camp. His body was subsequently transported to the Strasbourg University Anatomical Institute, December 1944. [1745 × 1200]](https://preview.redd.it/81ujo793ehbh1.jpeg?auto=webp&s=b4edf29f93301e523a2c6137e3c48bb45cc222c7)
On July 5, 1946, French designer Louis Réard forever altered fashion history by debuting the first modern bikini at a Paris public pool. Named after Bikini Atoll—the site of recent US atomic bomb tests—the swimsuit was intentionally designed to cause a cultural explosion, utilizing just 30 square inches of newspaper-print fabric and shockingly exposing the navel. Because respectable fashion models refused to wear something so revealing, Réard had to hire a 19-year-old exotic dancer, Micheline Bernardini, to debut the G-string design. Though upstaging a rival "Atome" swimsuit and generating immense press, the bikini was promptly banned across several European countries and condemned by the Vatican, requiring over a decade and the embrace of pop-culture icons like Brigitte Bardot before achieving mainstream acceptance.