The bikini or two piece is a women’s swimsuit with two parts, one covering the breasts, the other the groinis. It is often worn in hot weather, while swimming or sunning. Besides a bikini is often worn as an undergarment to the wetsuit for waterskiing, scuba diving, surfing, and wakeboarding. And it is perhaps the most popular female beachwear around the globe.
Bikini tops come in several different styles and cuts, including a halter-style neck that offers more coverage and support, a strapless bandeau, a rectangular strip of fabric covering the breasts that minimizes large breasts, a top with cups similar to a push-up bra, and the more traditional triangle cups that lift and shape the breasts. Bikini bottoms vary in style and cut and in the amount of coverage they offer, coverage ranging anywhere from complete underwear-style coverage, as in the case of more modest bottom pieces like briefs, shorts, or briefs with a small skirt-panel attached, to almost full exposure, as in the case of the thong bikini. Skimpier styles have narrow sides, including V-cut (in front), French cut (with high-cut sides) and low-cut string (with string sides). In just one major fashion show in 1985 were two-piece suits with cropped tank tops instead of the usual skimpy bandeaux, suits that are bikinis in front and one-piece in back, suspender straps, ruffles, and daring, navel-baring cutouts. Subsequent variations on the theme include the monokini, tankini, string bikini, thong, slingshot, minimini, teardrop, and micro.
The term men’s bikini is used to describe types of men’s swimsuits, men’s underwear, or similar garments. Men’s bikinis can have both high or low side panels, string sides or tie sides, and most lack a button or flap front. Suits are less common for sporting purposes and are most often worn for recreation, fashion, and sun tanning. Traditionally in the past, general society did not accept men wearing bikinis at public beaches or swimming pools. However, as with the women’s liberty movement, it is becoming more accepted for men to wear more revealing swimsuits at public locations. Men can now be seen wearing bikinis, thongs, and g-strings at pools and beaches throughout the world; however, it is still less popular in the United States than in Europe where men have been wearing bikinis for decades. Bikini tops for men are seen as an amusement factor.