One small piece of clothing. That was all that was required to provoke worldwide indignation, prohibitions, and even arrests.

The bikini was both the antagonist and the winner in the decades-long struggle between freedom and modesty. It was deemed wicked by popes. The governments banned it.

However, ladies continued to wear it, changing the rules with each daring look.

Tailors on the beaches
The sleek, fashionable swimwear designs of the early 20th century were very different from those of today. In the past, they were large, full-body, wool clothing items used to shield swimmers from the sun. This was about modesty, not about style.

Beaches all around the United States had strict clothing regulations. In their book on 1920s pop culture, Kathleen Morgan Drowne and Patrick Huber claim that locations such as Chicago’s Clarendon Beach even employed tailors to make last-minute modifications to swimwear that was judged to be overly exposing.

Similar regulations appeared all around the country; in 1915, Coney Island, for instance, outlawed swimming socks that revealed “dimpled knees.” Beach police in Washington, DC, were known to use tape measures to enforce these laws.

Arrested for a one-piece?
The focus of the early 1900s was concealment. There was no exception to the rule that both men and women should dress in neck-to-knee suits. Was there any exposed skin? That was deemed scandalous, anyway.

But things were about to change. One of the first people to defy these conventions was the Australian swimmer Annette Kellerman, who in 1907 chose to forgo the then-accepted pantaloons in favor of a one-piece suit that exposed her arms, legs, and neck.

Kellerman, known as “the Australian Mermaid” due to her exceptional swimming abilities, dedicated a significant portion of her life to questioning social conventions and redefining values.

Although there are no official reports to support it, Kellerman claims that she was arrested by the police for wearing her “indecent” attire. At the time, however, it was scandalous for a lady to swim like that. The event generated a movement and made news.

The audience was drawn to Kellerman’s bold swimsuit selection, and her one-piece suits quickly gained popularity.