Review The history of swimwear gets a Bikini Atoll blast

Four days after a nuclear bomb was first detonated over the Pacific islands of Bikini Atoll in July 1946, the French designer Louis Réard launched a provocative two-piece swimsuit in Paris.

- Oliver Wainwright

The two events might not seem to be connected. But Réard, who had been looking for a name for his design that would embody the tiniest garment imaginable, combined with the most explosive impact possible, hit on the almighty atomic blast as the ideal symbol. And so the modern bikini was born.

The world's first bikini now hangs on a mannequin in the Design Museum, looking decidedly less earth-shattering than it did back then. Formed from baggy triangles of pink fabric, printed with a newspaper pattern and tied together with string, it looks a bit like someone has fashioned a quick cozzie out of a few pages of the FT.