Monokini

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The original monokini, designed by Rudi Gernreich in 1964.

Another design often called a monokini.

Monokini, sometimes referred to as a Unikini, a term used for different styles of one-piece swimsuits, which all have in common that they are inspired by the bikini.

1 Original monokini and etymology
2 Other uses of the term
3 See also
4 References

[edit] Original monokini and etymology

In 1964, Austrian Rudi Gernreich designed the original monokini in the US. Gernreich also invented its name, and the word monokini is recorded in English since that same year.

The word is a back formation from bikini, interpreting the first syllable as the prefix bi- "two" and substituting it with mono- "one", on the (perhaps intentionally) mistaken notion that the bi- element was the Greek prefix meaning "two".^[1] Greek mono- means 'single', but bikini comes from the name of the Bikini Atoll (a Marshall Islands atoll, since the 1940s applied to the two-part bathing suit).

Gernreich's monokini looked like a one-piece swimsuit but cut off a bit below the breasts leaving them bare. It only had two small straps over the shoulders.^[2]

[edit] Other uses of the term

Most commonly, and closest to the original term, a monokini is a bikini bottom without the corresponding top, worn by women, that leaves the breasts bare. The term "monokini" is also sometimes used to describe a swimsuit which resembles a bikini but where the top and bottom parts have been made in one piece, usually connected at the sides of the body. The term can also refer to what is perhaps more commonly known as a sling bikini.