A look back at the history of women's swimwear (and its evolution)

The recent events around the authorization to wear the burkini in Grenoble swimming pools remind us how much the question of women's swimwear has always exacerbated passions.

But from individual audacity to universal demands, women have fortunately succeeded in imposing swimsuits in which they felt free.

From the (almost) integral wetsuit to the topless…

Historian and author of

, Audrey Millet thus recalls that "the history of the bathing suit is eminently political, because all the laws since Antiquity were dictated by men who prohibited – or not – certain clothes”.

An injustice fought from the 19th century, when medical science finally recognized that “women were no longer inferior to men”.

However, the fight was not won because "whatever type of swimsuit a woman is going to be able to wear, underlines Audrey Millet, it is her body and not her outfit that is ultimately the subject of debate".

But in just over a century, from the sleeveless or legless jumpsuit to the two-piece swimsuit, passing through the bikini, the trikini, the monokini and finally the topless, women have legitimately ended up acquiring the freedom to swim in the outfit of their choice.

Discover a retrospective of the evolution of women's swimwear in this video from our partner Brut.

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