Pune's Own

Astrology & Bikini

Astrology & Bikini Astrological curiosities - the natal chart of the bikini Every person, organization or event in this world has a natal chart - why wouldn't the bikini have a natal chart, too ? Actually there is one... On July 5, 1946, in Paris, the French designer Louis Reard presented the daring two-piece swimsuit, naming it by a news-making US atomic test that took place off the Bikini Atoll in the Pacific Ocean earlier that week. Below is the astrological chart for that day. It features actually an extraordinary planetary configuration, which is highly resemblant to the triangular shape of a bikini... All the planets are crammed into one third of the wheel, forming a 'bundle configuration' of the chart. Even more, the first and the last planet, Uranus and Jupiter, are in trine, and both in sextile with Venus, the planet of beauty and of feminity. This is called a minor triangle and means a strong emphasize on the focal planet, in this case, Venus. Uranus means innovation, originality, while Jupiter is expansion, popularity, international recongnition, both planets aspecting positively Venus: the bikini was quickly adopted by many women of the western countries. Natal chart for the bikini: July 5, 1946, Paris, France The bikini story FRENCH TWIST In 1946, French automotive engineer Louis Reard was running his mother's lingerie business. Naturellement, he was dreaming of women in skimpy lingerie. Reard designed a garment so daring he knew it would stir the masses. But he lacked a name for his eye-popping swimsuit, and he lacked a woman willing to model it. Four days before Reard was to show the world his new creation on a runway in Paris, the U.S. military exploded a nuclear bomb near several small islands in the Pacific. The islands were called "Bikini Atoll." It was an epochal event, in more ways than one. It blew one heck of a hole in the Pacific. And Reard decided to name his atom-sized swimsuit after the test site. The rest, as they say, is history. BIKINI BAN On July 5, 1946, Reard unveiled his creation to the fashion world. No Parisian models would wear it on the runway, so he hired Micheline Bernardini, who had no qualms, seeing as her day job was a nude dancer at the Casino de Paris. Actually, two-piece swimwear was not new. As part of wartime rationing, the U.S. government in 1943 ordered a 10 percent reduction in the fabric used in woman's swimwear. Off went the skirt panel and out came the bare midriff. At beaches across the country, men paid close attention to women doing their patriotic duty. But Reard had pushed the envelope. He had shrunk his suit to a top that was basically a bra, and a bottom that was two triangles of cloth connected by string. Reard fanned the fantasy by declaring that a bikini couldn't be called a bikini unless it could be passed through a wedding ring. (Today's bikinis would sail through the eye of a needle. But perhaps you've noticed.) Anyway, when Micheline pranced down that Paris runway, the world took note. The bikini was promptly banned in Spain, Portugal and Italy. Decency leagues pressured Hollywood to keep the garment out of the movies. One writer said a two-piece bathing suit reveals everything about a girl except her mother's maiden name. Summers came and went. Bikinis stayed. In 1956 Brigitte Bardot did wonders for the garment as a curvaceous Julie in the movie "And God Created Woman." Bardot was followed on celluloid sands by Anita Ekberg and Sophia Loren, but still the bikini was considered scandalous. In 1957, Modern Girl magazine sniffed, "It is hardly necessary to waste words over the so-called bikini since it is inconceivable that any girl with tact and decency would ever wear such a thing." AMERICAN VERSION In time, America was ready for new frontiers, including great expanses of bare flesh. Heart-throb Brian Hyland crooned the hit 1960 tune "Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polkadot Bikini." Three years later, "Beach Party" launched a series of flicks about women dancing in bikinis, starring Frankie Avalon and ex-Mouseketeer Annette Funicello. In "Dr. No", the first James Bond film, bikini-clad Ursula Andress as Honey Rider emerged from the sea in a bikini accessorized with a hunting knife plunged into a sexy hip holster. Raquel Welch famously starred in "One Million Years B.C.," thus proving Stone Age cave women trotted around in fur bikinis and eye liner. Who knew? In 1964, swimsuit designer Rudi Geinreich went public with the monokini, a topless swimsuit, but it never really caught on. Times and tastes change. Through the `80s and early `90s, bikini sales slid. Reard's company eventually folded. But all that is neither here nor there. Bikinis are in again, and few women can resist daydreaming about being able to wear one. Whether they have the body of a diva, or a dumpling.