Although Réard was an engineer, he was running his mother's
shoe shop Les Folies Bergères in Paris by 1946.Réard and Jacques Heim, his
rival designer, was competing to produce the world's smallest swimsuit. Heim
developed his swimsuit and called it the "atom" and advertised it as
"the world's smallest bathing suit."
In 1946 Réard introduced the bikini. His swimsuit was
basically a bra top and two inverted triangles of cloth connected by string and
it was significantly smaller. Made out of a scant 30 square inches of fabric,
he promoted his creation as "smaller than the world's smallest bathing
suit." He called his creation the bikini, named after the Bikini Atoll.
The idea struck him when he saw women rolling up their beachwear to get a
better tan.
