Réard's bikini
Designer Louis Réard could not find a runway model willing to showcase his revealing design for a two-piece swimsuit. Risqué for its time, it exposed the wearer's navel and much of her buttocks. He hired Bernardini, an 18-year-old nude dancer from the Casino de Paris, as his model. He introduced his design, a two-piece swimsuit with a g-string back made out of of cloth with newspaper type pattern, which he called a bikini, at a press conference at the Piscine Molitor, a popular public pool in Paris in July 1946. Photographs of Bernardini and articles about the event were widely carried by the press. The '' International Herald Tribune'' alone ran nine stories on the event. The bikini was a hit, especially among men, and Bernardini received over 50,000 fan letters.Later life
Bernardini later moved to Australia. She appeared from 1948 to 1958 in a number of revues at the Tivoli Theatre, Melbourne. Footage of her 1946 modeling appearance was featured in an episode of the reality television series ''Love Lust'' titled ''The Bikini'', in 2011. Bernardini posed at age 58 in a bikini for photographer Peter Turnley, in 1986.References
;Notes {{DEFAULTSORT:Bernardini, Micheline 1927 births Living people French female erotic dancers People from Colmar French female models French emigrants to Australia Bikinis