Bathing suits through the years

A couple wearing the ‘Ureka’ unsinkable bathing outfit, complete with paddle-gloves, buoy and emergency flag.  (Photo by Three Lions/Getty Images)

A young woman in an old-fashioned swimsuit practices her diving form as a young man looks on, sitting on a wooden pier, in an illustration from the 1880s. X  (Kean Collection/Getty Images)

Holidaymakers posing in bathing suits in the ocean surf at Santa Monica, California.   (Photo by American Stock/Getty Images)

German film star Lil Dagover (1887 - 1980) wearing a swimming costume with stockings.  (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Portrait of a young woman modeling a silk bathing costume, a parasol, patent leather shoes, and black stockings while sitting on a wooden post in front of an ocean backdrop.  (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

A ‘bathing beauty’ from film director/producer Mack Sennett’s stable wearing halter-style striped swimsuit, knee socks and laceup shoes, poses with a parasol on a boardwalk  (Photo by American Stock/Getty Images)

A girl waves to a friend as she sits on a blow up beach ball.  (Photo by General Photographic Agency/Getty Images)

Two girls sharing a cigarette after a swim.  (Photo by Henry Guttmann/Getty Images)

A Mack Sennet Bathing Beauty smiles as she lies on her stomach on the running board of an automobile, 1920s.  (Photo by American Stock/Getty Images)

Ida Schnall’s physical culture class, the Daily Dozen Girls, in formation on New York‘s Brighton beach.   (Photo by Topical Press Agency/Getty Images)

American film actress Carole Lombard (1908 - 1942) wearing a large floppy sunhat to protect her head from the sun.   (Photo by John Kobal Foundation/Getty Images)

A swimsuit-clad dancing girl posing in a doorway in a scene from the star-studded musical revue ‘Paramount On Parade’. The host of directors included Dorothy Arzner, Otto Brower, Edmund Goulding, Victor Heerman, Edwin H Knopf, Rowland V Lee, Ernst Lubitsch, Lothar Mendes, Victor Schertzinger, Edward Sutherland and Frank Tuttle.   (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

A woman in the Danube Lido. Klosterneuburg. Lower Austria. Photograph. Around 1930.  (Photo by Imagno/Getty Images)

Sari Maritza, the English actress signed by Paramount, who appeared in ‘A Lady’s Profession’, modeling a swimsuit.  (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

A woman adjusting her friend’s swimsuit.  (Photo by Fox Photos/Getty Images)

American film actress, dancer and singer Rita Hayworth (1918 - 1987) poses beside a swimming pool.   (Photo by John Kobal Foundation/Getty Images)

Model Marcella Flood relaxes in a one-piece swimsuit, at Long Beach, California, June 1937.   (Photo by Archive Photos/Getty Images)

Katherine Kane, the young ‘Radio’ starlet models a swimsuit.  (Photo by General Photographic Agency/Getty Images)

A group of friends wearing swimming costumes frolicking in the sea.  (Photo by Chaloner Woods/Getty Images)

A young woman balances on her shoulders with her legs in the air to perform a fitness exercise, 1949.  (Photo by Harold M. Lambert/Getty Images)

American pin-up Bettie Page, Playboy playmate of the month for January 1955 poses for a glamour shoot, 1950s.  (Photo by Weegee(Arthur Fellig)/International Center of Photography/Getty Images)

Film actress Magda Miller (Magdalena Ekatarin Antonina Vishinski Klastaitais), in film star pose.  (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

American pin-up Bettie Page, Playboy playmate of the month for January 1955 shows off her cleavage in a bikini, New York state,   (Photo by Weegee(Arthur Fellig)/International Center of Photography/Getty Images)

A woman in a swimsuit by the ocean looks at the camera and smiles with her hand on her hip.  (Photo by Lambert/Getty Images)

American film actor and sex symbol Jayne Mansfield (1933 - 1967) lounges in bikini on a chair as she waits for workers to complete the construction of her heart-shaped swimming pool.   (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Starlet Nadine Tallier, who later became Nadine de Rothschild, on the beach during the International Cannes Film Festival, 9th May 1958   (Photo by RDA/Getty Images)

Swiss actor Ursula Andress wears a bikini while standing in water near the shore in a still from the James Bond film, ‘Doctor No,’ directed by Terence Young.   (Photo by United Artists/Getty Images)

Anny Duperey, Cannes Film Festival. 1964.   (Photo by Roger Viollet/Getty Images)

Feminine fashion : swimming costume. Paris.  (Photo by Roger Viollet Collection/Getty Images)

American actor Raquel Welch dances in her role as ‘Lilian Lust’ in a still from the film, ‘Bedazzled,’ directed by Stanley Donen, 1967.   (Photo by 20th Century Fox/Courtesy of Getty Images)

Portrait of an unidentified woman in a low-cut swimsuit and large earrrings as she lounges in the water at the side of a swimming pool, sunglasses perched on her forehead, Puerto Rico, August 1967.   (Photo by Dolly Soto/Getty Images)

One of the latest designs in fashionable swimwear.  (Photo by Evening Standard/Getty Images)

A model wearing a white belted swimsuit in Grecian-style folds, circa 1975. A photoshoot for the ‘Daily Telegraph’.  (Photo by Duffy/Getty Images)

A model in an orange swimsuit, circa 1975. A photoshoot for the ‘Daily Telegraph’.  (Photo by Duffy/Getty Images)

A woman in a bikini poses next to a resort pool in this 1989 Cancun, Mexico, photo.  (Photo by George Rose/Getty Images)

Miss USA, Gretchen Polhemus, poses on the beach during a 1989 Cancun, Mexico, photo shoot promoting the Miss Universe Pageant. Polhemus was second runner-up in the 1989 Miss Universe Pageant and now works as a TV anchor for ESPN.   (Photo by George Rose/Getty Images)

Gwen Stefani (No Doubt) at the Newport Beach Concert in Newport Beach, California   (Photo by Barry King/WireImage)

Top model Naomi Campbell presents 14 October 1993, in Paris, France, a turquoise two-pieces bathing suit and a white bathrobe by Karl Lagerfield during the Spring/Summer 94 ready-to-wear Chanel collection   (GERARD JULIEN/AFP/Getty Images)

MELISSA GEORGE AT THE HAIRDRESSING TRUST.  (Photo by Patrick Riviere/Getty Images)

Karl Lagerfeld cuts a shirt and elastic-waisted ‘boxer’shorts beach ensemble from signature printed cotton to cover a micro-bikini for sleeveless turtle-necked bodice in Chanel’s Spring-Summer 1996 ready-to-wear collection presented in Paris 19 October.   (PIERRE VERDY/AFP/Getty Images)

A model presents a striped two-piece Summer suit from Betty Jackson’s collection on the third day of London fashion week 22 October.  (ANDREW WINNING/AFP/Getty Images)

Television actress Davinia Taylor poses during a photoshoot held in 1998, in England.  (Photo by Stephen Perry/Getty Images)

Fashion Model Giselle wears a polka dot bikini top with matching pants and shoulder bag during the Ralph Lauren fashion show at the Fashion Week Spring 2000 Collections15 September, 1999 in New York, NY.   (MATT CAMPBELL/AFP/Getty Images)

Brazilian Aline Yano, campaign girl for Japanese textile and cosmetics company Kanebo, shows off a bright yellow bikini during the 2000 Kanebo swimsuit show at its headquarters in Tokyo 13 October 1999.  (TORU YAMANAKA/AFP/Getty Images)

Australian model, face of Playstation 2 & TV personality Annalise Braakensiek poses during a photoshoot held in 2000, in England.  (Photo by Stephen Perry/Getty Images)

Australian model Sandy Allan wears a Kym Illman-designed bikini made from 200 model car wheels at the site of the Australian Formula One Grand Prix in Melbourne 10 March 2000. The first Formula One Grand Prix of the season will be held on 12 March.  (TORSTEN BLACKWOOD/AFP/Getty Images)

During pre-taping at the Westin Rio Mar Beach Resort in Rio Grande, Puerto Rico 30 April 2001 Carolina Gamez, Miss Chile 2001, poses in her swimsuit from Bluepoint Swim, the official swimwear of the Miss Universe 2001 competition.   (PATRICK PRATHER/AFP/Getty Images)

Brazilian model Gisele Bundchen displays a swimsuit for Cia Maritima on 03 July 2001 as part of the Spring-Summer collection in Sao Paulo, Brazil.   (MAURICIO LIMA/AFP/Getty Images)

Melissa Keller  (Photo by J. Vespa/WireImage)

Marisa Miller  (Photo by J. Vespa/WireImage)

A model walks the runway during Wayne Cooper’s second fashion show at Wharf 3 during the Mercedes Australian Fashion Week May 6, 2003 in Sydney, Australia.   (Photo by Chris McGrath/Getty Images)