A sexy alternative to the one-piece swimming costume, the bikini forever changed the way women relate to their bodies. "Smaller than the world's smallest bathing suit," as it was first described by its creator Frenchman Louis Reard, the bikini has become a symbol of female sensuality and liberation. This spring, on the occasion of its sixtieth anniversary, Assouline celebrate the bikini with a spirited look at its highlights and history. Here is a four hundred page tribute to the Hollywood pinups of the 50s; Bond girls Ursula Andress and Halle Berry rising up from the sea; the beaches of Copacabana and Ipanema, birthplace of the tanga; Brigitte Bardot, topless and poolside in St. Tropez; the itsy bitsy teeny weeny styles of the 60s; beach bodies on spring break; the monokini, tankini, bandini, and v-kini; the strappy and the sporty; the sexy and the outrageous. But whether iconic or ordinary, scandalous or social, every image of the bikini in this luscious volume is about beauty.