Bikini Science
Mountain streams and lakes, city parks, driveways, art festivals and a culture of college, crafts and counterculture dot this map. The time is the late 1960s and early 1970s and pretty girls test all the limits of dress, decorum, and decoration. String bikinis are spotted at an office barbecue on the finger lakes (SL7110, SL7120). A young woman at Jamesville Reservoir, south of Syracuse, wears a softtop halter and low-cut briefs (JR7301). Another slides her dress off so she can gather sun in her bra (BA7310). A woman at a lakefront beach cottage wears the smallest string bikini (CN7310). The summer lakes and ponds invite skinny-dipping (ES730A) and nighttime nude dips (ES7403), sometimes in the accompaniment of strangers (WL7610). Women at a deserted pond bath topless and naked (ML7301), as do couples in the Adirondacks (LR7630).
In the city a gal wears only the smallest string bikini while loading her car in the driveway (ED7610), and another works in her garden in full view of the street (MH7610). A college student sunbathes on the back porch in her underwear (MK7306), another in the backyard accidently looses her top (RN7301). An actress has a bikini accident during a film shoot (SY7110). Bare bellies are in abundance, but it is the rare subject *never* covers hers (DR7710). Downtown, bikinis have almost become street clothes, as halters and shorts combinations approximate swimwear and turn up on city streets (ES7301). Bikini tops penetrate the downtown art fairs (SAF7301), Saturday parks and shopping, and rock concerts. Some women even wear see-through blouses on the city streets (LR7610).
The Crochet Exposure
The crochet bikini, like its cousin, the fishnet, allows a wearer to explore the limits of exposure. Virtually any bikini or maillot species can be crocheted, as can garments like the minidress (RS7105) and the coverup (RS7106). Richness exists in all soutien-gorge forms, including the croptop, bra, halter (JD89I0), bandeau, and others. And all culotte too, including and nombril (RS7102, RS7103), v-kini (LO8913), strings (KP88F8), especially sidetie strings (KP88F7), and reducing to g-strings (KP88F6, KP88F9), JD89LA, JD89LD,).
Crochet bikinis tops in Bikini Science range from sizes DD through AAAA (JD89I0), spider bras, closed and open mesh briefs and g-strings that hide little. Many are made by Annie l'String, the famed bikinière in Ft. Lauderdale (FL87TE).Crochet Politics
But some, like the string and the g-string are naturals for the crochet idiom. The string bikini contributes to the spontaneous morphogenesis of the crochet because the crochet bikini is particularly responsive to the squeezing reduction forces at play. A crochet string can be "smaller" than a string because the crochet triangle halter top and brief may have a more open stitch and thus expose more skin. Often the open stitch is near the edge of the garment, but it still works to make a small bikini even smaller (e.g., PB87SE). In other words, the openness or tightness of the stitch introduces a variable of see-through that is independent of the overall coverage of the garment, such as this open-mesh croptop (PB87CA).
Like the semi-transparent, the crochet can be worn by a bikiniite who wants to push the limits, or with the attitude of plausible denyability ("I wonder if she knows...").Crochet Variety
Like crochet in general, an infinite variety of designs and patterns may be created using crochet thread and two needles. There is little evidence to document the accounts that a world record exists for crocheting a bikini with the shortest length of thread. But fokelore sometimes becomes reality and this would certainly qualify as a bikini contest.
Many crochet bikinis, like crochet in general, build upon a circular motif, and this is found both soutien-gorge and culotte designs, with triangles being another obvious favorite. One of the most favorite designs is the spider, in which three or six strings support a central covering over the areola. These designs, including the notorious Annie l'String sized spider collection, are discussed in detail at that location, and not here. Needless to say, the spiderweb is an inspiration for many crochet patterns and the tightness of the crochet is a critical erotic variable (fig. 23-4). Some, like the Rosebra collection detailed below, provide varying degrees of density in the outer bra cup, in the region covering the areola, and at the very center of the cup. In general, a combination of modestly tight crochet combined with area of a more open crochet is a natural instinct of all crochet swimwear, bikini and maillot (RS7104, FI8307).
The circular and triangular motifs of crochet coupled with open web area play a role in culotte also. These design variations include variation in density of crochet--compare these solid strings (LO8913), and g-strings (LO8912, JD89LA, RD89G3) with more open-mesh strings (JD89LB, JE8910A) and g-strings (PB87SE, JD89LD, JD89M0, AB9359BS).
Another Annie l'String collection is the Sized Crochet Pasties Set (detailed at pasties), in which a rainbow of colored and increasingly smaller circles play havoc with areolage.
This is also a theme in the Rosebra Collection, which is detailed herein and next.The Rosebra Collection
The Annie l'String Rosebra collection is a suite of crochet soutien-gorge with varying degrees of exposure in the regions of the bra cup, the areola and the nipple. The collection is designed so that the bikiniite can choose that each of these three regions can be covered with either a solid knit or an open mesh. Thus the bikiniite is able to choose the right amount of exposure for the right situation. Everything might be covered, or the nipple might be the only thing out. In a scientific vein, the Rosebras comprise a three by three matrix of possibilities:Yellow [1;1] solid outer, mesh inner, solid center (JE9024B).
Red [1;2] mesh outer, solid inner, solid center.
Lavender [1;3] mesh outer, mesh inner, solid center (SH9352).
Pink [2;1] solid outer, mesh inner, mesh center (JD89LA).
Green [2;2] mesh outer, solid inner, mesh center (JD89LC).
Turquoise [2;3] mesh outer, mesh inner, mesh center (JD89LB).
Light blue aqua [3;1] solid outer, solid inner, open center (JE9016B).
Orange [3;2] mesh outer, solid inner, open center (JD89LD, AB9359BS).
Brown [3;3] mesh outer, mesh inner, open center (JE8911).The Annie l'String separates also enable the Rosebra motif to be echoed in briefs. Aside from the pedestrian choices of string vs g-string and solid vs mesh, Annie has also developed a see-through mesh string culotte that repeats the design motif of the green Rosebra (JD89LC, JE8912), and a white outfit that combines a white halter and g-string (JE9025).
Soutien-gorge & Culotte Species Defined
North America
1988 BSD8805Costume
N/a.N/a.
Actions
Since bikinis consist (by definition) of two pieces--a top and a bottom--a great deal more resolution and detail is required to accurately describe them. To prevent ambiguity we use the term soutien-gorge to refer to the bikini top in a generic sense, and the term culotte to refer to the bottom.
A wide variety of soutien-gorge and culotte exist. Popular literature uses a wide range of terms generically--tops are called halters, bras and blouses, and bottoms are called shorts, panties and briefs--with the effect of losing any finer resolution. The definitions and illustrations advanced in Bikini Science distinguish over two-dozen individual species of each in order to facilitate analysis.
Various drafts of these symbols for bikini tops and bottoms have evolved, from early hand drawings (1, 2), to Hypercard drawings of top (3) and bottom (4), to the icons used in the website.Commentary
Click on Costumes on the Main Menu and then Soutien-gorge or Culotte to see the latest incarnations of these symbols. For more on the concept of genus and species of swimwear see BSD8803.Source
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