Denise Walters, Gleaner Writer

Summer is upon us and the beach is warm and welcoming. A lot of skin will be on display and, of course, there is no better place to show skin than at the beach or by the pool.

So come with us through the pages of our swimsuit edition of Flair and see what suits your fancy. Pick up some tips on avoiding the harsh rays; check out some of the hot beach accessories from Blue; see what The Mushroom and Minka have to offer and take a look at what type of suit will look best on you.

Special thanks to Dwight Moore for allowing the team access to his pool for our photos. A very big thanks to Paul March who worked magic with make-up and kudos to Pulse and Champs models for showing the swimsuits to their best advantage.

Bikini's birth

Bikinis are made to suit different body types. They can be skimpily made, conservatively or somewhere in between. But, has anyone ever stopped to think where the bikini originated? Who made it and for what purpose?

The bikini has been traced as far back as 1400 BC during the Roman Empire. Oil paintings and murals depict women wearing clothing similar to the modern day bikini for athletic purposes. Artwork from over 1700 years ago in the Villa Romana del Casale in Italy, display the 'bikini girls' mosaic where the famous females are seen exercising.

Heim bikini

However, according to the official version, the scandalous invention of the bikini was by French fashion designer Jacques Heim and engineer Louis Réard in 1946. Heim bikini was a two-piece that was to be sold at his beach shop in Cannes. He called it the 'Atome' and introduced it as, 'the world's smallest swimwear'.

Réard introduced his creation two months later at a fashion show. It was a two-piece string bikini with a g-string back. It was so shocking at the time that the model who was to wear it at the time refused. In fact, all the models refused to wear it and Réard had to hire Micheline Bernadini (a nude dancer) to wear the creation.

This creation was advertised as 'smaller than the smallest swimwear' and was named the bikini. This name stuck as it is believed that the reaction of men to the women modelling the bikini on the runway was akin to the shock of the atomic bomb explosion on the Bikini Reef.

The Bikini Reef can be found in the Bikini Island which is a part of the Republic of Marshall Islands in the Pacific. The islands were used for nuclear testings by the United States in the 1940s and '50s.

CAN'T HELP BUT SMILE: The bikini has come a long way since this version.

The bikini has been traced as far back as 1400 BC during the Roman Empire. Oil paintings and murals depict women wearing clothing similar to the modern day bikini for athletic purposes.