Clothing Definitions — definitions of garments and clothing terms from Apparel Search
The monokini was designed by Rudi Gernreich in 1964, consisting of a brief bottom supported by straps, and it was presented as the topless swimsuit: the design that began modern discussion of topless swimwear. Some manufacturers and retailers also refer to modern monokini swimsuit designs as a topless swimsuit or topless bikini, and the name is now widely used for one-piece swimsuits with large cut-out sections that resemble a bikini joined by fabric. This page explains the 1964 design and the modern garment that took its name, in plain product terms.
Some manufacturers and retailers refer to modern monokini swimsuit designs as a topless swimsuit, topless bikini.
The monokini, designed by Rudi Gernreich in 1964, consisting of only a brief, close-fitting bottom and two thin straps, was the first women's topless swimsuit. His revolutionary and controversial design included a bottom that "extended from the midriff to the upper thigh" and was "held up by shoestring laces that make a halter around the neck.
Unlike Gernreich's original design exposing the women's breasts, current designs are one-piece swimsuits that cover the women's breasts but typically include large cut-outs on the sides, back, or front. The cutouts are connected with varying fabrics, including mesh, chain, and other materials to link the top and bottom sections together. From the back the monokini looks like a two-piece swimsuit.
Learn more about the influence of swimwear on the fashion industry and for consumers.
Gernreich did not expect the 1964 monokini to become ordinary beachwear, and it did not: only a small number were sold. Its importance was as an idea made real. He had forecast that swimwear would eventually drop the top, and produced the design so the forecast could be photographed and argued about, which it was, in newspapers worldwide. Legality followed publicity: models and wearers faced arrest in some places, and the cases became part of the longer legal history of swimwear regulation. As a product, the design itself is minimal: a brief, two straps, and the engineering problem of keeping the brief in place without a top, solved by the straps running over the shoulders.
The word's second life is commercial. Because 'monokini' reads as the counterpart of 'bikini', retailers applied it to one-piece suits that expose much of the midriff through cut-outs while remaining a single garment with a top. Those suits are a standard swimwear category today, made in the usual swimsuit fabrics of nylon and elastane, lined, and sized like other one-piece costumes. The two meanings share a name and a family resemblance, minimal coverage from minimal fabric, but they are different products, and product descriptions use the term in the modern sense unless they are discussing swimwear history.
Originally, the monokini is the topless one-piece swimsuit designed by Rudi Gernreich in 1964: a brief bottom held by straps over the shoulders, with the top omitted by design. The name is now also used for one-piece cut-out swimsuits.
Rudi Gernreich designed the monokini in 1964. He predicted the design in advance and presented it as a deliberate statement about the future of swimwear, and it received worldwide publicity.
Modern monokinis sold in stores are one-piece swimsuits with substantial side or front cut-outs, so the suit is a single garment that visually resembles a bikini connected by narrow fabric panels.