While the name “bikini” was at first applied only to beachwear that revealed the wearer’s navel, today the fashion industry considers any two-piece swimsuit a bikini.[143] Modern bikini fashions are characterized by a simple, brief design: two triangles of fabric that form a bra and cover the woman’s breasts and a third that forms a panty cut below the navel that covers the groin and the buttocks.

Bikinis can and have been made out of almost every possible clothing material, and the fabrics and other materials used to make bikinis are an essential element of their design. Modern bikinis were first made of cotton and jersey, but in the 1960s, Lycra became the common material. Alternative swimwear fabrics such as velvet, leather, and crocheted squares surfaced in the early 1970s