Jayne Mansfield's leopard spot bikini explained

Jayne Mansfield's leopard spot bikini was regular wardrobe for actress and blonde bombshell Jayne Mansfield in her publicity stunts.[1] [2] Because of the costume she came to be known as "the girl in the leopard bikini" at times.[3] Throughout the 1950s, she and her husband Mickey Hargitay posed for photos with her in the leopard spot bikini.[4] The couple wore matching leopard spots to announce their closeness, and the costume won them a prize at a Hollywood costume party.[5] Mansfield often walked down the Hollywood Boulevard in the leopard bikini signing autographs,[6] once went shopping in the leopard bikini, and attended parties in it.[7] [8]

When Mansfield and her husband Miklós Hargitay toured for stage shows, newspapers wrote that Mansfield convinced the rural population that she owned more bikinis than anyone.[9] She showed a fair amount of her 40inches bust, as well as her midriff and legs, in the leopard-spot bikini she wore for her stage shows.[10] Kathryn Wexler of The Miami Herald wrote, "In the beginning as we know it, there was Jayne Mansfield. Here she preens in leopard-print or striped bikinis, sucking in air to showcase her well noted physical assets."[11] Her leopard-skin bikini remains one of the earlier specimens of the fashion.[12] As late as in 1982, she appeared in a full page color photograph in the leopard spot bikini in Tony Crawley's Screen Dreams: The Hollywood Pin-up. American Photo magazine printed photographer Bruno Bernard's photo of Mansfield in the costume in 2003.[13]

Sources

Notes and References

  1. News: Staff Correspondent . The bare facts at last, all those hours at the gym will pay off with spring's slightly skimpy fashions . Miami Herald . D1 . March 12, 1986 .
  2. News: Kilgallen, Dorothy . Jayne's Touring Strawhats in Bikinis . The Washington Post . B11 . July 22, 1964 .
  3. Kelly Killoren Bensimon, The bikini book, page 45, Thames & Hudson, 2006,
  4. Jane Woolridge, "Bare it and grin this spring", The News and Courier, page 3, 1986-04-03
  5. "Muscular hoist for Jayne", Life, page 59, 1956-11-12
  6. John Waters, Crackpot: The Obsessions of John Waters, page 113, Simon and Schuster, 2003,
  7. "Bikini clad Jayne Mansfield carried to party by friend", Daytona Beach Morning Journal, page 7, 1956-10-29
  8. "Ballyhoo Ball wildest one yet in Hollywood", Herald-Journal, page 3, 1956-10-28
  9. Dorothy Kilgallen, "Jayne's Touring Strawhats in Bikinis", Washington Post, page B11, 1964-07-22
  10. Staff Correspondent, "The bare facts at last, all those hours at the gym will pay off with spring's slightly skimpy fashions", Miami Herald, page D1, 1986-03-12
  11. Kathryn Wexler, "Old-time eroticism: When bikinis really mattered", Miami Herald, 2006-04-19
  12. [Jennifer Steinhauer]
  13. "Inside Photography", American Photo, page 13, Jan-Feb 2003

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