 In Europe , 17 @-@ year @-@ old Brigitte Bardot wore scanty bikinis ( by contemporary standards ) in the French film Manina , la fille sans voiles ( " Manina , the girl unveiled " ) . The promotion for the film , released in France in March 1953 , drew more attention to Bardot 's bikinis than to the film itself . By the time the film was released in the United States in 1958 it was re @-@ titled Manina , the Girl in the Bikini . Bardot was also photographed wearing a bikini on the beach during the 1953 Cannes Film Festival . Working with her husband and agent Roger Vadim she garnered significant attention with photographs of her wearing a bikini on every beach in the south of France . 
