 Réard said that " like the [ atom ] bomb , the bikini is small and devastating " . Fashion writer Diana Vreeland described the bikini as the " atom bomb of fashion " . In advertisements he declared the swimsuit could not be a genuine bikini " unless it could be pulled through a wedding ring . " French newspaper Le Figaro wrote , " People were craving the simple pleasures of the sea and the sun . For women , wearing a bikini signaled a kind of second liberation . There was really nothing sexual about this . It was instead a celebration of freedom and a return to the joys in life . " 
