Packard "Land Yacht" - A road yacht for advertising bikinis (11 photos)

The modern bikini swimsuit was born in 1946, named after the Bikini Atoll in the South Pacific, where the US military tested nuclear weapons. The swimsuit turned out to be no less explosive in its effects, shocking society on both sides of the ocean… The choice of name was a brilliant marketing stroke by Louis Réard, a French fashion designer who knew how to attract everyone's attention on a relatively modest budget.





Louis Réard (1896-1984) with his famous invention

Initially, no model wanted to appear in a bikini in public, so Réard turned to girls with lower social responsibility and hired 19-year-old stripper Micheline Bernardini from the Casino de Paris to demonstrate the swimsuit! The bikini presentation, which caused a great resonance in the media and a lot of controversy, took place on July 5, 1946 in the fashionable Parisian Molitor swimming pool. The conservative public was shocked, the press wrote that "no girl with a sense of tact and modesty would wear something like that!" Well, well!



Micheline Bernardini - the first girl to appear in public in a bikini

Later, in 1948, Louis Réard organized an advertising run (with a team of models who were already willing to do anything), including along the route of the Tour de France cycling race, ordering for this... a land yacht!





Packard «Land Yacht» 1937/1948



Today estimated at 250,000 – 350,000 euros

The famous French coachbuilder Henri Chapron took on the task of building such a specific type of transport as a «road yacht». The base was a 1937 Packard Super Eight V8. Louis Réard himself took part in the car's modernization, as he had been an automotive engineer until 1940, when he took over his mother's successful lingerie business.



Henri Chapron and his team did an impressive job, turning the Packard into a real yacht on wheels, with all the necessary attributes: a characteristic "nose", portholes on the sides, flags, navigation lights and, of course, a deck in the back, where beautiful girls in revealing bathing suits greeted the public. The yacht cruised the French waters throughout the 1950s, contributing to changing tastes and mores.



Around this time, Louis Réard came up with his famous advertising slogan, claiming that a two-piece swimsuit wasn't a true bikini "if it couldn't be pulled through a wedding ring."



The yacht was very famous in France, until 1976 it belonged personally to Louis Reard and is still in working order. The upholstery of the cabin requires attention, but the mechanical part allows you to load beauties in bikinis on board and ride along the Cote d'Azur, it's a pity that such attention will not be there as in 1948. Perhaps there will be attention of a different kind...



And this is what the 1937 Packard Super Eight looked like, which served as the basis for the creation of the traveling bikini advertisement. Chapron's team changed the car beyond recognition!



Packard Super Eight 1937