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Aluminum Foil Swimwear

If you’ve ever wished for disposable swimwear, 32-year-old British fashion designer Morton Almondt offered up the perfect solution in April of 1967: A complete outfit consisted of a bikini, a beach hat, and a bag to carry it in all made from – get this – aluminum foil.

Purchasing the bikini itself would set you back $1.40, which would be approximately $10.25 today, adjusted for inflation.

The article does mention that “the top needs moulding to fit the individual wearer” and that the suit was guaranteed for two wearings, but could most likely be worn at least three times.

The swimwear was available in silver, bronze, and gold colors, but one could only swim in the silver version.  The other two colors washed off in the water.  And, best of all, if the bikini didn’t work out, you could always use it to wrap your leftovers in.

Photograph of Jacqueline E. Taylor in a bikini
Photograph of Jacqueline E. Taylor of Morganton, N.C., wearing a bikini, standing outside on a beach with a house in the background at an unidentified location [either in North Carolina or Baltimore, Maryland] during World War II [printed in 1944]. Flikr image.
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