Jayne Mansfield's leopard spot bikini
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Jayne Mansfield's leopard spot bikini was a bikini with a leopard pattern commonly worn by actress Jayne Mansfield, particularly in her publicity stunts,[1][2] earning her the nickname of "the girl in the leopard bikini".[3]
During the late 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,[5] and the costume won them a prize at a Hollywood costume party.[6] Mansfield often walked down the Hollywood Boulevard in the leopard bikini signing autographs,[7] once went shopping in the leopard bikini,[8] and attended parties in it.[9][10]
When Mansfield and Hargitay toured for stage shows, newspapers wrote that Mansfield convinced the rural population that she owned more bikinis than anyone.[11] She showed a fair amount of her 40-inch (1,000 mm) bust, as well as her midriff and legs, in the leopard-spot bikini she wore for her stage shows.[12] 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."[13] The outfit remains one of the earlier specimens in the history of bikinis.[14] 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.[15] American Photo magazine printed photographer Bruno Bernard's photo of Mansfield in the costume in 2003.[16]