Bringing the fizz and excitement of Brazilian women’s swimwear design and beach fashion to Britain, the Rio look is taking on the bikini in the battle for our beaches. Shopping online for bikinis creates a much warmer and relaxed atmosphere in which to buy swimwear and it also introduces new alternatives to the more formulaic European designs of the bikini. A touch of Rio will always enhance any woman’s wardrobe.

The bikini, which was designed by a French engineer Louis Réard and fashion designer Jacques Heim in Paris in 1946, was only attached to the piece of swimsuit later and was named after Bikini Atoll, where nuclear testing was being carried out. The connotation was that this new type of swimwear would explode onto the women’s swimwear fashion scene and create all sorts of fallout because of its daring design.

As its name suggested, the bikini did indeed explode on the fashion scene.

The traditional bikini has translated into various forms of related women’s swimwear since the 1940s French version came onto the market. These include the monikini, where the bottom is worn without the top; the microkini – reminiscent of some forms of tribal dress designed for both men and women and which just about covers the genitalia; the more modest tankini which is the bottom plus a tank top.

Perhaps the most enduring innovation of women’s swimwear and beach fashion is the string bikini, Brazilian thong or Rio look, which came over from Brazil in the 1970s. Although very brief, with the string disappearing between the buttocks, at Betther we consider the family of string bikini bottoms more flattering to women, particularly those with slim figures, as its design accentuates the roundness of the bottom and gives women generally more shape.

While the Rio look takes confidence to wear, it also gives confidence to the wearer.