A TOTAL of 1010 bikini-clad women made history at Bondi yesterday, where they set a world record with the largest swimsuit photo shoot ever.
The shoot will appear in the January issue of Cosmopolitan, on sale on December 3, and will also feature in the next edition of the World Records book published by the World Records Academy, out in March next year.
"We're blown away by the response we've had to the Cosmopolitan and Venus Breeze Biggest Ever Swimwear Shoot," said Cosmo editor Sarah Wilson, the bikini brain.
“I wanted to do something that got women in an environment when they were around each others bodies and could feel comfortable,” Ms Wilson said yesterday.
A total of 1,010 women smashed the previous record of 300.
Best described as Baywatch meets Beach Blanket Bingo, the scene on the sand yesterday included 15 roving lifesavers recruited to apply sunscreen to 1,000 bikini babes who were ogled by countless surfers, locals and tourists who must have been surprised by the popularity of a mid-morning weekday dip.
Bondi lifeguards turned their ocean-front headquarters into a dressing room to allow each women to change into her bikini.
The skimpy swimwear made its debut in 1946. Hoping it would be worn by beautiful "bombshells", the designers named it after Bikini Atoll, an atomic bomb test site in the Marshall Islands.
The bikini shoot will be featured in a double gatefold insert in the January issue of Cosmopolitan.
The event was organised as a promotion between Cosmopolitan Magazine and Gillette. A blend of 100 paid models and many more volunteers — mostly more interested in the free $120 goody bag than the notion of creating history — gathered in the sun.
With 23C temperatures and blue skies, the event kicked off Sydney's beach season in grand style.
