A term coined in the mid-1990s in the online communities to denote swimwear designs created and implemented in order to provide the smallest possible coverage. Typically, a microkini is a very skimpy g-string swimsuit, for men or women, and the most "modest" such designs are somewhat more "provocative" than the smaller thong bikinis one can find in a regular store, while the most extreme ones are practically nothing else but mere straps.

This swimwear genre has only recently began to gain some mainstream acceptance, hampered by a number of factors:

1. Lewd connotations ("male thongers are gay", for instance).

2. Selective conservatism demonstrated by the "mainstream" fashion industry.

3. The detrimental presence of a number of people who try to pass off as microkini enthusiasts.

4. The gross mismanagement of certain online communities by their owners and administrators, which invited spammers (mostly pornography spammers) and other lower forms of online life. This, of course, did nothing to remove the lewd connotations.

Nowadays, the microkini market has become a niche eagerly served by an increasing number of vendors (mostly online). Initially, only a handful of companies took the plunge to tread this path; this trend, however, changed within the span of only a few years, as demand for microkinis proved sufficient. The liberal attitude towards swimwear in many popular summer vacation destinations, such as the Mediterranean countries and Jamaica certainly helped. Also, microkinis are seen as a nice gift idea by many couples. Unfortunately, some manufacturers have chosen a way to market their wares that scares potential "mainstream" buyers off (i.e. by perpetuating the remaining lewd connotations).

See also:

Microkinis and Minimal Swimwear Yahoo! Group (open ONLY to adults, i.e. Yahoo! members whose profile shows that they are adults, to prevent potential intrusion by spammers)

THONG WEARERS message board

ThongTalk Thong info and community site