Brunette Girl With A White Necklace, Bracelet And Earrings Strips Her Bandeau, Thongs And Tartan Skirt On The Small Wooden Bench

In modern sporting and bathing costumes, a bandeau is a strapless garment worn around a woman's breasts. It may be fastened in the front or back or be sufficiently elastic so as to have no fastener at all. In a strict sense a bandeau has but two edges, although it is sometimes manufactured with a detachable halter strap that goes around the neck. A wide bandeau that covers much of the midriff is sometimes called a tube top.
As a silhouette the bandeau has been worn since Roman times. In the 1920s the term referred to a simply shaped brassiere, usually of a soft fabric and delicate trimmings providing little support or shaping. It was sometimes made from an elastic material to flatten or suppress the breasts in the style of the period. When the "boyish" silhouette went out of fashion, the word "brassiere" or later "bra" became the term for more shapely support garments.
The bandeau emerged as the top part of a deux-pièces swimsuit during the 1940s. In the 1950s the bandeau incorporated foundation so as to structure (or improve) the contours of the body, while still retaining a relatively simple circle or band shape, emphasizing the bare midriff. Its popularity in swimwear declined during the string bikini era, but it was reintroduced in the 1980s, especially with Spandex and other stretch fabric blends. Side stays, v-wire in the center front, O-rings, and the twisted top are popular design elements.
The strapless bandeau, or tube top, is also worn as casual wear and sports wear starting in the 1970s, and is sometimes worn as part of a sportswear ensemble and paired with a cropped jacket or bolero.