SHAPE-UP FOR '60

California, which pioneered such oddities as dark glasses and Hula-Hoops for the rest of the U.S., sent forth an alert on a fresh frontier last week. The word: the bikini, conceived more than a decade ago in the Old World, has now achieved a beachhead in the New. The beachhead is, of course, southern California, and while the bikini does not yet have the U.S. swimsuit situation fully in hand you can watch for it to spread out into the hinterlands in 1960. How can you tell? Well, following custom, the big swimsuit manufacturers showed their winter-resort styles in California last week, and as these pictures show, about the only question left to the consumer is: Do you want an authentic Riviera model or a more conservative brevity known as "a bikini with a conscience"?

OFF THE BEACH, MATCHING JACKETS WILL COVER UP THE BIKINIS REVEALED AT RIGHT

BAREST BIKINIS OF ALL WERE "BOLD" AND "KOKEE" FROM JANTZEN, CALTEX "RIVIERA'

On the beach, California models show seven manufacturers' market-bound versions of bikinis for the more conservative. From left: Catalina's Hip Hugger of cotton ticking, John Weitz's diaper suit of seersucker by Elon, Jantzen's Bashful (a modestly skirted counterpart of its Bold at left), a Rose Marie Reid knit suit which adjusts with bra and trunk tabs, a striped cotton from Cole. At top: a back-dipping elasticized faille from Caltex and a decorous homespun cotton from Elisabeth Stewart.

THREE PHOTOS

CHRISTA