From Karen Chung on Facebook, this story from 8/21/12 (note the date), “The Latest Chinese Beach Craze – Face-kini”:
A new kind of swimwear trend is sweeping the Chinese beaches in Qingdao in eastern China’s Shandong province. As the weather get hotter, both men and women are seen appearing on the beaches wearing full body suits that cover from head to toe. The upper part of the swimsuit has a ski-mask with holes cut out at appropriate places to leave the eyes, nose and mouth exposed, giving the wearer an odd Lucha libre look. The Netizens are calling the swimwear “face-kinis”
The mask[s] are a way for Chinese bathers to protect their skin from the sunburn, but it turns out that they are equally handy at repelling insects and jellyfish.
Masks worn by women and by men:
(#1)
(#2)
And a collection of Lucha libre masks:
(#3)
On Lucha libre, from Wikipedia:
Lucha libre (… “free wrestling”) is a term used in Mexico, and other Spanish-speaking countries, for a form of professional wrestling that has developed within those countries. Although the term nowadays refers exclusively to professional wrestling, it was originally used in the same style as the English term “freestyle wrestling”, referring to an amateur wrestling style without the restrictions of Greco-Roman wrestling.
Mexican wrestling is characterized by colorful masks, rapid sequences of holds and maneuvers, as well as “high-flying” maneuvers, some of which have been adopted in the United States.
And now on -kini words. Their last appearance on this blog was in connection with nun-kini, in a posting where I wrote:
-kini words came by here last year, in this posting, which starts with bikini, goes on to monokini and trikini, and then:
Other innovations in -kini (see the Wikipedia page on bikini variants): microkini (super small), tankini (with tank top), pubikini (exposing pubic hair), veilkini (for modesty). The element -kini ’(women’s) bathing suit’ seems to be on its way to becoming a libfix
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