[7] Notable bikini boys include the novelist Leopold Tyrmand, who helped popularise the subculture in his writing,[11] and the film director Roman Polanski, who has referred to himself as an adherent of the bażant style, as a youth in Cracow.

[13][14] In 1951, a court case involving four youths from Falenica, originally accused of theft, was dubbed the ‘trial of the bikini boys’ when they were additionally charged with espionage and two of the group were subsequently sentenced to death.

[15] In a bulletin of the Polish Film Chronicle the actor Andrzej Łapicki attacked the bikini boys for their apparent drunkenness, anti-social behaviour, and the vacuousness of their Westernised fashion.

[16] Władysław Matwin, the chairman of the Union of Polish Youth (ZMP), called on his members to form themselves into ORMO platoons to physically confront bikini boys in the streets.

[8] Fighting between bikini boys and zetempowcy (a nickname derived from the acronym ZMP) became increasingly common with the former being targeted at dances and even having their hair and ties cut off.

[19] The bikini boys often wore a quiff with hair combed down the back of the head, either a wide brimmed hat, colloquially known as a 'pancake', or flat cap stuffed with newspaper was worn, a long jacket, occasionally one made of corduroy, which was sometimes accompanied with a checkered shirt.

[20] Male members of the subculture were often perceived to be effeminate due to their dress sense, which clashed with the idealised working class man of communist propaganda.

[22] Analysing Tyrmand’s attire as a symbolic form of resistance, the poet Agnieszka Osiecka described his style as a declaration of individuality that acted as "a charter of human rights.