From Pamela Anderson to Zaha Hadid, the Design Museum explores a century of swimming culture

One of the best things about London is the number of museums and art galleries which are absolutely free to visit. It's possible to spend an entire, delightful day in the capital perusing some of the world's greatest art and artefacts without spending any money at all.

But while behemoths like the National Portrait Gallery, The Tate and the British Museum are obvious must-sees, there are also plenty of medium-sized attractions that are easy for visitors to miss. The Photographers Gallery near Oxford Circus is one, and the Design Museum on Kensington High Street is another.

Founded in 1989 by the iconic designer and restaurateur Sir Terence Conran, this fabulous institution exhibits product, industrial, graphic, fashion, and architectural design all year round. Its shows are always thoughtful and innovative, never dull and predictable. Entrance is free, but there are usually also paid-for exhibitions that are well worth buying a ticket for. Here's a great example.

This spring, the Design Museum will host an ambitious new show, Splash! A Century of Swimming and Style. Spanning 100 years of aquatic design, it aims to dive beneath the surface of swimming's cultural significance.

Guest curator Amber Butchart—best known as the presenter of the BBC series A Stitch in Time and for her spots on The Great British Sewing Bee—has assembled a fascinating collection that goes far beyond mere fashion, exploring how swimming design reflects broader societal changes.

From Pamela Anderson's legendary Baywatch red swimsuit to one of the earliest surviving bikinis, the exhibition will showcase over 200 objects that chart the evolution of swimwear and Britain's love of water over the past century: from the lido boom of the early 20th century to the Mermaidcore trend of the 2020s.

The exhibition will explore swimming across three distinct environments: the pool, the lido, and natural waters. Visitors can expect to see everything from a 1933 striped woollen swimsuit to the controversial LZR Racer, a swimsuit so technologically advanced it was banned for providing unfair competitive advantages. It will also include a detailed architectural model of the Zaha Hadid-designed London 2012 Aquatics Centre.

A 90s TV icon

The Pamela Anderson swimsuit dates from the star's tenure on the show from 1992-97. It is on loan to the Design Museum in London from the BikiniARTmuseum in the German town of Bad Rappenau—the first international museum of swimwear and bathing culture—which acquired the piece from the collection of fellow actor David Hasselhoff and All-American Television in 2023.

All the costumes on the show were based on swimsuits worn by real lifeguards in Southern California, but each of the actors was given costumes specially adapted for their specific proportions.

The popularity of Baywatch put the one-piece back in the spotlight, and its status was further elevated by featuring in the famed slow-motion running scenes, which became a signature visual of the series and have often been parodied in comedies such as Friends.

Bikinis and Speedos

One of the earliest bikinis will also be on loan from the BikiniARTmuseum. Two-piece swimwear was first called a bikini in July 1946, when French designer Louis Réard debuted his navel-exposing design at the Molitor pool in Paris.

It was named after Bikini Atoll, the site of American nuclear test explosions. Réard's first bikini design featured newsprint, and one of the earliest surviving examples, from 1951, will be on show.

The evolution of swimwear for men will also be a significant feature of Splash!. One of the oldest on display will be a striped woollen swimsuit from 1933, produced under the Bukta label and it will be shown on loan from the Westminster Menswear Archive at the University of Westminster.

Meanwhile, the most eye-catching men's items will be the display of 10 Speedo briefs—now popularly known as 'Speedos'—ranging from the 1980s to the present day.

As the exhibition highlights, Peter Travis was the designer who first reshaped the Speedo brief in the 1960s, with his designs radically celebrating the male form. For many visitors, the Speedos on display will collectively offer a reminder of changing fashions over the decades and how Speedos became known for utilising bright, bold and sometimes garish colours.

Sporting triumphs

One of the oldest objects in the exhibition will be the Olympic gold medal awarded to swimmer Lucy Morton. Lucy took the 200m breaststroke title in the 1924 Paris Games, becoming the first British woman to win a solo Olympic title in swimming. The gold medal will come on loan from Blackpool's Showdown Museum after the local council acquired it from the swimmer's family in 2019.

Advances in textile technology are examined, and visitors will see innovations such as a 1930s woollen Jantzen Swimsuit with a Y-shaped back designed for speed improvements and a 1960s swimsuit made of Bri-Nylon designed by Olympic champion swimmer Judy Grinham (who was only the second woman to win solo gold for Britain in the pool in the Olympics).

Also on display will be an example of the hugely controversial LZR Racer swimsuit: a high-performance swimsuit developed by Speedo in collaboration with NASA and the Australian Institute of Sport. Introduced in 2008, it revolutionised competitive swimming by offering swimmers significant advantages in speed, buoyancy and drag reduction.

In its first year, swimmers wearing the suit broke 79 of 108 world records, and wearers also won 94% of the pool golds at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Consequently, the world governing body FINA banned it in all competitions in 2010, as the advantages it offered were deemed 'technical doping'.

Public spaces and folklore legends

The exhibition also features the architecture of swimming. Splash! will highlight the Jubilee Pool, which opened in Penzance in 1935 and is known for its unusual triangular shape. Visitors will see a film and supporting material showing how it has been regenerated by a local community, including its transformation to include the UK's first geothermal-powered seawater pool, heated all year round.

Another famous pool highlighted will be the London Aquatics Centre, designed by Zaha Hadid and an architectural landmark of the 2012 Olympics. Notable examples of saunas, beach huts and public baths will also be on show.

And that's not all! The role of nature and folklore in swimming's story are further themes that will be examined in the show. Visitors will see a range of examples, from stills of the British actor Glynis Johns as an enchanting mermaid in the 1948 film Miranda to Halle Bailey on the cover of The Face magazine to promote her role as Ariel in the 2023 live-action remake of The Little Mermaid.

A final feature of the exhibition will be its examination of just who swimwear is designed by and for and how it determines which bodies are welcomed in public spaces. The focus will be on contemporary swimwear designers, whose work enhances bodily autonomy and agency and challenges previous ideas around access to pools and beaches.

Societal changes

"It's incredible to be showing Pamela Anderson's iconic Baywatch swimsuit in the exhibition, especially at this pivotal point when she has reclaimed her own image and has designed and modelled her own swimwear," enthuses guest curator Amber Butchart. "I live in Margate and grew up in a seaside town. As a fashion historian, understanding our relationship with water through design and clothing has always been at the heart of my work. So it's a delight to bring this exhibition to the Design Museum.

"The history of swimwear and swimming is fascinating," she continues, "as it mirrors wider changes in society over the past century, whether that's around issues of bodily autonomy and agency or how we spend our leisure time."

Tim Marlow, director and CEO of the Design Museum, adds: "The story of swimming is more than just a story of sport, as our new exhibition will make abundantly clear. By examining the culture of swimming through the lens of design, we will explore a range of evolving ideas about how we have lived from the beginning of the 20th century to the present, from materials and making to leisure, travel, performance, wellbeing and the environment."