Splash! A Century of Swimming and Style
Splash! A Century of Swimming and Style
Splash! takes visitors on a fascinating journey through the design of swimming over the past century. Celebrating our love of water, this exhibition explores how swimming has shaped culture, fashion, and fitness since the 1920s.
From the rise of swimwear as performance wear to the iconic lidos that lined Britain’s coast, Splash! dives deep into the intersection of style, sport, and architecture. Curated by design historian Amber Butchart, it offers a refreshing perspective on how swimming influences autonomy, agency, and modern life.
What to expect
Across three in-depth sections that reflect the three locations in which we swim — the pool, the lido and nature — the exhibition dives into design’s role in shaping our relationship with swimming, both in the water and beside it.
The exhibition’s story starts in the 1920s, when swimwear began to be marketed for swimming rather than the Victorian’s preference for bathing, and when beach holidays exploded in popularity. It explores right up to the present day, and swimming’s role in modern life such as how it influences and subverts our ideas of body autonomy and agency, as well as its link to environmental issues.
Discover over 200 objects, collectively exploring swimming’s evolution in its social, cultural, technological and environmental contexts, including Pamela Anderson’s sensational Baywatch swimsuit, the first Olympic solo swimming gold medal won by a British woman, and a selection of eye-catching men’s Speedos from the 1980s. Other objects on view are the banned ‘technical doping’ LZR Racer swimsuit, one of the earliest surviving examples of a bikini, and a detailed architectural model of the Zaha Hadid-designed London 2012 Aquatics Centre.
Splash! is guest-curated by Amber Butchart, a dress and design historian and broadcaster known for her history segments on BBC One’s The Great British Sewing Bee.
Share your favourite designs with @designmuseum using #SplashExhibition
Images courtesy of © Luke Hayes for the Design Museum.