Splash! A Century of Swimming and Style

Location

Design Museum
224-238 Kensington High Street
London
W8 6AG

Description

This exhibition has has not opened yet

This exhibition runs from Friday 28th March 2025 to Sunday 17th August 2025.


Explore the full spectrum of the design of swimming — from sports performance and fashion, to architecture.

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 will dive into design’s role in shaping our relationship with swimming, both in the water and beside it.

The exhibition’s story will begin 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 will explore 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 will be 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.

Prices

Standard Ticket: £16.18
Other price options
Children / National Art Pass : £8.09
Concessions: £12.12
Family (1A +3C): £34.38
Family (2A +3C): £44.54

Contact and Booking Details

More information at this website.

Reserve tickets at this website

Upcoming Dates

This exhibition runs from Friday 28th March 2025 to Sunday 17th August 2025.

Forthcoming dates:

Disclaimer

The information and prices in this listing are presumed to be correct at the time of publishing, but please always check with the venue before making a special trip.

All images are supplied by the exhibition organiser.

Design Museum
224-238 Kensington High Street
London
W8 6AG

Map

This exhibition runs from Friday 28th March 2025 to Sunday 17th August 2025.

This event runs over several days/weeks. Dates include:

March 2025

April 2025

May 2025

June 2025

July 2025

August 2025