At its peak in the 1990s, the US TV series Baywatch drew an estimated 1.1 billion viewers each week – many of whom tuned in to watch the model and actor Pamela Anderson’s slow-motion running scenes in a red bathing suit.
Now, one of the most famous pieces of swimwear in the world – worn by Anderson during her tenure on the show from 1992 to 1997 – will be displayed in London as part of an exhibition dedicated to swimming and people’s enduring love of water.
Splash! A Century of Swimming and Style, which opens at the Design Museum in March, explores swimming’s evolution in its social, cultural, technological and environmental contexts over the past 100 years – from Britain’s lido boom during the early 20th century to the viral Mermaidcore trend of the 2020s.
Other objects going on display include the first Olympic solo swimming gold medal won by a British woman (Lucy Morton in the 200m breaststroke at the 1924 Paris games); the now-banned LZR Racer (a high-performance swimsuit developed by Speedo and Nasa, which led to claims of “technical doping”); and a detailed architectural model of the London 2012 Aquatics Centre, designed by Zaha Hadid.
The exhibition starts in the 1920s, when swimwear began to be marketed for swimming rather than the Victorians’ preference for bathing, and when beach holidays exploded in popularity. It ends in the present day, exploring swimming’s role in modern life and how it influences and subverts our ideas of body autonomy and agency.
The Anderson swimsuit is a loan from the BikiniARTmuseum in Germany, the first international museum of swimwear and bathing culture, which acquired it from the collection of Anderson’s co-star David Hasselhoff and All-American Television.
Each of the Baywatch actors were given specially adapted costumes for their specific proportions, which were based on suits worn by lifeguards in Southern California.
Also on loan from Germany will be one of the world’s earliest two-piece swimsuits, which was first called a bikini in July 1946, when the French designer Louis Réard debuted his creation at the Molitor pool in Paris. It was named after Bikini Atoll, a coral reef in the Marshall Islands and a site of US nuclear test explosions.
A selection of 10 men’s Speedo briefs ranging from the 1980s to the present day will also feature. The designer Peter Travis first reshaped the Speedo brief in the 1960s to radically celebrate the male form, and the display shows how these “budgie smugglers” became known for their bold and sometimes garish colours.
The exhibition will look at the role of nature and folklore in the evolution of swimming, and how centuries-old tales about merfolk, sea people, water spirits and nymphs came to be told through mass-media, including Disney’s The Little Mermaid.
The exhibition’s guest co-curator Amber Butchart, a dress and design historian known for her history segments on BBC’s The Great British Sewing Bee, said: “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.”
Butchart said the history of swimwear and swimming was fascinating because “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.”
