A red swimsuit worn by Pamela Anderson in the hit lifeguard series Baywatch will go on display in London.
The actress, 57, is best known for her role as CJ Parker in the popular US series, in which she starred opposite David Hasselhoff.
Her outfit will be on loan to the Design Museum from Germany’s BikiniARTmuseum, which is dedicated to swimwear and bathing culture, after they acquired the piece from the collection of Hasselhoff and All-American Television in 2023.
It will form part of the Splash! A Century of Swimming And Style exhibition, which will examine a century of swimming, the history of lidos, and mermaid-inspired Mermaidcore of the 2020s, popularised by Halle Bailey and Dua Lipa.
Other exhibits include the high-tech Speedo LZR Racer swimwear, a water-repellent suit developed with Nasa which was described as “technological doping” when records in the pool tumbled.
There will also be one of the earliest surviving examples of a bikini, from French designer Louis Reard, a detailed architectural model of Zaha Hadid’s London 2012 Aquatics Centre, a striped woollen swimsuit from 1933, and an Olympic gold medal awarded to swimmer Lucy Morton at the 1924 Paris games.
It will be guest-curated by Amber Butchart, a dress and design historian known for the BBC competition show The Great British Sewing Bee.
She 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.
“I live in Margate and I grew up in a seaside town and, as a fashion historian, understanding our relationship with water through design and clothing has always been at the heart of my work.”
Anderson, known for her slow-motion sequences in the bathing suit, spent five years on the show, which followed a team of lifeguards working on a Californian beach.
Last year Anderson released Netflix documentary Pamela, A Love Story, which explored how she dealt with her sex symbol status and tumultuous personal life, and an autobiography, Love, Pamela.
She was nominated for her first Golden Globe, for The Last Showgirl, on Monday, and will compete in the category best performance by an actress in a motion picture – drama, at the awards next year.
Tim Marlow, director and chief executive of the Design Museum, said: “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 the way we have lived from the beginning of the twentieth century to the present, from materials and making to leisure, travel, performance, wellbeing and the environment.
“It’s another innovative exhibition that will show visitors to the Design Museum the profound impact of design in almost every aspect of our lives.”
The exhibition is also curated by Tiya Dahyabhai.
Splash! A Century of Swimming and Style, will open at the Design Museum in London on March 28 2025.
