Splash! A Century of Swimming and Style: full of 'revelations and surprises'

The Design Museum's sweeping collection of all things swimming contains hidden depths

A visitor looks at Mária Švarbová's photograph of identical synchronised swimmers making the same repeated shape on a poolside
A visitor looking at 'Movement', 2020, by Mária Švarbová at a preview of  Splash!
(Image credit: Stephen Chung/Alamy)

In July 1946, US forces detonated a nuclear bomb over Bikini Atoll in the Pacific. Four days later, a French fashion designer called Louis Réard "launched a provocative two-piece swimsuit at a poolside party in Paris". Réard wanted to give his design a name that "would embody the tiniest garment imaginable, combined with the most explosive impact possible", and saw the "almighty atomic blast as the ideal symbol"; and so was born the modern bikini.

This bizarre tale is just one of many related in this exhibition charting our love affair with swimming over the past century, said Oliver Wainwright in The Guardian. The show explores its subject "across fashion, architecture, sport and more", touching on everything from Britain's "love of lidos" and "the lure of the seaside", to the resurgent popularity of wild swimming and even mermaid-themed TikTok trends. Featuring a fascinating selection of swimwear, photographs, films and all manner of archival material, it adds up to an "illuminating" and enjoyable event.

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