IT was a scene that helped launch a sexual revolution and turned a star into an icon.

For almost half-a-century, women across the world have longed to emulate Marilyn Monroe's voluptuous glamour.

Thanks to a coming together of fashion and film, now anyone can look like her - at least for a few seconds.

Student Richard Toon has created an animated version of the scene in The Seven Year Itch where Monroe stands above an air vent in a pleated dress.

He projects the revealing pose on to a dress designed in the shape of a cinema screen.

Richard, 20, a student in fashion design and business studies at Brighton University, said: "It's one of the most famous scenes in cinema history, if not the most famous.

"It was the ideal one to recreate in a fashion show about film."

A competition, organised by the Imperial Cancer Research Fund, asked aspiring designers to produce clothes on the theme of Sirens of the Silver Screen.

Richard, who was the South East regional winner, said: "Marilyn is probably the most famous film actress of all time.

"She's an icon and that scene from the Seven Year Itch is the best-known image of her. It made it the obvious one to use."

In the 1955 film about

sexual temptation during the long, hot New York summer, married man Tom Ewell pursues Marilyn after seeing her standing over the vent.

Fashion

Richard had to draw 250 animated frames to recreate the moment.

He said: "I've never heard of anyone projecting a film scene on to a dress before. It could be something new.

"It's not really practical, because you can't move the arms freely. It's a fashion idea rather than practical clothes."

While he was researching his subject, Richard found Marilyn, unlike the shape of the screen dress he eventually made, was far from angelic.

Since her death in August 1962, details of her affairs with, among others, president John F.Kennedy and his younger brother Bobby, have come to light, spawning thousands of books.

He said: "She seemed quite a corrupt figure but a very interesting one.

"I'd never even seen The Seven Year Itch before I started, but I knew about the scene I used."

The dress took five weeks to make and cost only £10.

Recycled garments were the stipulated materials under the rules of the competition, so Richard used seven old school shirts.

He said: "It's nice to have materials with a bit of character and different textures. It's a dress as well as a screen."

His model Jill Gordon, 20, said: "It gets quite hot wearing it and, with the plastic frame at the back to make it more like a screen, you can't really move.

"I quite enjoyed having the scene projected on to me, though. It was a different experience."

Following his success,

Richard plans to recreate more famous cinema scenes to project on to dresses for an exhibition later this year.

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