Marilyn Monroe wore a white dress in the 1955 film The Seven Year Itch, directed by Billy Wilder.

[4] The dress appears in the sequence of The Seven Year Itch in which Monroe (playing "the Girl") and costar Tom Ewell ("Richard Sherman") exit the Trans-Lux 52nd Street Theatre on Lexington Avenue in New York City,[5] having just watched Creature from the Black Lagoon.

Monroe and the movie cameras caught the curiosity of hundreds of fans, so director Billy Wilder reshot the moment on a set at 20th Century Fox.

The halter-like bodice has a plunging neckline and is made of two pieces of softly pleated cellulose acetate (then considered a type of rayon) fabric[22] that come together behind the neck, leaving the wearer's arms, shoulders and back bare.

In the years following Monroe's death, images of her wearing the white dress were shown in many of the imitations, representations, and posthumous depictions of the actress.

As an example, a full-sized plaster likeness of Monroe in this dress was featured in a key scene in the Ken Russell film of the Who's Tommy (1975).

It has been emulated into the late 20th and throughout the 21st century in cinema, worn by Fiona in Shrek 2 (2004), by Amy Poehler in Blades of Glory (2007), and Anna Faris in The House Bunny (2008), among others.

[25] A similar survey conducted by Cancer Research UK voted the dress number one of all-time iconic celebrity fashion moments.