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Outlook: I created a mass Marilyn Monroe swim for my mother

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Sarah Tinney dressed as Marilyn Monroe

04/04/2022 GMT

I created a mass Marilyn Monroe swim for my mother

BBC World Service - Outlook, I created a mass Marilyn Monroe swim for my mother

How dressing up as the Hollywood icon helped Sarah Tinney cope after her mother’s death

Sarah Tinney started one of Australia’s biggest open-water swims as a way of dealing with grief. All of the swimmers dress up as Marilyn Monroe, her mother’s favourite film star.

In 2013, Sarah Tinney agreed to do a charity swim dressed as Marilyn Monroe. But as the only one in fancy dress, she panicked and tried to rope in others. The swim was a tribute to her mother, a Marilyn Monroe movie devotee, who’d died of cancer. And over the years, what started as a a ragtag group of swimmers in southern Australia transformed into a world record-breaking event, raising almost a million dollars for cancer research.

André Leon Talley was an icon in the fashion world. He went from a modest life in North Carolina to become editor-at-large at the most famous fashion magazine in the world: Vogue. He died aged 73 in January 2022 after a life of trailblazing work. In 2019, he spoke to Outlook’s Emily Webb about his fashion awakening.

Presenter: Emily Webb
Producers: Maryam Maruf, Saskia Edwards

Get in touch outlook@bbc.com 

(Picture: Sarah Tinney at the Marilyn Jetty Swim. Photo credit: Courtesy of Cancer Council SA.)

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