Masterpieces at London's National Gallery are coming to life with models parading in costumes inspired by some of the world's most famous paintings.

A detail from Renoir's Umbrellas ...

Students from a south London art school who have recreated the costumes in minute detail will display them on Wednesday.

For months students on Wimbeldon's 'costume interpretation' course have been studying what the people in the paintings actually wore.

... brought to life

Getting the exact look involved a great deal of hard work.

"I had to make each ribbon individually and sew them down individually. Then I had to do all the dyeing of the fabrics," said art student Isobel Cooper.

Each student had to recreate a male and a female costume.

Reliving Van Eyck's Marriage of Arnolfini

They had to grapple with the back as wells as the front back views.

The purpose of the project is to allow people to better understand and appreciate the paintings themselves.

"It is important for us to see these paintings in the third dimension sometimes," said Kathy Adler of the National Gallery.

A Gainsborough double floats through the gallery

"It reminds us that the paintings are of real people, that they were wearing real clothes, that they were moving and behaving in ways that are different from the ways in which we move now."

The models can be seen wandering past their muses at the National Gallery between 1300-14.30 and 1800-1900 GMT on Wednesday.

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