Tennis ace Sharapova unveils blinking phone dress

LONDON (Reuters Life!) - Former Wimbledon champion Maria Sharapova presented a prototype dress to reporters that is designed to light up when the wearer's mobile telephone rings.

British fashion student Georgie Davies dreamed up the knee-length short-sleeved white dress as part of a school project with mobile phone-maker Sony Ericsson to figure out ways of incorporating new technology into fashion.

Davies said the dress is designed to eventually be connected to the wearer's phone by Bluetooth wireless technology, so she can be alerted to a call even in noisiest of places.

"When you're in a pub or a bar, you can never, ever hear your phone," 20-year-old Davies told Reuters on Wednesday.

One shoulder of the dress down to the hip is embellished with translucent white scales that move and light up.

Sharapova showed off the dress to a gaggle of photographers and a crowd of passers-by from the window of a luxury department store in central London.

(Reporting by Catherine Bosley; Editing by Paul Casciato)