Abstract. Given a sequence $x$ of points in the unit interval, we associate with it a virtual permutation $w=w(x)$ (that is, a sequence $w$ of permutations $w_n \in \frak S_n$ such that $w_{n-1}=w_n'$ is obtained from $w_n$ by erasing the last element $n$ from its cycle, for all $n=1,2,\,\ldots$). We introduce a detailed version of the well-known stick breaking process, generating a random sequence $x$. It is proved that the associated random virtual permutation $w(x)$ has Ewens' distribution. Up to subsets of zero measure, the space $\frak S^\infty = \varprojlim \frak S_n$ of virtual permutations is identified with the cube $[0,1]^\infty$.