Gilda (1946)

Rita Hayworth plays the ultimate femme fatale in this aesthetically glamorous film about deception and corruption. She exudes sexuality so much so that one of the most memorable scenes from this movie is when she performs a strip tease for a team of male patrons in her casino in order to emotionally wound her husband.

The black, satin strapless dress in this scene is one of the three design achievements that capsualised the career of costume designer Jean Luis, the others being the sequined dress Marilyn Monroe wore when she famously sang “Happy Birthday Mr. President” to J. F. Kennedy and Marlene Dietrich‘s celebrated beaded soufflé stagewear for her cabaret world tours.

Rita Hayworth recognised this as her most desirable and elegant characters, famously worrying than men are disappointed when “they go to bed with Gilda and they wake up with me”.