Lady in Red: Difference between revisions

If a woman is [[Hello, Nurse!|sexy enough]], there's a good chance that she will wear a slinky red dress at at least one point in time. If she's really, REALLY sexy, and ''especially'' if she's [[The Vamp]] or a [[Femme Fatale]], it may become her default outfit. This trope deals with the latter.

In terms of concept and symbolism, this trope is the polar opposite of the [[Woman in Black]]. A Lady in Red is sexy, period. She might be morally ambiguous but she mostly displays a form of sexual availability, a signal that she's ready to fulfill a guy's sexual desires. The Woman in Black may be sexy and enticing but, in sharp contrast to her crimson counterpart, she is also openly menacing and sexually unavailable, especially if her outfit covers her whole body. In any case, the Woman in Black clearly conveys that approaching her is ''not'' a good idea, whereas the Lady in Red ''means'' to arouse lust.

{{examples}}

** Interestingly, she changes to a [[Woman in Black]] after her {{spoiler|apparent death and resurrection}}.

* Every outfit we've seen [[Hot Amazon|Boa Hancock]] from ''[[One Piece]]'' in has had a lot of red in it.

* [[Fiery Redhead]] [[Ace Pilot|Kallen]] Kouzuki/Stadtfeld's [[Custom Uniform]] in ''[[Code Geass]]'' is red. [[Law of Chromatic Superiority|As is her custom mecha]]. How many times does that make this trope? [[Rule of Three]].

* Madam Red from ''[[Black Butler]]''.

* Yumi Komagata from ''[[Rurouni Kenshin]]''. Notably, she used to be [[High Class Call Girl|an oiran]] before [[Unholy Matrimony|joining up with Shishio.]]

* ''[[Ranma One Half]]'': Played for laughs with Ranma Saotome's [[Gender Bender|girl form]]. He's one of the most (if not ''the'' most) attractive women in the entire series. He knows it and [[Manipulative Bastard|plays it up for all the benefits he can possibly get]], especially in the manga. Ranma's seductive ways are highlighted by his typical red shirt, his red hair in the anime, and, at one point, a red [[Qipao]] dress from some official art. Plus, in general, he's just seen in a lot of red clothing.

== Films -- Animated ==

* Mother Gothel from ''[[Tangled]]'' wears a red dress.

* In ''[[The Swan Princess]]'', the imposter Odette's dress was slinky red and black, as opposed to Odette's usual virginal white.

* [[Mulan]]'s wedding dress at the end of ''Mulan II''.

== Films -- Live-Action ==

* [[The Matrix|Were you listening to me, Neo? Or were you looking at the woman in the red dress?]]

* And ''The Woman In Red'' from the movie of the same name.

* [[Femme Fatale|Violet]] from ''[[Bound]]'' spends a good chunk of the film in a sexy red dress.

* In the film adaptation of the [[Stephen King]] short story ''Umney's Last Case'', the wife of the [[Rage Against the Author|author who created]] the 1930's [[Private Eye]] protagonist dresses up in a slinky red dress in order to seduce him, acting like [[The Vamp]] character from one of her husband's books.

* The Devil (Liz Hurley) in ''[[Bedazzled]]'' starts off in a red dress.

** Actually, the red dress is her work attire at the firm. In the climactic scene, however, {{spoiler|she goes from a slinky dark purple dress to full nudity.}}

* ''The Thin Blue Line'' references the famous woman in red who shot notorious gangster John Dillinger. The movie then goes on to note that the woman was actually wearing orange at the time, it just seemed red because of the lighting. This ties into the theme of inaccurate memory.

* After being called a "priss" and presumed to be uptight for the earlier part of the movie ''[[Swing Kids]]'', Evey shows up at a swing party in a bright red dress. The look on Peter's face when he sees her is priceless.

* ''[[Frantic]]''. Emmanuelle Singer changes from her [[Hell-Bent for Leather|black leather look]] to a tight red dress when they go to an expensive nightclub; it's probably not a coincidence she [[Mating Dance|dances uncomfortably close]] to Harrison Ford in this scene.

* One of Padme Amidala's dresses seen in ''[[The Phantom Menace]]'' that is most used to show her outside the movie is a magnificent crimson dress, a color which is a traditional symbol of royal authority, as a 14 year old queen isn't trying to be sexy.

* In ''[[Deep Rising]]'', this is Trillian's outfit for the first half of the film.

* Valerie from ''[[Red Riding Hood]]'' because she's...well, [[Little Red Riding Hood|Teenaged Red Riding Hood]].

* In ''[[Jezebel]]'', Julie Marsden (Bette Davis) scandalizes polite society when she shows up to her debutante ball wearing a red dress instead of virginal white.

* In ''[[Lord of Light]]'', Kali wears a blood-red sari. (And necklaces of skulls, but that's beside the point.)

* When Rita Skeeter writes stories about Hermione's "taste for famous wizards" in ''[[Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire]]'', Ron comments that the articles make Hermione out to be a "scarlet woman". When Hermione laughs at his word usage, Ron admits that's what his mom calls them.

* ''[[In Death]]'': a number of female characters put on red outfits in the series. Eve put on a red outfit to seduce Roarke in ''Witness In Death'' and Magdalana wore a red dress early on in ''Innocence In Death''.

* Imabelle, the [[Femme Fatale]] in ''A Rage in Harlem'', wears red throughout the story.

== Live-Action TV ==

* Zoey in ''[[Zoey 101]]''.

* Number Six from the reimagined ''[[Battlestar Galactica Reimagined]]''.

* Miss Hartigan in ''[[Doctor Who]]'''s "The Next Doctor".

** Lucy Saxon in "[[Doctor Who/NS/Recap/S3 E13 Last of the Time Lords|Last of the Time Lords]]".

* The opening theme of ''[[The Nanny]]'' implies this -- "She's the lady in red while everybody else is wearing tan".

** The pilot goes beyond implies. She comes down the stairs to a party wearing a red dress while the piano player sings "The Lady in Red".

* Sarah on ''[[Chuck]]'' sometimes wears these, during the extremely high number of missions calling for formal wear.

* In ''[[The Golden Girls]]'', Blanche's ''wedding gown'' was a dress like this, which should tell you everything you need to know about her.

** In the series 2 episode 'The Booby and the Beast', Marian wears one to attract Count Friedrich at the insistence of the Sheriff.

* ''[[The Mentalist]]'', "Russet Potatoes" features a woman in a red dress.

* [[Law and Order SVU|Alex Cabot]] is only ever seen in a smart suit. Until she goes on a date with Trevor Langan (which is even odder when you remember that, in real life, [[Reality Subtext|he is married to, and has a son with, Olivia]]), for which she wears the epitome of this trope. The whole scene was a complete [[Mind Screw]] with all the conflicting [[UST]].

* This is what the local [[Ms. Fanservice]] Santana picks for her prom dress in ''[[Glee]]''. [[The Fashionista|Kurt]] even lampshades it, saying it even goes wonderfully with her personality.

* Daphne wears a stunning red dress in the classic ''[[Frasier]]'' episode "Moon Dance", where she and Niles dance a [[Mating Dance|passionate tango]] and come within a hair's breadth of a [[Love Confession]], after their [[UST]] gets ramped up higher than it had ever been before.

** In "Amends", Willow wears a tight red dress to show Oz she's [[Ready for Lovemaking]]. In the same episode, the First is trying to incite Angel into having sex with Buffy so he'll lose his soul; when Angel runs into Buffy in her bedroom wearing a blood-red dress that exposes her neck, he has to jump out the window to stop himself from jumping on her then and there.

* In C-drama ''The Holy Pearl'', Mo Yin wears red throughout her [[Establishing Character Moment]] (sentencing the main character to death), marking her as a more sensual and passionate character than her [[Woman in White]] sister.

== [[Tabletop Games]] ==

* Bella Goth from ''[[The Sims]]''.

** ''[[The Sims]]'' actually has a vamp character in a red or black dress.

* Saranda from ''[[Infinite Undiscovery]]''.

* [[Highly-Visible Ninja|Mai Shiranui]] of ''[[Fatal Fury]]'', ''[[King of Fighters]]'', and the ''SNK Vs. Capcom''/''Capcom Vs. SNK'' games.

* Saving these is one of only two ways to restore your health in ''[[Spelunky]]''. {{spoiler|The other way is sacrificing them to Kali.}}

* ''[[Tekken]]'': [[Femme Fatale]] Anna Williams wears a red dress as her default costume.

* Evelyn Gray from ''[[My Sims]] Agents''.

* Anera in the Dreamcatcher module series for ''[[Neverwinter Nights]]'' shows up in a red dress once. This is probably an aversion, as the dress is actually quite modest and she is as far from 'slutty' as it is possible to get by this point. [[Dark and Troubled Past|Her backstory, on the other hand...]]

* Marian from the ''[[Double Dragon]]'' series wears a red dress in most games (notably in most versions of the first game, as well as in the second NES one).

* Jessica from ''[[Final Fight]]'', as well as Maki in the SNES sequel.

* Princess Zelda in the ''[[The Legend of Zelda]]'' games for the NES, although mainly due to palette limitations (it's colored pink in the official illustrations).

* ''[[Bushido Blade]]'': Red Shadow. Her name could even be a reference to this trope!

* Eve from ''[[Harvest Moon]]'', wore a red dress in her first appearance. When she was brought back for ''Magical Melody'', she was given a new outfit.

* [[Betty Boop]], while she use to wear a black dress, mainly because she was around before the invention of colour, switched to a skimpy red dress.

* [[Tex Avery]]'s ''[[Red Hot Riding Hood]].'' Rawr.

* [[The Faceless|Sarah Bellum]] from ''[[The Powerpuff Girls]]''.

== Other ==

** Though, interestingly, in the movie, Miss Scarlet wears a form-fitting ''blue'' dress. Of course, Lesley Ann Warren was sporting reddish hair...

* Mazu, the Chinese goddess of the sea, is represented as a woman clad in red robes.

* [[wikipedia:Elena Udrea|Elena Udrea]], Romanian MP and Minister of Tourism. She wears [http://simioncristian.files.wordpress.com/2009/12/elenaudrea.jpg rather flashy red outfits] sometimes, including at the [http://storage0.dms.mpinteractiv.ro/media/401/781/10376/5195608/1/base-juramant.jpg second inauguration of President Traian Basescu], although the yellow light made it appear orange on TV. And she doesn't shun [http://simioncristian.files.wordpress.com/2009/09/elena-udrea.jpg pink], either.

* Scarlet red in [[Kimono|Kimonese]] stands for sexuality and vigour of youth, being a suitable background colour for a young girl's ''furisode'' or the wedding costume's overcoat ''uchikake'', as well as accessories -- however, red ''underkimono'' has been downright scandalous for many a decade, and the only people who get away with wearing such are geisha and such.

* Wearing red dresses in funerals is the ultimate insult to the deceased and means the lady in red is happy the deceased has died...It is akin to saying out loud "good riddance, schmuck!".

** Referenced in the movie ''[[Moonstruck]]'' where Cher's character threatens to wear such a dress to Johnny (the man who jilted her)'s funeral once he dies.