Lady In Red - Television Tropes & Idioms

"Were you listening to me, Neo? Or were you looking at the woman in the red dress?"

—Morpheus, The Matrix

"Well, if it isn't the bitch in the red dress."

—Jack Krauser, Resident Evil 4

If a woman is 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.

Characteristics of the dress will include:

It is red, usually scarlet. Some variation in color is possible, but a lady in crimson is a borderline Lady In Red. And it is never, ever pink.
It is very... flattering, or at least just flattering enough.
It is either strapless, sleeveless or both, which isn't a problem, given the type of figure most of these women have.
If it is long rather than short, and it usually is, expect the leg to be shown off rather sensually.

Most of this has to do with the slinkiness of the dress itself. However, red is also the color most commonly associated with sex and passion, so it echoes this woman's sexuality all that more. Although she does not have to be an actual scarlet woman. Plus, of course, the person wearing the red dress is automatically THREE TIMES SEXIER than a person wearing a less flamboyant color.

The Glamorous Wartime Singer is often a Lady In Red.

According to Chinese myth, a woman who dies in a red dress, or commits suicide in one, is able to come back to haunt those who wronged her. Which leads to a multitude of ladies in red dresses in Hong Kong horror movies.

Sometimes the dress will be a Happy Holidays Dress or Sexy Santa Dress.

Unlike Woman In White, this trope is grown women only; for little girls, see Little Dead Riding Hood and compare Princesses Prefer Pink.

Compare Woman In Black and The Little Black Dress.

Examples:

Anime and Manga

Madlax wears a crimson red cocktail dress in the first episodes... into battle. And even the man she's about to kill admits she looks gorgeous.
Kaolinite from Sailor Moon, anyone?
Every outfit we've seen Boa Hancock from One Piece in, has had a lot of red in it.
Wang Liu Mei from Gundam 00. Tieria Erde, too.
Fiery Redhead Kallen Kouzuki/Stadtfeld's Custom Uniform in Code Geass is red. As is her custom mecha. How many times does that make this trope?
- Rule Of Three.
Eva (but of course) gets to wear one in Monster.
Madam Red from Black Butler.
Yumi Komagata from Rurouni Kenshin. Notably, she used to be an oiran before joining up with Shishio.

Comic Books

Wildguard has the enigmatic Woman in Red who stalks Red Rover.
P'Gell, in The Spirit. Often, but not always, seen in a slinky red dress. (Starting with her first appearance.)
The Babe Wore Red is a story in Sin City.
Kate Kane aka Batwoman in her first apperance in the DCU series Fifty Two. She "has the kind of beauty that leaves you breathless," and she wears the hell out of that dress.
The Scarlet Witch, although typically dressed in red, has only appeared in this kind of red dress in the Ultiverse and the X-Men Noir mini.
The titular Woman in Red a character who debuted in 1940, called by some the first female superhero.

Film

Jessica Rabbit from Who Framed Roger Rabbit
The woman in the red dress in The Matrix
And The Woman In Red from the movie of the same name.
Violet from Bound spends a good chunk of the film in a sexy red dress.
Subverted in Requiem For A Dream, in which an elderly woman destroys herself trying to fit into her old red dress.
In the film adaptation of the Stephen King short story "Umney's Last Case'', the wife of the 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 with a red dress.
In The Sixth Sense the mother of the dead child at the funeral/wake is wearing a red dress. She ends up being exposed as the killer.
Ginger from Swordfish was in a red dress when she made her intro.
Shoshana in the end of Inglourious Basterds is a heroic red lady.
Satine from Moulin Rouge
In Caliente built a Busby Berkeley Number around the song "The Lady In Red." This song is perhaps more famous as a Standard Snippet in Carl Stalling's cartoon music.
Cristabella in the climatic scene of Devils Advocate.

Literature

In Robin McKinley's Sunshine, the vampires who kidnapped Sunshine dressed her in a red gown before staking her out before another, prisoner vampire.
In Declarations of War by Len Deighton, a woman traveling with the protagonist has two dresses, black and red. She declines to wear the red one in a small Latin American town, as it is pointed out that only one type of woman wears red in those types of towns.
In A Song Of Ice And Fire, Evil Redhead Melisandre of Asshai always appears in a red dress or robes that mark her as a priestess of R'hllor. Thoros of Myr, a follower of the same god, wears much the same thing - except that by the time of his most recent appearance, his robes have become very faded.
In Gone With The Wind, Scarlett O'Hara scandalizes polite society when she shows up to her debutante ball wearing a red dress instead of virginal white.
- Wait a minute, wasn't that in Jezebel, the GWTW rip-off Bette Davis starred in? I thought that's where that scene occurred. I don't remember any scene like this from Gone with the Wind.
- The movie version had a scene where she scandalizes polite society by showing up to Ashley's birthday party (after being caught kissing him) in a revealing red dress, but that doesn't sound like the same scene.
The Whore of Babylon in the Revelation of John is described as a woman wearing scarlet, making this trope at least Older Than Feudalism.
Ysanne Isard wears a red version of the white Grand Admiral uniform◊. She's not a sexualized villain.
In A Prayer For Owen Meany, the narrator's mother only dresses in black and white, except for a single red dress she wears to special, mysterious occasions.

Live Action TV

Zoey in Zoey 101.
iCarly: Miss Ackerman. Carly calls her hot (!), Freddie goes "Woah" 5 times (and this is the Season 1 Freddie who hasn't really hit puberty yet).
Number Six from the reimagined Battlestar Galactica.
Miss Hartigan in Doctor Who's The Next Doctor.
- Lucy Saxon in 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".
In the first episode of Ashes To Ashes, Alex Drake arrives in 1981 in a short red dress. She later comments that she wants to get out of the dress before Chris de Burgh writes a song about her.
Somewhat subverted with Inara in Firefly, particularly the episode "The Train Job". As a Companion, she's beautiful, sexy...and completely respected as a member of legitimate society whose word is (almost) above reproach.
- She wears lots of different colours, though, and usually chooses fancier styles (more "gown" than "dress"). I don't think I can recall her ever wearing a bright red slinky dress.
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.
Isabella from Robin Hood often wore red dresses.
The X Files. Agent Scully wears a red cocktail dress in "Triangle", where she's an OSS spy in 1939. It's notable that this is the first time Mulder kisses Scully, and quite passionately too (though she still gives him a Megaton Punch in response).
The Mentalist, "Russet Potatoes" features a woman in a red dress.
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, he is married to, and has a son with, Olivia), for which she is wearing the epitome of the trope. The whole scene was a complete Mind Screw with all the conflicting UST.
To show exactly how all grown up Liberty was by Senior Year, she wore a very nice red dress to prom in Degrassi. Season 10 has Fiona and Holly J both appear in a red cocktail dress at various points. They both look wonderful in it.

Music

Roxxxxxannnnnneeeee! You don't have to wear that dress tonight!
The Chris de Burgh song "The Lady in Red" (obviously).
Morrighan the Temptress from Lord of the Dance embodies this trope.

Other

Miss Scarlet from the Clue board game.
- 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.

Real Life

According to legend, John Dillinger was betrayed to the FBI by a woman in red. In actuality, she (Anna Sage, a Romanian immigrant who was trying to get a visa by handing over Dillinger) was wearing orange, which she did to signal the FBI she was with Dillinger, but the light made it look red.
The late, great baseball personality Buck O'Neill had a stated fondness for women in red dresses; he once told his biographer, "Son, in this life, you never walk by a red dress." At his funeral, all the women wore red.
Just go to a social function at the University of Utah.
Red is the traditional color of wedding dresses in China and India.
Elena Udrea, Romanian MP and Minister of Tourism. She wears rather flashy red outfits◊ sometimes, including at the second inauguration of President Traian Basescu◊, although the yellow light made it to appear orange on TV. And she doesn't shun pink◊, either.

Video Games

Ada Wong from Resident Evil.
Bella Goth from The Sims.
- The Sims have actually a vamp character in red or black dress.
Mei-Fang of Arcana Heart slips into a Chinese red dress in her victory pose if she wins with most of her health.
Saranda from Infinite Undiscovery
Mai Shiranui of Fatal Fury, King Of Fighters, and the SNK Vs. Capcom/Capcom Vs. SNK games.
Blaz Blue's Litchi Faye Ling.
Saving these is one of only two ways to restore your health in Spelunky. The other way is sacrificing them to Kali.
Tekken Femme Fatale Anna Williams wears a red dress as her default costume.
Carmen Sandiego is Dressed To Kill in her red Badass Longcoat and fedora.
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. Her backstory, on the other hand...
Princess Caeda from Fire Emblem wears red... and is a seductive one. (Of course, her seductions save lives.)
Pauline on the cabinet art for the arcade version of Donkey Kong wore a red dress instead of the violet old-timey one she wore in the game itself. She later wore it in-game in the Game Boy remake, as well as in Mario vs. Donkey Kong 2, after she became a brunette in those games.
Marian in some of the Double Dragon games (notably in the original arcade game, as well as the second NES one) wears a red dress.
Jessica in Final Fight, as well as Maki in the SNES sequel. Oddly enough, both are blondes, but one is a Distressed Damsel and the other is an Action Girl.

Western Animation

Halfway subverted with the aforementioned Lady in Pink in the first two-parter of The Backyardigans, "International Super Spy". Yes, she was evil and had a similar name to this trope's, but she wore pink and her outfit wasn't slinky enough. Well, at least she didn't have any undies on, and that's just flattering enough.
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.
In the episodes "Double 'O Dale" and "Mind Your Cheese & Q's", Gadget Hackwrench in Chip And Dale Rescue Rangers had worn a red dress that fits this trope.
After the Gaang infiltrate the Fire Nation in Avatar The Last Airbender, Katara dons a red skirt/top combo. Of course, red was the traditional colour for Fire Nation citizens, but it's interesting that this particular outfit is considerably more Fan Service-y than anything she had previously worn.
Wakfu's Evangelyne appears in a red dress and dances in a dream sequence.