The Sexiest Dresses of All Time

(Photo: Kevin Mazur/Getty Images/2013 Kevin Mazur)

By Julie Ma

There are sexy dresses, and then there are SuperSexy dresses. Dangerous, shocking, and attention-grabbing, SuperSexy dresses are the overachievers in the class. While a standard flattering dress might showcase one of the wearer’s best assets, the SuperSexy dress turns it up a million notches and displays them all, deploying sheer panels, cutouts, bedazzlements, plunging necklines — whatever it takes.

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From Princess Diana’s daring “revenge dress” to Marilyn Monroe’s “Happy Birthday, Mr. President” stunner, we’ve compiled the sexiest dresses from (recent) history. See below to enter a world where pelvic-high slits, skintight sheaths, and cleavages front and rear are the norm and double-sided tape performs Herculean feats of adhesion.

(Photo:Princess Diana Archive/Getty Images/2006 Getty Images)

Princess Diana’s Revenge Dress

When she first tried on this slinky, black, off-the-shoulder Christina Stambolian design, Princess Diana deemed it “too daring.” But a few years later, in 1994, on the day Prince Charles admitted on television to having an affair, Princess Di changed her mind, and attended a Vanity Fair party at the Serpentine Gallery in the stunning creation that quickly became known as “the revenge dress.” Three years later, it sold for $74,000 at a charity auction. Sweet, indeed.

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(Photo:Desiree Navarro/Getty Images/2013 Desiree Navarro)

Azzedine Ala?a Bandage Dress

Azzedine Ala?a (a.k.a. “the King of Cling”) should receive all credit for creating the skintight, curve-hugging creation known as “The Bandage.” In 1981, Bill Cunningham took notice of Ala?a’s’s figure-enhancing clothes and wrote in Women’s Wear Daily that “an unknown designer” was “putting women back in clothes designed to illuminate the curves of the female.” His body-con dresses quickly attracted a loyal following from the original supermodels — including Naomi Campbell, Stephanie Seymour, and Veronica Webb — and the designer shot to fame.

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(Photo:Gary Miller/Getty Images/2013 Gary Miller)

Hervé Leger Bender Dress

In the late ‘80s, a descendant (and competitor) of Ala?a’s “Bandage” made a huge splash in the fashion world. French designer Hervé Peugnet sewed together bandagelike strips of Lycra and Spandex to create what was dubbed “The Bender”: a skintight sheath into which celebrities, supermodels, and party animals eagerly squeezed themselves for special occasions. Iman got married in one of them and Kim Kardashian shimmied into another while pregnant — a true testament to the dress’s ability to both cling and stretch.

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(Photo:Julien Hekimian/Getty Images/2012 Julien Hekimian)

Tom Ford Backless Zipper Dress

Tom Ford’s fall 2012 open-back zipper sheath is the dressed-up dress version of a mullet: all business and sleek sophistication in the front and a party in the back — thanks to its complete lack of back. Its not-so-innocent giant zipper detail resting on the lower back just screams, “I’m not zipped up when I could be!” Its sophisticated yet sexy appeal drew in a number of high-visibility fans, including Kate Moss, Jennifer Lawrence, Kim Kardashian, and Jennifer Lopez.

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(Photo:Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images/2014 Getty Images)

Rihanna’s Nude CFDA Dress

At the 2014 CFDA Awards, Bad Gal RiRi ruffled feathers by showing up in a completely sheer, Swarovski-encrusted, fishnet gown by Adam Selman. The singer had a rather eventful evening: She freed her nipples, exposed her butt cheeks, twerked, and then took home the Fashion Icon Award, presented to her by a rather more conservatively clad Anna Wintour. When E! News asked if she planned to wear the dress again, Rihanna said, “Why? Yes, I am. Do my tits bother you? They’re covered in Swarovski crystals!“ Translation: “Shine bright like a diamond.”

To see more of the sexiest dresses of all time, head over to The Cut!