Elegant style icon wardrobe essentials: Elizabeth Taylor in swimwear

In her Hollywood years, Elizabeth Taylor had been often compared to Ava Gardner, and in many ways, she was like a young Ava Gardner: They both have exquisite face and devastating figure, they both can be elegant and yet vulgar, and they were both born seducers who can get any men they want. In the film The Barefoot Countess(1954), Ava Gardner had seduced all the men on a yacht in a  black velvet bathing suit with golden fringes. Elizabeth Taylor had wanted that role.

But she did not need to worry, a few years later, in the film Suddenly, Last Summer(1959), Elizabeth Taylor would seduce the whole nation with a white swim suit, although the story line was as dark as it could be for that time period.