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Alfred Hitchcock was born on August 13, 1899, and in honor of the famed auteur’s 115th birthday, we’ve declared it Hitchcock Week on Decider. Click here to follow our coverage.

You can look at Alfred Hitchcock‘s entire oeuvre and see that he was a genius. You can analyze a single film (Vertigo, Strangers on a Train, Psycho, North by Northwest, etc.) and proclaim that he was the artist of the century. If the greatest directors can tell a story in a single shot, then we know that Hitchcock was a superlative mastermind because he could tell a character’s entire story with her dress.

Rear Window is one of the most visually perfect films Hitchcock ever made and Grace Kelly‘s entrance — and wardrobe — is an absolute triumph.

You probably know that Rear Window is about a photographer, L.B. “Jeff” Jefferies (Jimmy Stewart), who is confined to a wheelchair while his broken leg heals. He bides the time and staves off depression by spying on his neighbors. We hear about his society girlfriend Lisa Fremont (Grace Kelly) before we meet her, so her entrance is already hyped up. Alfred Hitchcock and Grace Kelly hit it out of the park.

A shadow creeps over the sleeping Jeff. It could be ominous, but then the camera shifts perspective to show that it’s Grace Kelly at her most luminous. Jeff wakes with a smile and then we get a POV shot of Lisa creeping in for a kiss. It’s at once creating cinematic tension and sexual tension.

They kiss, and the frame fogs up slightly, giving the kiss a dreamlike quality.

But then, she steps back, turns on three lights, lists off her three names and we see Lisa in her full glory. We see Lisa in that dress.

I have to take a moment to recognize that Decider is firmly pro-black & white tulle. Just yesterday, Tyler Coates sung the praises of Holly Hunter’s black and white tulle “outlaw” dress in Broadcast News. While he explained that Hunter’s dress is very much locked in its time period, I would like to argue that Grace Kelly’s Rear Window dress is the epitome of timeless. The proportions are perfection. The color scheme is the height of chic, and when I first saw the film as a tween, I audibly gasped at her dress.

There’s a tight midnight black bodice that explodes into mountains of white tulle. The white tulle is complimented by Lisa’s strand of elegant white pearls, and her black bodice is offset by a vine design that creeps down the skirt. The dress, like many of the most iconic looks from Hitchcock’s films, was designed by Edith Head. The dress is not only a showstopper fashion-wise, but it sums up everything you need to know about Lisa. There’s a friction between her pure and perfect exterior (hence the white) and her hungry desire for action and sex (hence the black). She’s positively polished from head to toe, which is in absolute opposition to Jeff’s disheveled appearance. She’s out of his league. They both know it and we know it. She’s a dream dipped in danger. She’s the perfect Hitchcock heroine — although she’s not the blondest of Hitchcock’s blondes.

The dress, though, is more than a triumph of costume design. It’s the epitome of Grace Kelly as a movie star. What do you expect from a Grace Kelly character in a movie? Poise, glamour, perfection? People often say her characters have an icy veneer, but if you look closer, that veneer is covered in tiny cracks like on the face of an old porcelain doll. Sexuality, and a suggestion of impending doom, is always bubbling underneath everything that she does. This dress communicates all of that. This dress is a tour de force. Sadly, this dress was only was and only could be worn once — because that’s who that character is.

– Read me from top to bottom. Lisa. Carol. Fremont.

– Is this the same Lisa Freemont who never wears the same dress twice?

– Only because it’s expected of her.

To see where you can stream Rear Window, visit GoWatchIt.

Photo Credit: The Everett Collection & Gifs: Universal Pictures