NIGHTCLUBS are like magnets for beautiful women, yet the hottest ladies are invariably the cocktail waitresses — serving drinks and making the boys feel OK about dropping $450 on yet another bottle of liquor.

It’s no wonder, then, that club owners devote almost as much energy to designing waitress uniforms as they do the club itself.

PHOTOS: NYC Nightclubs’ Hottest Uniforms

“Waitresses are bending over in people’s faces, and they have to maneuver in very tight spaces,” says designer Gina Nigrelli, who is at work remaking 1Oak’s provocative uniforms into something even more titillating. “The bottom line is that these girls are working close to drunk people who aren’t always using their best judgment. So you don’t want to create a look that is too slutty.”

Here’s a selection of the city’s sexiest (but not too slutty) cocktail waitress uniforms.