Emma Pillsbury’s clothes and Colour Psychology: Black

The colour black has a multitude of meanings but I’m focusing on the words that associate themselves most closely with the occasions black is worn by Emma:

Power, elegance, mystery, seduction, formality

A previous post dealt with Emma’s colour combination of black, red and white. So I'm only going to talk about the other occasions Emma has turned up to school wearing black.

We never see Emma in solid black, but here are the two mostly black occasions:

Season 1: An unexpected after school rendezvous where she unintentionally seduces Will.

 Season 2: An unexpected after school rendezvous where she unintentionally (?) seduces Will.

It will be interesting to see what she wears in Season 3 for a similar occasion.

I love that Emma is wearing green with the black. Green is the colour of balance and harmony and rebirth and we all know when Wemma are together they balance each other and are just waiting to begin. From a psychological perspective green is the balancer of the heart and the emotions, creating equilibrium between the head and the heart. Perfect for Emma whose head on too many occasions ruled her heart, while Will’s heart ruled his head.

In the top picture from Showmance she has just been preparing students for SAT’s so there is a degree of formality or power involved in her position just prior to her appearing in this scene. The notion that Emma is in a position of authority and formality is conveyed through her clothing once again in Season 3’s 'I am Unicorn' and 'Asian F' when Emma wears black and white on the occasions she is in charge of the school musical.

The other occasion Emma appeared in black and white at a school function was when she was helping to supervise the car wash.

So it seems Emma goes for a black and white wardrobe whenever she is in charge of a situation. According to my research, when black is tempered with white it signifies prudence and humility – apt character traits when being in charge (particularly of students) which requires level headedness and good judgement. These last two screen caps are from 'Comeback' when Emma has discovered Sue may have committed 'sue-icide'. (More about the colour aqua in another post) and from 'Britney/Brittany' at the end of the episode where Emma is giving Will some good advice.

And that’s it for black (and white).