Emma Pillsbury’s clothes and Colour Psychology: Purple/Violet

Symbolises: sensuality, romantic, passion, sensitivity, femininity, ethereal, immaturity, fantasy, spiritual enlightenment, mystery.

You don’t have to be a brain surgeon to figure out that Emma Pillsbury is a romantic, sensitive to others’ needs, enigmatic and she leads Will towards self-enlightenment but let’s talk about how and when these traits are conveyed by the purple items in Emma’s wardrobe.

Emma walks into the lunchroom and on to our screens in her purple cardigan accessorized with the yellow beads and the message is two-fold: she has overwhelming romantic notions about Will Schuester and she’s going to change his life.

She wears purple when she goes with Will to check out the singing competition and even when she’s ending their little afterschool tryst by realistically asking ‘What are we doing? You’re having a baby’, her shirt is still conveying her inner feelings: ‘I have romantic feelings for you Will’ and what we're doing is all a bit of a mystery for both of us at this stage.

These feelings continue despite the fact that she’s trying to move on by dating Ken; she’s never in purple around Ken, only around Will.

Terri tries to terminate the romantic notions Emma has about Will by telling her ‘You’re nice to a man you see for an hour or two a day. You’re just an innocent little dove.’ Terri’s right. She sandblasts all ideas of romance out of Emma’s office window and we don’t see anymore romantic notions enter Emma’s head until...

The Power of Madonna. What could be more romantic, passionate, dream-like yet enlightening than spending a night with Will? Better wear the violet nightgown.

Then, as we all know, reality makes a harsh and unexpected check-in, Emma can’t ‘look at [Will] the way [she] used to’ and romance checks out. She shuts her purple drawers tight.

Until that is, she finds a new man to have romantic notions about and delves into the purple clothing again. She pulls out an outfit that in my mind, only belongs to Will because it shouts passion and mystery.

How could she?

Her romanticism and feminity is juxtaposed beautifully against the sexually overt dance numbers and blatant raunchiness in Britney/Brittany. She stands out in the crowd, a beacon of romance and spiritual enlightenment but the long shot of her conveys that for Will at this moment these things remain unattainable.

Emma’s romantic ideals about Carl never resurface from her wardrobe for the remainder of the season.

Over the school holidays Emma shops for a new outfit to reflect a less ethereal and more sophisticated romantic sensibility. 

When Emma steps into the apartment in Asian F, her face lights up at the idea of a romantic dinner with Will. Her outfit, however, serves as a signal to Will; he's about to be enlightened about Emma's biggest mystery: the origins of her OCD.