A Beautiful Purple Diamond

Wherein we celebrate sexy Susie Diamond’s pulchritudinous purple miniskirt.

I happen to love purple. It’s regal, eye catching, and has a certain elegance that few colors can match. It seems the costume designer in The Fabulous Baker Boys (1989) agrees with me, as Lisa Jensen dressed Michelle Pfeiffer as Susie Diamond in purple throughout many key scenes in the film. While she’s often more associated with red—the color of desire that she wears during the scintillating New Year’s Eve scene and again later when she and Jack Baker (Jeff Bridges) have sex again, this time at his apartment—Susie certainly seems fond of purple. Given that purple is often associated with independence and insouciance, it’s fitting Susie would be drawn to it. Purple also represents harmony, the balance between opposing forces, like its component colors red and blue. In Susie’s world, those opposing forces are Jack and his brother Frank (Beau Bridges), with Susie and her sultry pipes offering the harmonic balance for much of the film.

Let’s not bury the lede, though: Michelle just looks scorching hot in purple throughout The Fabulous Baker Boys. Never more so than during her introductory scene when she auditions to be the Bakers’ new singer. Michelle is a dream come true in this ensemble: soft angora sweater, massive gold belt, short and tight purple miniskirt, sheer black tights, and black pumps—including one with a broken heel.

Seriously, she’s an absolute vision in that purple miniskirt. It’s the shortest, tightest skirt Michelle has ever worn onscreen and, for that reason alone, it’s a Hall of Fame outfit. It’s also a perfect choice by the costume designer for our introduction to Susie. Befitting her confident swagger, it’s eye-catching and attention grabbing, scandalously sexy and utterly drool-worthy. Watching, no, gawking at the hypnotic, sensual sway of her hips as she moves across the room is enough to put any viewer under her spell for eternity. And then, of course, she keeps us hooked with her achingly beautiful and vulnerable rendition of “More Than You Know.”

It’s Susie Diamond’s and Michelle Pfeiffer’s world. We are all just living in it.