The Fashion of Florrick and FLOTUS

Abstract

In this article, I explore The Good Wife’s particular uses of costuming and wardrobe and the consequent linkages to politics, feminism, and the discourse of “quality” television the show mediates. I argue that CBS borrows language from feminism to rehabilitate network broadcasting’s reputation as a dying medium in the wake of premium cable, time shifting, and cord-cutting. In the service of this strategy, I investigate how CBS dusts off an old tactic from The Mary Tyler Moore Show in the 1970s, using fashion to target a “quality” professional female audience and self-referentiality to resignify broadcast television as an activity for progressive, educated, and diverse women. Ultimately, I argue that The Good Wife uses costuming with female characters to self-legitimate and brand itself as “quality” television.