My Favorite Fashion Show

I'm a fashion nerd, but I don't watch the tv shows the fashionistas go ga-ga over. The women in Gossip Girl, Desperate Housewives, and Sex In The City just get under my skin. The shows I do like aren't good for clothes unless I want to know the latest in castaway trends, coroner clothes, or paper office attire.

There is one exception. Pushing Daisies is a color saturated delight that appeases my internal writer, actress, and fashion nerd. For those of you not familiar with this quirky show, Ned the pie maker has a strange gift. If he touches something dead, it will come back to life. However, if he touches it again it dies, and if he doesn't touch it again within a minute something else will die. He and Emerson, a grumbly knitting detective, solve crimes and collect rewards by visiting the morgue and asking the dead who killed them. This was a remarkably dull existence until Ned discovered one of the dead was his childhood sweetheart, Chuck. Now that he's brought her back to life, they can never touch again. Adding to this cast of characters is Olive, a waitress at The Pie Hole who is in love with Ned, and Chuck's two cheese-loving aunts who used to perform as mermaids before their niece's death. Expect narration and random musical numbers.
Pushing Daisies has a timeless quality. The cars, clothes and homes span various decades and pop culture never comes into play. Each character wears a distinct wardrobe inspired by different decades.

Chuck has a 1950s vibe. She's usually in full skirted dresses, but isn't opposed to petal pushers. In the first episode, she wore a printed dress, but since then she's been in solid, bright colors or a monochromatic print. To hide her identity from the coroner, she wears Audrey sunglasses and a hat or scarf over her hair when the crew visits the mourge. When she's out and about, Chuck wears knee length fitted coats that are the exact color as the rest of her outfit.Ned is a rather depressed fellow, and wears simple clothes in grey, black or white. He makes pies for a living, but tends to wear suits with skinny ties. His clothing may have a subtle pattern, but over all he's not into prints.Emerson wears brown suits with wide lapels and colorful polyester shirts in loud patterns. Occasionally, his suits are plaid or he'll switch out the blazer for a leather jacket. Since he loves to knit, sometime he'll wear a knitted vest. His look perfectly captures how his dull exterior is hiding a much more colorful man.Bubbly Olive is always in a 1960s mini silhouette; the actress is tiny so this leggy look helps make her appear taller. Her dresses are printed or patterned. She's loud and chatty so I couldn't imagine her in anything else.Needless to say, I'm excited about the return of Pushing Daisies tonight. The first season was cut short due to the writer's strike, and I've been in withdrawl from this off-the-wall universe.