And one of their first is Shug Avery's red dress.
https://tomandlorenzo.com/2020/06/one-iconic-look-shug-averys-miss-celies-blues-dress-and-headpiece-in-the-color-purple-1985/
. . . .
Bear in mind that when we first see this dress, Shug is singing a raunchy blues song and every man in the juke joint is declaring her sexual attractiveness. “Girl, I’d drink your bathwater.” “You could catch a fish without a hook.” The dress IS sex (as red dresses so often are on film).
She is the only woman in the scene with bare arms and visible cleavage. The only one covered in sweat. To Celie, this dress represents a boldness and a freedom she desires with every part of herself, which is why it’s so powerful when she puts it on herself, at Shug’s insistence.
Celie wearing the dress is a poignant symbol of sisterhood and shared experiences, but it’s also a fulfillment of a wish on Celie’s part; a desire to live inside the skin of this amazingly free and powerful woman. Because the dress is all about sex, the conversation immediately turns toward that subject, with Shug realizing that Celie’s never had an orgasm, due in part to her inability to see herself as desirable or beautiful.
The dress itself serves as the tool by which Celie finally experiences joy, achieves sexual fulfillment and gains an understanding of her worth. It would take another decade and a half of story time before Celie could enact those lessons, but the seed of her independence was planted here, on this night, when she put on Shug Avery’s red sequined dress.
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