If there's one thing you can always count on from Miriam "Midge" Maisel, it's that she'll always make you laugh... and she'll always be fabulously dressed while doing it.
The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel season 5 returned for its final season on Friday, April 14, on Prime Video, which means fans have just nine more episodes to ooh and aah over the stunning period-perfect costume work and production design of the series, which largely takes place in New York City in the late 1950s and early '60s. (You may just see some styles from the '70s, '80s and even '90s creeping in this latest season, but no spoilers here!)
Given all of the incredible fashion moments that housewife-turned-comic Midge (Rachel Brosnahan) has given us over five seasons, it's nearly impossible to narrow them down to just a few favorites, but here are Midge's top 10 best outfits from the Prime Video series, ranked.
Midge's best outfits from The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel
10. Midge's B Altman uniform (season 1)
While working the beauty counter at upscale department store B. Altman in season 1, Midge regularly outfitted herself in characteristically chic takes on the working-girl uniform. This one — complete with a polka-dotted pussy-bow blouse, a cropped suit jacket and a matching pencil skirt, finished with a rosy bloom pinned at the lapel, which just so perfectly matched her red lipstick — was a clear standout.
9. Midge's sunny Catskills sundress (season 2)
Moving the show's action from New York City to a summery Catskills resort in season 2 not only expanded Midge's closet considerably but also was a reset for the character. Upon arrival with the rest of the Weissman clan, our titular heroine looks fresh as a flower in a yellow dress with a heavy floral print, with matching shoes and a fascinator to boot. "The yellow dress was crucial in striking a sunny mood," the show's costume designer Donna Zakowska told IndieWire. "It's also the first time we see floral patterns in the clothing, so it really was harkening back to spring and re-awakening her personality."
8. Midge's cute gingham co-ords (season 2)
Over five seasons, viewers have become used to seeing Miriam in a kaleidoscope of cocktail dresses and colorful coats, so when we see the character in a different silhouette — a cigarette pant, say, or a high-waisted short — we take notice. And notice we did this matching set that Midge wore for a Catskills road trip in season two, which sweetly offset a checkered jacket and shorts with a pale-pink button-down blouse and a complementary headscarf. Don't forget the cat-eye sunglasses!
7. Midge's patriotic USO dress (season 3)
If you didn't believe that Midge Maisel had an outfit for every occasion, the patriotic frock she stepped out in for a USO stand-up performance during season 3's Shy Baldwin tour is fashionable proof. Much to the delight of the cheering soldiers, Midge's show-stopping look consisted of a navy-blue dress whose neckline tied into an over-the-top red bow that cascaded down her back, finished with crisp white opera globes. "What I wanted to do was make that dress pretty and attractive and also patriotic. It became a joke about Midge looking like a living flag," Zakowska told IndieWire.
6. Midge's Gordon Ford Show 'sitting dress' (season 5)
In season 5, Miriam starts a new job as a staff writer on The Gordon Ford Show and, in true Midge fashion, she spends hours worrying over her first-day ensemble. "This isn't a standing job. It's a sitting job!" Midge yells at Susie (Alex Borstein) in episode 2. "It needs flair in a way that will accommodate a variety of sitting positions." Frustrated with her fretting ("This is not a cocktail party, it's a job!"), Susie literally throws together the perfect "sitting outfit": a flared tartan skirt, a red cropped jacket and a jaunty little cap, which Midge pairs with a matching kerchief and structured leather handbag.
5. Midge's 'Miami After Dark' dress (season 3)
The season 3 episode "Miami After Dark" became a favorite among Maisel fans, particularly those who "ship" Midge's character with infamous comedian Lenny Bruce (Luke Kirby). During a sultry night out between the will-they-won't-they pair at a club ("I just wish it had more atmosphere," Miriam jokes), Miriam wears a "strikingly bold" black-and-pink cocktail number that's "as glamorous by night as it was playful by day," Zakowska wrote in her book. The outfit only gets better later on in the evening when Lenny suavely and intimately drapes his suit jacket over Miriam's shoulder.
4. Midge's red 'revenge dress' (season 1)
Speaking of red, Miriam sported vibrant crimson shades throughout all five seasons of the Amazon hit, but no showing was quite as spectacular as her revenge dress. With its structured bodice and strong hue, the gorgeous gown was worn by Midge during a Yom Kippur dinner at the Weissman household, with her ex Joel in attendance. "There's something about these red tones… it's the color of blood; it's the color of passion; it's the color of strength," Zakowska said in an interview with Marketplace. And if you're Joel, it's clearly the color of regret.
3. Midge's signature pink coat (season 1)
"It all began with a pink coat and well over 200 — pink, of course — swatches," Zakowska wrote in her 2021 book, Madly Marvelous: The Costumes of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. Indeed, that pink swing coat (whose color was "feminine but not too feminine; sweet, but not too sweet," the costume designer wrote) was the world's introduction to Miriam "Midge" Maisel; the dusty-rose hue would quickly become synonymous with the character. "Pink, in the first episode, would be both a badge of identity and a source of strength, and then, in sometimes conspicuous, sometimes subtle ways, continue to resurface in her wardrobe throughout the series," Zakowska included in her book.
2. Midge's 'day on the lake' playsuit (season 2)
Another fabulous showing from season 2's Catskills episodes, Miriam wore this gorgeous pastel version of a 1950s playsuit — a "backless halter dress, which was built with multicolored vintage fabric" that split down the front "to reveal a pair of moss green shorts," Zakowska described in her book — while taking a relaxing turn around the lake in a row boat. The outfit would be a favorite on its own, but the coordinating sunglasses and straw resort hat take it into icon status.
1. Midge's iconic little black dress (season 1)
For all of her Crayola-bright clothing, it was ironically a black dress that would define the marvelous Mrs. Maisel onstage. But this was no ordinary black dress: the LBD Miriam sports in the season 1 finale during her "official coming out as the stand-up 'Mrs. Maisel,'" as Zakowska said in her book, is the stuff of Audrey Hepburn's dreams — a bow-strapped, Givenchy-inspired satin gown that Midge wears with black gloves, red lipstick and, per her mother's input, a double-string of pearls. The outfit "became the prototype for Midge's many subsequent performance looks," Zakowska wrote, and it was, simply, marvelous.
