My emotional favorite. This episode is ridiculous. That outfit is ridiculous. I wore a similar dress to my junior prom. IT IS THE BEST THING EVER.
Nothing about this dress would make sense on anyone other than Deanna and anywhere other than Betazed. Who wears a cocktail dress to stroll through the park?
But compared to what her mother is wearing (or for that matter, what Mr. Homm is wearing) it is positively mundane. Lwaxana is literally dressed to match the park. Look at the flowers in the first picture and then Mrs. Troi with the parasol in the second. AMAZING.
And Deanna, more than ever before or after, is dressed like an extension of Lwaxana. I love that. I love that it happens here, on her home planet, in the same scene where she lets herself go visit the past with Will.
The dress hits all of Deanna’s fashion boxes: it’s pink/purple, it’s asymmetrical, it’s off the shoulder, it’s cocktail length, it has volume, and she’s wearing matchy tights and shoes. It is possibly the most Deanna-y of anything Deanna ever wears.
This dress is very similar to her Teal faux-uniform, but I prefer this color, finishing, and silhouette (and in what appears to be a heavier fabric). It’s clearly NOT an on-duty dress. It’s classically romantic – and in fact, each appearance is also classically romantic:
In The Price, Deanna has a whirlwind romance with a visiting dignitary.
In Hollow Pursuits, “Deanna” is the romantic lead in Barclay’s fantasy.
In Data’s Day, she’s attending a wedding.
In Nth Degree, she’s watching Barclay and Beverly enact a classic romantic drama.
I also love that the costumer puts Beverly in the off-shoulder blue sweater for the later drama club scene – such smart costuming.
In Parallels, she’s married to Worf in an alternate reality (and this dress is paired with the painting of a meadow while when the universe switch occurs she’s in her uniform and paired with a painting of a battle – again, so smart!).
So, it speaks to me. I love clothing that says something and this dress says a lot. On top of that she looks stunning. It’s probably painful to wear (I sense a corset, Captain) but it looks soft and flowing and beautiful. She looks like Guinevere in Space.
(Note: of course I prefer the matchy tights to the dark stockings in Barclay’s imagination and not only because Ew, Barclay.)