I Feel Great About Diane Lockhart’s Neck
by Stone Goldman
For years, I had stereotyped The Good Wife as the classy CBS show that moms I know watched. Then I watched it, and realized that I was an idiot: it’s a brilliant, fun, consistently surprising show featuring one Good Wife learning about the world by working for a corporate law firm, but even more than that, it’s a show where brilliant women talk to each other about the law, the issues of the day, ethics, and morals. And it introduced me to one of my favorite characters on television, Diane Lockhart, a woman for which the term “boss bitch” “queen” or “#mom” runs the risk of being overused. Introduced as a steely boss, Diane was the head of the fancy law firm that hired Alicia Florrick at the outset, and over the seven seasons, she became the very example of a woman who’s broken barriers in the workplace, dealing with the slings and arrows that followed, and did it during an epoch of great change for women in America. The sort of woman who’s a peer of Hillary Clinton. And as embodied by the wonderfully sharp and intelligent Christine Baranski, the elegant actress with a voice like honeyed whisky, Diane is not just an icon in the workplace; she’s a fashion icon as well. The Good Wife is a show about female lawyers wearing interesting necklines (a pussy bow is a frequent touch) and Diane, well, she can wear a signature piece of jewelry like a champ.
We have gathered here today for a special occasion, and that is this: we are not here to bury Diane Lockhart, but to celebrate her signature style. Our favorites run below:
10: Introductory Brooch
What is this mid-90s realness? We meet Diane at her low point: pinstriped, double-breasted suit jacket, a swirl of gold pinned to her breast. None of this implies the magnificence ahead.
9. Building Block Necklaces
Sometimes Diane likes shapes, but sometimes those shapes are straight from a child’s playroom.
8. Even in a Crisis
Here’s the building block done better, structural and elegant: the perfect thing to wear if you are devastated by the most devastating thing that the evil geniuses sprung on you with no warning.
7. War necklace
Spending time in the courtroom, fending off the dumb words of men? Grab a necklace that looks like you are going to poke their eyes out with slim rods of metal shaped like bullets (not that you would ever use the latter, you are liberal).
6. Gold Chain
Looking like a beauty in teal, the gold chain brings out the tiger stripes in Diane’s soul. The very definition of fierce.
5. Pearls
Pears bring out the downright architectural cut of your expensive suit jacket, but sometimes a boss just needs ye olde family fortune to be displayed in garish triplicate on her sternum.
4. Calling You Out
Shine like a queen, Diane, and drown haters in your wake. It helps if they’re mesmerized by these elegant, shining brown jewels, wrapped together like a mermaid’s crown.
3. Metallic Gold
Hanging out with Will Gardner, Diane has a bright red dress and a chunky gold necklace like the fisherman’s hook on a necklace blown up to terrifying size. It’s perfect for best friend time.
2. Emerald
What goes best with stunting on corporate malfeasance, secrets and lies? A black mother-of-pearl, expensive but fun necklace that says “I don’t buy your shit; I’m going to shine.”
1. Gold and silver links
Firm burning down? Here’s what Diane does: wears a long, gorgeous, leopard-print coat that is shiny and sparkly (truly inspiring!) and gives herself her own damn retirement gift with a necklace that’s like a gold and silver chain — ironic, to look so together and incredible and to indicate wildness in the face of propriety when you’re fighting for your very own freedom!
Stone Goldman is a part-time newscaster and a full-time fan of Sarah Steele’s line delivery every time she appeared on The Good Wife as Eli Gold’s daughter.