Following her massive success as Kelly Kapoor on The Office, it was only natural for Mindy Kaling to create and star in a comedy series about a doctor who is trying to balance work, romance, and life — called The Mindy Project. As much as the show is touted for its brilliant workplace comedy and realism when dating, the fashion is superb. Shows centering on medicine were traditionally soap operas or procedural dramas with a majority of the characters in scrubs. Even the medical procedure comedy Scrubs, which depicted life in and out of the hospital, didn’t have very many remarkable fashion moments. Yet, Dr. Lahiri’s fashion is largely unseen across both medical shows and comedy shows. Her fashion not only accentuates her curves, but often has bold prints and bright colors — definitely what an OB/GYN would wear. As such, here’s a look at her best outfits in The Mindy Project, ranked.
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10 Hunter Green and Silver Beaded Dress
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The hunter green dress is mermaid-style with a sweetheart neckline. A mermaid style, or a Y cut dress, is wider at the top and form-fitting from the waist down, sometimes flaring out around the ankle like a mermaid’s tail. The sweetheart neckline, which has been around since the Renaissance, according to Beauty Answered, is meant to accentuate the bust. The silver beads on both sides of the dress further bring in the waist. Both the colors of the dress and beads are classic holiday colors.
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9 Floral Block Dress with Accented Shoes and Purse
Dr. Lahiri wears lots of solids, some patterned prints, but her most worn print on The Mindy Project is floral. Her most stylish floral dress is a cocktail-length, long sleeve floral block dress. Though it isn’t just the dress that is stunning, but the matching shoes and sky blue purse. Accessories can be functional and accentuating, as she proves here. Since Mindy’s dress is yellow, black, and blue, her tri-colored shoes match her dress. But the sky blue purse, which is functional, brings the entire outfit together.
8 Golden Floral Dress and Gold Shoes
Another floral dress, but it is the first muted color scheme of Dr. Lahiri’s. Muted colors often signify a calm and familiar state of the wearer or user. The genius of this dress in The Mindy Project is not just in the A-line cut, but in that Mindy’s accessories are simple and play off the yellows of the dress itself. Mindy wears a thin gold bangle on her left wrist, which draws attention to her muted chrome painted nails. Finally, to match the bangle, Dr. Lahiri is wearing gold leather pumps.
7 Blue Sequins Dress
In the pilot episode of The Mindy Project, Dr. Lahiri wears a blue sequins dress to a wedding. She takes over the open mic speech portion of the reception, revealing her two-piece outfit and open-toe ivory pumps. Silvia Njoki gives a couple of reasons to wear open toe heels. First, to show off your fun and playful side at an event, like a wedding. A second reason to wear open toe shoes is to show off a fresh manicure. The blue sequins dress is paired with a neon pedicure, befitting for a show-stealing moment.
6 Horse Print Shirt and William Shakespeare Tote
Before avocado toast and low rise jeans, almost every Millennial remembers a singular thing about elementary school: the mammal obsession. Some girls were obsessed with dolphins and cats, but then there were the horse girls, like Tina Belcher on Bob’s Burgers. Dr. Lahiri’s black and white horse print shirt is a nostalgic reference to the reign of Lisa Frank folders. Though the pièce de résistance is her William Shakespeare tote bag, an homage of the mammalian obsession to Shakespeare obsession pipeline.
5 Green Plaid on Green Geometry on Green Suede Pumps
Plaid will be debated until the end of time. But Mindy’s green plaid jacket is a staple on The Mindy Project. Another heated debate among fashion lovers is mixing prints. InStyle claims that when mixing patterns, keep the colors in mind. With Mindy’s green plaid jacket, she wears a geometric Kelly green patterned shirt. She wears a plain green scarf and skirt with black tights and hunter green suede heels with gold accents. Mindy mixing patterns and textures beautifully.
4 The Canadian Tuxedo
The all-denim outfit is the perfect outfit as a denim top or bottom pairs well with everything. The only rule is to do it right. Mindy does three things with her tux here on The Mindy Project. First, the top is a lighter color than her bottoms. She wears a dark brown belt with dark bottoms. Finally, she wears a brown undershirt to match her belt.
3 Her Sunday Best
While Black women started the trend of wearing big hats in church in the Southern states of America, the trend has traveled north to places like Philadelphia and Harlem. While the hat is a form of covering one’s head in church, they naturally evolved into a status symbol. Mindy’s giant black church hat with black and white feathers pays tribute to this long held tradition.
2 Red Leather Jacket
When Mindy, Beverly (Beth Grant), and Betsy (Zoe Jarman) have a day off, their casual clothes are cozy and stylish. Both Beverly and Betsy are in denim with a patterned top or bottom. Mindy stands out by wearing a red leather jacket over a lilac tee and firework patterned shorts.
1 Pink Ombre Lace Dress
Mindy wears this outfit to Morgan’s wedding in The Mindy Project series finale. The dress features nine layers of scalloped, hanging lace, each a different color of pink, except for the tenth layer, which is gold. Her high-collared dress is paired with stud earrings and a golden geometric bangle. The outfit is an original by Salvador Perez.
