Wardrobe/Color Symbolism between Rachel and Quinn
Throughout season 1, Rachel and Quinn are foils to one another. Quinn is the popular, hot, blonde queen bee cheerleader and Rachel is the dorky, "homely" outcast that struggles to fit in even within her own group of losers. But in Sectionals after Rachel tells Finn the truth about Quinn and Puck, Rachel goes to apologize to Quinn, saying she'd understand if Quinn wants to hit her. But Quinn tells Rachel she just did what Quinn was too scared to do. Despite all their differences and the conflict between them, they’re both dressed in blue, a color I believe glee used to symbolize unity/a sense of sameness. (Though their costume designer, Elizabeth Martucci, had said that they didn't really use a universal color system, it depended on each character, the costume department did use color to tell a story and represent what the characters were feeling) In this moment, they’re on equal grounds now. Quinn even states a reason why out loud: “now neither of us have [Finn]”. Their social standing doesn’t matter so much anymore either, since Quinn has been kicked out of the Cheerios and has lost her popularity. They’re now the same in the eyes of the rest of the school.
And even despite the Finn of it all, despite how differently they’re treated by others, Quinn and Rachel aren't that different deep down. They're both just teenage girls who’ve made mistakes, acted out of selfishness, and lost because of it. In this situation, neither really comes out looking like the best person. Quinn lied to Finn about who the father was, but it was out of fear and self preservation. Quinn had so much to lose, so much she was losing because of her pregnancy, she just wanted to do what ever she could to make it more bearable. Though Rachel telling Finn the truth was technically the "right" thing to do, she admits it was out of her own self interest. "I wanted to break you two up," she says. Obviously there's a difference in weight in their actions, Finn should have gotten to know the truth eventually, but it’s understandable where both girls were coming from and why they acted the way they did. Both of them acted selfishly, and it cost them the one person they were fighting for. Though before this Rachel had tried to reach out to Quinn and try to understand her, like in Vitamin D and Throwdown, this is the first moment they both felt they were truly on the same level.
Compared to their duet in Born This Way where even the distance between them when they sit in the choir room is greater. Quinn is wearing blue, a symbol of her adherence to the system. Quinn is the beauty standard, and we see in this episode how much she had to change herself to be that, how she feels like she benefits from it ("Being a hot 17 year old, you can get away with or do anything you want"), and how she upholds it herself (encouraging Rachel to use her nose as inspiration for her surgery, insulting Lauren for wanting to become). Meanwhile Rachel is wearing red because she feels as if she doesn't fit what's supposed to make a girl "beautiful", and the navy shows a part of her still longs to be able to meet the standard. Despite having loved her nose just the way it was, she'd been told by so many people she would look better if it was smaller and was made to feel insecure about it.
And similar to Quinn's blue and Rachel's red and navy, at the doctor's office Quinn wears a white top and Rachel wears a black cardigan and a striped black and white dress.
Even though both are victims of misogynistic beauty standards and actually feel really similar, neither really understand each other's POV in this moment. Especially Rachel towards Quinn, because in Rachel's mind, Quinn is everything she's not and she can't imagine how someone like Quinn could feel insecure like she does. Quinn is, if not the source, a representation of everything that has made her feel unpretty in life ("Every time I think I'm through, it's because of you" How she looks at Quinn when she sings "Oh so pretty" in the halls) And Quinn knows Rachel doesn't fully understand her ("I wish I could tie you up in my shoes, make you feel unpretty too"), but while she's felt exaclty like Rachel has when she was Lucy, knows how awful it is to feel unpretty, she's still very much subscribes to the system when she goes after Lauren for trying to campaign for prom queen in the following scene.
Still, I Feel Pretty/Unpretty is such a poignant duet, and despite the lack of understanding between the two of them and the difference of how they're treated in society for their looks symbolized by the contrasting colors of their clothing, Rachel and Quinn are connected through the same feeling of insecurity via the song.
