Much of the stress and anxiety of Shiva Baby is portrayed through the contrast between Danielle and her environment. The music and camera work discussed by Ozias, Scott, and Crouch is, of course, one component of this. The costuming and clothing are another, as Danielle’s clothing demonstrates her ability to relate to and blend in with her environment. If we consider objects, as Sara Ahmed does, to shape our relationship to ourselves and the world around us, it follows that this can be seen through the objects we keep with us, such as our clothing. In this way, clothing contributes its own message beyond what the individual wearing it intends, as it modifies how the body is interpreted and read. Though Danielle attempts to use her outfit—a white button-down and black blazer, skirt, and tights—to perform as a put-together future professional, it ultimately fails her. As Danielle’s ability to manage this facade fades, it is reflected through tangible changes in her clothing. The shifting of her collar, ripping of her tights, and the coffee staining her shirt are slight shifts in her clothing that ultimately allow the audience, and the other characters, to see this image dissolve.

When Danielle joins her parents, soon after having left her the apartment of her sugar daddy, Max, we see her preparing to enter the shiva through a series of questions, including: “What is my sound bite?” Though there are a few things that Danielle needs to be prepared for going into the shiva, perhaps the most pressing is “the sound bite”: she’s “finishing up finals” and has “got some interviews lined up.” The significance of appearing put-together and professional continues throughout the shiva, as her parents attempt to network for her and various people question her on her future. Her skirt and tights provide a more modest look, her blazer appears professional, and her shirt is tucked in neatly. Through her clothing, Danielle takes care with how she will be read physically, even buttoning her shirt up by one button when meeting her mom at the van. This contrasts with the first scene, where we see Danielle at her job as a sugar baby wear a different button-down (white with light black lines), removing it to wear a black v-neck tank top when her work is done. In both of these cases, the button down is a mark of Danielle being associated with a form of professionalism. 

However, this professional performance falters almost immediately, as seen specifically through the button-down. As soon as she enters the shiva, Danielle is first asked in detail about her post-grad plans, resulting in increasing tension and stress for her and the audience. Her collar, while even and neat prior, falls askew as she has confronted skepticism about her ability to be a professional. The position of her shirt continues to shift when she encounters Max, introduced to her by her father as a former coworker and potential future professional contact. In this scene, her performance to Max as a young professional falls, as her parents reveal to him that she is not going to law school and that they pay her bills. Afterwards in the bathroom, she plays with the collar of her shirt, ultimately removing it to take a topless picture of herself. When it becomes clear that she cannot maintain a professional performance, she reverts to erotic performance. She puts the button down back on and walks out of the bathroom, the collar now smoothed out and sitting back on her shoulders. She has redonned the aesthetic of the erotic professional.

“You have an open wound?”

In attempting to avoid Max after her professional image is compromised, Danielle is (forgive the pun) screwed, as her conversation with Maureen places her in such a position that she gets knocked into the wall, her calf and tights are marred by a screw sticking out of the wall trim. We then see Danielle in the bathroom, attempting to care for the wound and assessing the now ripped tights. These rips run up and down the fabric itself, showing the screw’s cascading effects—interesting to note given that it is just before this scene that her relationship with Max is starting to impede on her personal life and the cracks in their dynamic begin to show. Danielle’s response to both the tights and this revelation are, initially, to throw them to the side. She discards the tights into the trash and disregards the wound on her leg, then deciding to take the aforementioned topless picture. While not included in the shot, the removal of the tights in this scene contribute to the shifts in her outfit from professional to erotic, as her skirt no longer is as modest.

Danielle’s lack of tights in the following scenes is read by others to have a potentially erotic undertone, specifically once Danielle and Maya are in a space alone together. It is when Maya is attempting to assess the “scratch” on Danielle’s leg that both Maya’s mother and Danielle’s see them through the glass doors, both seemingly uncomfortable with the potential impropriety. Danielle’s mom expresses this discomfort soon after, accosting her for engaging in “funny business with Maya”. While Maya and Danielle were not engaging in any funny business, their moms do pick up on a non-erotic intimacy. Maya grabs Danielle’s bare leg not to be suggestive, but to demonstrate that a care for Danielle and concern that “scratch” is actually “an open wound”. Maya’s interaction with Danielle after she has removed her tights is not, then, erotic in any sense; rather, the tights removal allows for Maya to more clearly see the pain that Danielle is going through and her inability to confront it.

“Nice cum stain.”

As Danielle and Max both attempt to quickly retrieve his fallen phone—and her incriminating topless pics—Max’s coffee spills over the front of her shirt. While the group immediately fusses over the now crying baby, Danielle is left soaked in coffee. Her mom is the only one to recognize that her baby needs care, removing Danielle from the scene and attempting to deal with the stain using holy water. It is clear that Danielle’s mom knows that something is wrong and wants to fix it, but she cannot pin-point what the issue is. Just as Maya did in the playroom, her mother is trying to take care of Danielle by acknowledging her issues as serious, though Danielle still struggles to engage. She asks her mom if her mom is disappointed in her, yet she leaves before she can face her mother’s answer in full.

In contrast, Maya recognizes the stain as a mark of sexual indiscretion: “Nice cum stain”. This observation is cemented beyond the joke when Maya meets Max and sees the tension between Max and Danielle. She may not discover Danielle’s phone in the bathroom until the following scene, but it is in this moment that Maya begins to determine the root of Danielle’s current discomfort. While Danielle’s mother starts to see her pain, Maya begins to recognize the source and nature of said pain. Thus marks the beginning of the end for Danielle’s mental state.