Evil Costume Switch



"Wonder Girl: You're not a villain.

Arrowette: I am. And it's gonna stink. I'm not going to get to win anymore. All my friends will hate me. Oh God... I'll have to get a tight, skimpy black leather outfit that shows off my cleavage. Oh God... I'll have to get cleavage."

- Young Justice

The most dramatic way to show that the protagonist has gone to The Dark Side is to give him or her a new costume. This outfit's coolness is sometimes inversely proportional to the coolness of the original, but is usually much cooler, more flattering, and (for females) bares more skin and curves, with a new hairdo to complete their Evil Makeover and look. A character who returns to the side of good usually ditches the entire costume.

Sometimes, a character will split into a Good Twin and an Evil Twin, with the latter wearing one of these costumes. If so, the Good Twin will often wear a more "good" version of the costume, with lots of white and, usually, gold. And, of course, if the character already wears dark colors, the switch is often to a creepy, funeral/ghost style of white.

This trope is arguably most prevalent among Superheroes, where outfits are iconic.

Why does this costume almost always look better than the hero's original? Why, that's because Evil Is Cool (either that, or because it was designed second).

If the newly evil look is entirely spontaneous, requiring no shopping of new clothes for the character, then it is the sub-trope Paint It Black.

Contrast Good Costume Switch. Sometimes overlaps with Sensible Heroes, Skimpy Villains. See also Adaptive Armor.

Anime & Manga

 * In the Galaxy Angel Beta manga based on Galaxy Angel Moonlit Lovers, goes evil, changing not only her costume, but the paint job on her ship.
 * Male (insert joke here) example from Get Backers: when Kazuki is Brainwashed and Crazy, he trades his over-sized androgynous t-shirts for a form-fitting black tank top with a cross like design. Amusingly, his shirt starts out tucked into his jeans, but ends up baring his midriff by the time the final battle rolls around. Also averted later on: when Juubei, Toshiki, and Sakura are Brainwashed and Crazy, they are given white uniforms--although Sakura's does show her cleavage.
 * One of the dubious appeals of a Dark Magical Girl is cute little girls in black leather outfits. See Fate Testarossa, who was actually created for the fanboys; however, Fate keeps the black when she turns good (though she does get a white cape once she grows up).
 * Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch had Sara, who, besides exchanging her orange frilled dress for a black diva outfit (in the manga; in the anime, she just wore her "civilian" clothes all the time), also changed her hair colour. This form, actually the first form in which we see her, is fanonically dubbed Black Sara.
 * The anime version of Prétear had changing  simple outfit for an incredibly elaborate black and purple one, complete with a demon larva logo, after  revert to normal at the end, though.
 * In Sailor Moon, Tuxedo Mask's much cooler "Prince Endymion" armor is first seen out of flashback when he is captured and brainwashed by the Dark Kingdom.
 * Sailor Mercury gets a costume upgrade when she becomes Dark Mercury in Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon. Her Transformation Sequence also improves, although that's more likely a case of the special effects crew honing their skills as the series progressed.
 * Little Chibi-Usa/Rini, whose face-heel turn involved transforming from a cute little girl into a twenty-something seductress in a slinky black dress. Apparently, evil isn't only cooler; it's also sexier. More, she even tries to seduce her own father.
 * Only in the manga. In the anime, she hates him and her mom and tries to kill them both.
 * A villain from the first season of Slayers suffered a full-body burn at the hands of Lina Inverse. He never bothers to remove the bandages (which make him look like a Mummy) until after his Heel Face Turn.
 * What's more, an evil priestess who wears a full-on black-leather-with-cleavage-and-spikes ensemble is shown in flashbacks wearing a white robe. Why she made the change, since she never admits to being evil, is uncertain.
 * During the Yu-Gi-Oh anime's Doma Arc, Mai Valentine's previously white halter top was replaced with a black one to reflect her new evil status. She also got a pair of thigh-high, black leather boots.
 * During the Yu-Gi-Oh! Battle City story arc, immediately after Malik's subconscious dark side takes over and he becomes even more villainous than before, in the very next scene, only minutes later, he has traded his lilac shirt for a dark purple one and a matching cape.
 * In the second season of Yu-Gi-Oh GX, the bad guy's team's color is white because of the religious overtones of his cause of destroying the world and rebuilding paradise, and all the brainwashed members of his cult wear white. In the episode when his first convert returns to normal, he swaps the white trenchcoat for his traditional black one -- and his normal outfit underneath inexplicably reappears along with it. In addition, Kaiser Ryo dons a black trenchcoat after his Freak-Out and Judai wears full-body armor after being taken over by his . And under, Johan wears a sleeveless outfit that otherwise resembles bondage gear, cranking up the Ho Yay with Judai to even more ridiculous levels.
 * A popular trend in Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's, as performed by both Carly,, and Misty, , each gaining new black outfits, black colored eyes, and facial markings.
 * gets a new black and white outfit after she becomes allies with, but since it shares many similarities with her old outfit, this troper didn't even notice until someone pointed it out to her...
 * This trope sort of shows up in the Ah! My Goddess! movie, when Keiichi is possessed by Belldandy's old mentor, Celestine. However, although the resultant flowing robes and markings are cooler, he also looks...significantly more righteous and 'good', with the evil only actually being visually hinted at by possessed-Keichi's facial expressions at times.
 * Shows up better in the Lord of Terror arc; whenever the LoT Body Surfs to someone else, they get an Evil Costume Switch. Egregious in Keichi's case, because the evil costume literally materializes out of thin air.
 * Not only that, he even grows his hair out and dyes it blond in a matter of seconds! The latter of which (dying it blond) only appears in the manga, though. In the anime, his hair is still black when it grows, but unlike the manga, mysteriously goes back to being short after the Lord of Terror is defeated and removed from Keiichi, although the costume still remains on Keiichi (cue his shocked remark at it in the manga).
 * The Angel Eater arc is also a great example: Belldandy, while implanted with the devil by Hild, gains a tight and revealing outfit and demon wings.
 * Hubbada hubbada!
 * In Princess Tutu, when, he gains a new costume that is all black with raven feathers..
 * In the anime version of Chrono Crusade, starts wearing all black when she falls under Aion's influence.
 * In Berserk, upon making his Face Heel Turn by making A Deal With the Devil to become, Griffith's outfit is a darker, more sinister and skin-tight version of the warrior armor that he wore with the original Band of the Hawk. Then he decides to get what he wants and uses less obvious clothing, reminiscent of his old armor, while becoming a Villain With Good Publicity.
 * When had her Face Heel Turn late in Mai-HiME, she stopped wearing her standard-issue school uniform for a short while and swapped it out for a dark purple kimono. She is seen wearing it again in her last fight with.
 * gets this treatment in Mai-Otome with her old Robe replaced with a suit of black plate armor.
 * 's Transformation Sequence after her Face Heel Turn gave her a black silhouette instead of a blue one. There were a few times when she didn't activate it on her own. Other than that,.
 * In Naruto, when is inspired to do a Face Heel Turn, he is wearing a different, black one-piece suit. This is compounded after the time skip, when he starts dressing like a gay pirate.
 * This may be more an example of Sexy Shirt Switch than it is an example of Evil Costume Switch.
 * Don't...Even...SUGGEST...that
 * When Cellaria in Soul Link reveals her true intentions as The Mole, she spends the rest of the series wearing a black, very Stripperific costume that stands in sharp contrast to the green military uniform she was wearing before. She also lets her hair down and crushes her glasses, apparently taking a page from the book of Bleach's.
 * During the Kodoku arc of Fushigi Yuugi, Tamahome wears a sophisticated black suit to match his nun-chucks, complete with a blue bandanna and belt to replace his red belt, as well as a red earring that, apparently, helped with brainwashing.
 * When Roll is infected with a virus in Megaman Battle Network to turn her evil, she gains fangs, a whip, and six inch heels, in addition to becoming more...shapely. Um...she's, like, twelve...
 * Code Geass gives new costumes to  once they undergo their  Face Heel Turn late in the series. Of course, these new outfits are predominantly white.
 * in Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann has to change  dress for a tight, black outfit after being taken over by
 * After his Face Heel Turn,  in Bleach changes his outfit by throwing out all black elements.
 * Aizen and Gin get new outfits as well, as does Orihime after Aizen forces her to make a truly Sadistic Choice.
 * Also inverted in Bleach, where good guy Ichigo wears black, and his inner hollow has a white version of Ichigo's clothes and even a white sword.
 * Juvia of Fairy Tail, while under control, gets a much more revealing outfit.
 * The manga of X 1999 has this when  makes his Face Heel Turn and switches his white coat for black.
 * When  is Brainwashed and Crazy in Corrector Yui, her Corrector uniform turns black.
 * Katsumi Liqueur of Silent Moebius obtains a black cloak and tight leather clothes when possessed by the demonic sword Medium.
 * in Soul Eater.
 * In Fullmetal Alchemist, switches his brightly colored Xingese clothes out for an all-black ensemble with a Badass Longcoat upon.
 * In episodes 21-23 of Tiger and Bunny,
 * Shakugan no Shana,  He even gets a new hairdo aside from a black armor.
 * In Queens Blade Rebellion, several members of the old cast get costume switches, but Elina's and Ymir's especially reflect their change from being on the side of the "good guys" to being on the side of the "bad guys". Goodbye tiger-striped amazoness costume with blue bra-armor for Elina, goodbye pink and white doll dress for Ymir, hello black leather with metal protrudings and red and grey off colors. Claudette also switches out her amazon costume in favor of a regal Woman in White getup.
 * Transformers Armada features Wheeljack (no relation to the more famous Transformer with the same name). Originally a white Autobot, he performed a Face Heel Turn and joined the Decepticons, and the next time he was seen, he'd started "wearing" a black sports car as his alternate mode.
 * In Mobile Suit Gundam 0083 Stardust Memory, changes into the uniform of the newly established Titans team. If you've seen Zeta Gundam, you know what this means.
 * In Mobile Suit Gundam 0083 Stardust Memory, changes into the uniform of the newly established Titans team. If you've seen Zeta Gundam, you know what this means.

Comics

 * Perhaps the most memorable and well-known example is the Black Costume from Spider-Man, which was actually turning Peter Parker evil. Since then, when a normally colorfully adorned superhero goes bad, they typically favor lots of black or other dark colors. Note that this wasn't in the original comics. Originally, the suit was found by Peter during the Secret Wars series and solely gave him a power boost with no downside. Later, it was revealed that it was making him more tired as the alien fed off him. He actually wore the suit for several months before he saw Reed Richards about it, which was where he learned it was alive and trying to bond with him. Every retelling since the original has compressed the arc by making the suit amplify aggression, both to get Venom on the scene and to get Spidey back in the reds-and-blues as soon as possible.
 * The Marvel comic New Mutants has a cover depicting the team as evil/good variations. In a time-slipped story, two NMs see the others as future villains possessed by Amahl Farouk or members of the Hellfire Club. Basically, 1980s colored punk hairstyles, leather and denim cut-offs, chains, tattoos, and smoking. However, when girl-werewolf Wolfsbane reverts to her human shape, she is wearing a rather nice green evening gown.
 * The Green Lantern of the Silver Age, Hal Jordan, became the evil entity known as Parallax, who traded his power ring for reality manipulation and control over time, becoming murderous and vengeful with grief and self-doubt.
 * Hal Jordan eventually became heroic again in the series Final Night, by reigniting Earth's Sun and sacrificing himself.
 * The Spectre then ejects Parallax from Hal's body and soul and chooses Hal as his new host.
 * A partial occasion of this is Rose and Thorn, a DC Comics character with a dual personality. Rose wore modest outfits, and her alter ego, Thorn, if not evil, was definitely more mischievous and dark. She, of course, wore the quasi-Stripperiffic outfit.
 * Mary Marvel was traditionally treated as the "kid sister" of the DC Universe, and wore a white tunic-and-skirt combo. When she lost her powers, hijacked Black Adam's, and went evil, she traded in her traditional costume for a black, body-hugging number with a mini-can-that-even-count-as-a-skirt.
 * Note that the trope image is not this costume. Mary once ran into a kinky evil twin in an alternate universe, which was Played for Laughs.
 * Later, when she goes full-on evil in Final Crisis, she trades the black miniskirt for an even trashier latex outfit. This one comes complete with thigh high boots, a cleavage window, and a shaved head (except for a pair of pink pigtails).
 * In Justice Society of America, she gives Billy the same powers, and he becomes Captain-Marvel-As-Biker-Punk. See it here.
 * At one point, Susan Storm of the Fantastic Four was Brainwashed and Crazy, courtesy of Psycho-man and Hate-Monger, which prompted her to start calling herself Malice, Mistress of Hate, use her force-field powers in new and unpleasant ways, and walk around in a black leather dominatrix outfit covered in spikes.
 * This was also an episode of the animated series. She mopped the floor with the three members pretty easily, too.
 * A notorious example is Phoenix's switch to Dark Phoenix in X-Men, which was marked by her green costume turning red. (Otherwise, it looked exactly the same; Dark Phoenix is so evil that she does not need to be Stripperiffic!) When a later host of the Phoenix showed up in the red costume, her teammates were immediately alarmed; she explained that she just didn't like green.
 * There are subtler changes in the Phoenix's costume that have been ignored in later Phoenix stories: when she first gets her powers, the phoenix symbol on the costume's black neckpiece is small, about the size of the phoenix symbol that nowadays appears over Rachel's eye when she uses her powers. By the time she starts acting Anti-Hero-ish and being unapologetic about it, the phoenix symbol fills the neckpiece. When Wyngarde's More Than Mind Control pushes her over the edge and the red suit debuts, the neckpiece is gone, the phoenix symbol now being so large that it covers her torso. Later artists forget, and the good Phoenix's chest symbol always fills the neckpiece.
 * The current Supergirl, Kara Zor-El, was hit with black kryptonite in Supergirl #3, causing an evil duplicate to suddenly emerge from her body. Said evil clone materialized from her body already wearing a black costume. Apparently, evil kryptonite clones have black clothing as part of their very nature. This trope was also lampshaded an issue later, when evil Supergirl switched her costume with the original's at superspeed, in an attempt to fool Batman and Superman as to who was the evil clone.
 * This was based on an old Silver Age story in which red kryptonite created Satan Girl, who likewise wore a black outfit. Her version had a cowl and no S-symbol, because her identity was originally a mystery.
 * The Matrix-Supergirl was a shapeshifter, who would periodically go Brainwashed and Crazy or just plain crazy and shift her costume into something sleeveless with spiked bands around her arms.
 * Rare example of a male character going Stripperiffic: during the X-Men event Inferno, Madelyne Pryor, having just undergone a Face Heel Turn (into her own Stripperific costume) and now calling herself The Goblin Queen, brainwashed Havok into becoming her Goblin Prince. His duties included wearing this costume. According to X-writers at the time, this particular ensemble was supposed to symbolize the evil in his soul.
 * The evil in his soul looks like a go-go boy? That must be the wimpiest evil in anyone's soul I've ever seen.
 * Oh, you wanted evil? Sorry, that's the costume that shows off the Ho Yay in his soul.
 * Basically it was made by throwing razor-sharp glass at his normal costume until it looked suitably evil. Madelyne shouldn't have bothered.
 * While not specifically an evil costume change, Speedball post-"Civil War" dropped his bright orange, yellow, and blue spandex in favor of a new name, "Penance" (dubbed "Bleedball" by fans), and an accompanying outfit that was black and red with metal armor and spikes. LOTS of spikes. On the INSIDE.
 * Which served a dual purpose: he needs to feel pain in order to activate his incredibly destructive powers, and
 * Nightwing, during his fake Face Heel Turn, wore a red and black costume instead of his typical blue and black one. No one was fooled for a second.
 * And an evil future Nightwing, called Deathwing, has a costume that includes shoulder spikes, a plunging neckline, and a nipple ring.
 * The red and black is coming back for the reboot. Fans are not happy, citing that he either looks like his evil self, or Terry from Batman Beyond...also, the red lenses in his mask make him look even more evil. What happened to Dick being the kid Bruce "got right"?
 * Looker, from DC's Outsiders, was known, among other things, for having a spectacularly ugly costume . When she became a villain, that pink, black, white, and powder blue eyesore was mercifully dropped.
 * In the Star Wars Expanded Universe comics taking place after the movies, Luke Skywalker undergoes Sith apprenticeship in order to explore the Dark Side . Naturally, takes it upon himself to make a "better", more Darth Vader-like artificial hand for Luke, and he gets an ominous-looking cape and glowing eyes. His costume is very Vaderesque; see it on In the Blood.
 * A reversal: an issue of Star Wars Infinities, that verse's For Want of a Nail series, has Darth Vader, after going through the same betray-the-Emperor-to-save-his-child thing as in the movie, survives, possibly because Leia was there too. At the very end of the comic, we see him again, as one of the good guys...in a costume basically identical to the old one, just white and with a little more cloth, a little less armor. Considering how little space was left, this might just have been shorthand for "Hey, Vader's part of the Rebellion now!" since readers might not have known otherwise.
 * The costume is memetic now and has its own action figure.
 * When Gambit of the X-Men was made into Death by Apocalypse, not only his hair turns white and his skin blue-black (say it with me: Uhhh!), but he finally gets the memo that black cloaks are cooler and wears a black bondage cloak instead of his usual, shabby trenchcoat.
 * Phil Foglio's What's New With Phil and Dixie has Dixie undergoing a literal lampshaded costume switch, complete with the Most Common Superpower.
 * Happens instantaneously to Fea in Yamara, when Dark Natasha sneaks up behind the heroes and slip a Helm of Opposite Alignment over her head. Next panel, Fea's gone from ditzy faerie to black-clad biker chick, complete with viper tattoo.
 * Fea's toad familiar tries to do a costume switch of his own, with sharp false teeth and a spiked leather collar, but is told by Fea not to be ridiculous.
 * In the third issue of Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash: The Nightmare Warriors, it's revealed Maggie (Freddy's daughter from Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare) is either Brainwashed and Crazy or simply The Mole (her Face Heel Turn has yet to be adequately explained). After revealing her True Colors, she lets her hair down, loses the glasses, and trades in her power suit for a tight, black, biker-esque leather outfit that's pretty much the definition of Absolute Cleavage. Seen here. Also, she gets twin gloves like her father's, though they have fingers tipped with razorblades instead of knives.
 * It was more Anti-Hero Costume Switch, but during Knightfall, when Azrael donned the mantle of the Batman, he started out when the classic suit. The warning signs of Azrael's unfitness to wear the costume of Batman came when he decided to switch the normal gloves for clawed gauntlets that fired shuriken, then ditched the classic costume all together for a blade-sporting armor (and, briefly, a utility belt on his leg in addition to the normal one). By the time the story ended, he'd altered the armor as he went more and more off the deep end, with the Batman-blue being replaced by Azrael-red as a result of his own actions (mostly, setting off a flamethrower after being soaked in diesel).
 * Every dead character who returns as a Black Lantern in Blackest Night gets an evil version of their old costume.
 * A Young Justice storyline involved time changing so the YJ team lacked the three founders and was much more Chaotic Neutral. Arrowette wore exactly the costume from the page quote.
 * Another Teen Titans example: when Raven had a Face Heel Turn due to Trigon's influence, she started wearing a bikini under her cloak. She then implanted demonic souls into several Titans, including Changeling (Beast Boy), who wore a version of his red-and-white costume in red-and-black, Matrix-Supergirl, who reverted to the sleeveless spiky outfit mentioned above, and Deathwing, also above, who started wearing a red shirt and a leather vest with even more spikes.
 * The Plutonian from Irredeemable changes his costume after his Face Heel Turn from a white suit with a red cape to a red suit with no cape.
 * When Daredevil finally snaps in Shadowland, he begins wearing an all-new black costume with longer horns, red lining, and wrist blades. When Spider-Man shows up to call him out on the whole psychosis thing, he lampshades this whole trope.
 * In the Sonic The Hedgehog comic, Fiona Fox originally wore a one-piece jumpsuit. After her Face Heel Turn, she traded it in for a black pants/tank top ensemble. She also either tied up or cut her hair - either way, it's considerably shorter as a villain than as a Freedom Fighter.
 * In All Fall Down, gets one of these in his new identity as the Modern Prometheus.

Films -- Animation

 * Jafar from Aladdin, during his Villain Song near the end, when he's tossing Aladdin around and becoming an all-powerful sorcerer/genie. In that one song, he changes his costume style about three times in less than two minutes. In this case, his evil costume becomes even more evil.
 * Interestingly, his powerful wizard form is wearing his old outfit, so he switches outfits to power up (becomes sultan) and then switches outfits back to power up again. The only difference in the costumes is that the hat and shoulders are more pointy and his snake-staff's mouth is open, representing that his magic is now aggressive like a snake's bite, as opposed to passive, like a snake's hypnotic eyes. Then, he becomes a genie and really changes clothes.

Films -- Live-Action
"Venkman: That's a new look for you isn't it?"
 * While possessed by The Dark Side in Spider-Man 3, Peter is actually seen going into a clothing store and buying more black.
 * In Legend, Mia Sara's character, Princess Lily, does a Face Heel Turn and gets a whole new outfit plus Gothy makeup and, I think, a hair dye job. If the Lord Of Darkness (Tim Curry) could come up with all this while living in a cave complex, he's probably now in Japan selling to the EGL crowd and rich-rich-rich.
 * In Hancock,
 * That's more of an Adrenaline Makeover. As stated, she was more pissed off than evil.
 * According to the director (commentary),
 * In Star Wars, most of the Jedi knights dress in earthy-colored (brown, green, ivory) natural fabrics. From Attack of the Clones onward, Anakin Skywalker wears...black leather. The Jedi have got to be the least genre-savvy people in the entire galaxy.
 * Anakin actually wears very dark brown robes in the second movie, which become black after he kills the sand people.
 * They even lampshaded this in the toys; you can buy lightsabers that switch colors for when you "turn to the dark side".
 * Yes. Anakin Skywalker gets sexier and sexier the more evil he gets. Very odd that none of the Jedi seem to notice as he goes off to kill the Jedi younglings that he is wearing black, has put on eyeliner, and has glowing yellow eyes! I mean, shouldn't Obi have said "Hey, great new makeover, but it sort of reminds me of someone..."
 * Obi-Wan wasn't present for that part, but none of the other Jedi there noticed and -- now that we mention it -- Obi-Wan wouldn't have noticed even if he was there.
 * Inverted with Luke in Return of the Jedi, though, he dressed in black after becoming more good and Jedi-like.
 * A very literal Evil Makeover occurs to Helena during Mirror Mask's most Nightmare Fuel-ish scene.
 * When Dana Barrett becomes Zuul in Ghostbusters, her outfit suddenly becomes a diaphanous dress which shows lots of shoulder and leg.


 * When Sam Rockwell's character does his Face Heel Turn in the Charlies Angels film, he goes from a "shy, rumpled guy" look to a slick, black, and stylish outfit.
 * Robert the Bruce in the movie Braveheart wears a very bulky and intimidating "dark knight" armor after betraying William Wallace in favor of King Edward "Longshanks".
 * At least he has a reason to do it - namely, obscuring his identity from the Scottish forces.
 * In Warriors of Virtue,.
 * Exaggerated and Justified trope when it comes to Tron Lines. A Program's circuitry color identifies its alignment, identity, and position in the system.
 * The Stinger of Green Lantern

Live-Action TV
"Willow: [The black leather corset] is a little binding. I guess vampires really don't have to breathe. (Notices own cleavage) Gosh, look at those."
 * In the fourth series Blakes Seven episode
 * And how can we forget Vampire Willow from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, with her spiffy threads? (Not to mention, her black ink job in the climax of Season 6.)


 * In the episode where Vampire Willow first appears, there was also Vampire Xander, with his leather pants.
 * Similarly, Angel's switch to Angelus on Buffy the Vampire Slayer or Angel was usually accompanied by wearing a lot more leather. A lampshade was hung on this in season 2, when the possibility of Angel turning evil made Lorne consider the great benefits of Angel in leather.
 * Really, any time someone mainly wears leather in Buffy, they're going to be evil.
 * Other than Buffy herself, who has worn some pretty hot leather pants while still kicking evil's collective ass.
 * Heroes has Eden, who, after being revealed as a mole, spends a lot of time wearing black leather.
 * There's also Sylar, who apparently got contacts when he went insane and decided to go around stealing people's brains, not to mention trading in his unfashionable knitwear for a more stylish, predominantly black wardrobe. In one of the alternate futures, he is shown wearing glasses again when he becomes good and stops using his powers.
 * Maybe he stole a superpower that gave him good vision? And in the future, he decides not to use it?
 * Lexx had the Brunnen-G, who wore very bright colors. When Kai, last of the Brunnen-G, became an assassin for His Divine Shadow, his clothes became a blackened version of the same outfit. This was slightly subverted when Kai.
 * Well, he is still undead. The dead do not need colors.
 * And then, he was dressed in those clothing, as opposed to choosing himself. The whole point of making undead assassins was that The Order tried (and mostly succeeded) in taking everything from their new servants, including their memories and sense of identity. This was supposed to be doubly ironic in Kai's case, being the one predicted to destroy His Shadow, and turned into a tool of the villain, while his purpose was supposed to be removed, along with his identity (this last part mostly succeeded). It didn't go too well on the destiny part, though...
 * Parodied in How I Met Your Mother. Barney's backstory reveals that he became the womanizer he is today due to being rejected by one woman. Classic Evil Costume Switch style, Barney shaves, aggressively pulls on his sleeves, then the camera pulls away to reveal his new, entirely black suit.
 * In a Charmed Mirror Universe, the gals' alternate versions are dressed in black. In an episode where Piper temporarily becomes evil, her look changes to what Television Without Pity's recapper aptly described as "Dungeon Mistress Barbie".
 * In the first season of Who Wants to Be a Superhero?, when the Iron Enforcer became the Dark Enforcer, Stan Lee gave him a new (almost entirely black) outfit.
 * At one point in Red Dwarf, the ship and its crew acquire dark and light versions of themselves. The Light Crew, predictably, dress in white and gold, while the Dark Crew look like every stereotype you've ever seen of goth S&M freaks.
 * Especially Rimmer.
 * Also, when Rimmer is infected by the holo-virus, just LOOK at his clothes!
 * A less extreme version occurs in an episode of Star Trek Voyager, where the holographic Doctor's data back-up boots up in an alien museum and finds that history has painted the Voyager crew as villains. Their uniforms already being mostly black, the main difference was the inclusion of black leather gloves, although Chakotay had a larger tattoo on his face and Seven was still Borg.
 * The undershirts were black instead of the usual grey, as well.
 * In the original Mirror Universe episode, the Imperial Starfleet wore a more gaudy uniform than the originals, with gold sashes and lots of decoration. Kirk's uniform top was a metallic vest, and female crewmembers wore midriff-exposing vests. The Deep Space Nine mirror episodes went for the leather.
 * In an episode of Lois and Clark, where Clark suffers Grand Theft Me, his hijacker dresses him in leather pants and a black lycra shirt. Quoth Lois: "Change out of that stupid outfit, honey."
 * In Smallville, Clark wears blacks, greens, and reds when evil instead of his usual blues, reds, and yellows. Subverted in season 9, where his superhero costume is black and silver, but he is still good.
 * Possibly the subtlest is Londo on Babylon Five, whose clothing slowly turned darker and more militant over the course of the first two seasons, without ever changing the basic style.
 * Lampshaded by Vir: "...there's no question the ambassador is going through changes. He even LOOKS different."
 * In an episode of Flash Gordon, Dale is possessed by a witch and dons a vampy red dress and lipstick. Confusingly for the viewer, this makes Dale look like Princess Aura, who has similar facial features to Dale, but is distinguished by...her red dress and lipstick.
 * In the BBC's Robin Hood, both Allan and Isabella start wearing copious amounts of black leather immediately after their Face Heel Turns. Lampshaded by the sheriff after Allan shows him several of Robin's secret routes into the castle: "Upgrade this boy to leather."
 * During the show proper, Farscape's Sikozu has a bright orange outfit and long ringlets. When she comes back in The Peacekeeper Wars, after a long time hanging around Scorpius, she has a black leather outfit, lots of eyeliner and tattoos, and short, spiky hair.
 * Not that he wasn't already kind of evil to begin with, but once the Dean gives him the go-ahead to take out the remaining players, in the Community episode "Modern Warfare", Senor Chang changes to an outfit similar to that worn by The Killer.

Music

 * The premise of the song "Want You Bad" by The Offspring.
 * This happens in The Wall--the 1980 tour, the 1982 motion picture, the 1990 Berlin show, and (mostly) the 2010 tour--when Old Pink turns into "Dark Lord Pink". In the original tour, Roger Waters wore an over-the-top, rhinestone-studded trenchcoat; in the movie, Bob Geldof got an Oswald Mosley-esque makeover; in Berlin, RW wore a Field Marshal's costume; and in 2010, RW sometimes uses nothing more than black clothing with a crossed-hammer armband, but at other venues, the costume is a bit more elaborate.

Pro Wrestling

 * Hulk Hogan's Face Heel Turn to Hollywood Hogan in WCW involved a switch from his trademark red-and-yellow tights to black tights with lightning airbrushed on them. He also started wearing black and white feather boas, and white-rimmed sunglasses, and grew a 5-o'clock shadow and dyed it black (which looked rather odd and sinister next to his platinum-blond hair and mustache).
 * Many WWE superstars who do a Face Heel Turn or a Heel Face Turn also get a change in intro music and outfit. I'll never forget Dark Angle (one of Kurt Angle's Face Heel Turns).
 * Sometimes, their new outfit is trunks, if they previously wore long tights as a face.
 * Triple H followed both examples in 1999 by shortening his hair, switching from colored long tights to black trunks, and trading his DX music for the Corporate theme and, eventually, "My Time". Even his mood lighting changed (from DX's green flood, Corporate red to his signature ominous multicolored flicker).
 * John Cena traded short trunks for shorts in his gimmick change from generic heel to delinquent white rapper.
 * Jericho traded his signature long tights for briefs in his 2008 heel turn.
 * One of the more blatant ones was when Billy Kidman was on the fence; the previous week, he wore white trunks. That week, he wore trunks that were half-black, half-white. The next week, after his Face Heel Turn was complete, he wore black trunks.
 * The Undertaker's "death", after Kane helped Vince McMahon beat 'Taker in a buried alive match, caused The Undertaker's transformation from Biker to Super Human Zombie after his several-month-long absence. In his absence, he seemed to have grown taller and got more buff. He also grew out his hair, got a Van Helsing-esque suit, and mastered the ability to roll his eyes back after he took off his hat in a slow, dramatic fashion. He also got a new "signature move", which included him popping right back up after being allegedly knocked out, then proceeding to win the match.
 * That actually was all part of the Undertaker's gimmick in the 1990s (when he was depicted as a Wrestling Zombie Gravedigger). They downplayed this as time went on. By 2003/4, they stopped pretending the Undertaker was undead, instead portraying him as a Badass Biker. Fans actually preferred Zombie Taker, so the Undertaker's "death" and return to his original gimmick was to address the complaints.
 * In CHIKARA, when Shane Storm went bad, he went from this to the Rudo known as STIGMA.

Tabletop Games

 * In Warhammer 40000, Space Marines who turn to Chaos get Spikes of Villainy on their Powered Armor, and also have different-looking backpacks for some reason.
 * A GW redshirt once told me it had to do with maintaining the delicate cooling system when you hide in an area of space where the laws of physics themselves are the playthings of insane gods. I believed him.
 * Most Chaos Marines are, due to the time-warping effects of the Eye of Terror, about ten thousand years old, so their armor is fairly antiquated compared to the loyalist Space Marines.
 * That doesn't explain why all the traitorous warbands in the latest Chaos book have the same backpack as the original Traitor Legions, even though no loyal Space Marine is issued one.
 * To fit in.
 * Though, due to the difficulty of manufacturing power armor in the Eye of Terror, about the only way for a Chaos Marine to get a suit of Terminator armor is to kill the previous wearer.
 * They don't. There is no canonical backpack shape, but the models assume that the player is making CSM from one of the "original" nine traitor legions, hence the fancy backpacks. The best way to make "newly-evil" Chaos Marines is to buy a Tactical Squad and a Chaos Space Marine squad and combine the pieces to make 20 men, thus keeping the mostly Imperial armour but with a few new Chaos goodies..

Theater

 * At the start of the second act of Gilbert and Sullivan's Ruddigore (in productions that don't bump it up to the first act curtain), Robin Oakapple, following his Face Heel Turn at the end of the first act, reappears as Bad Baronet Ruthven Murgatroyd; originally, his faithful steward Adam was to have changed his name to Gideon Crawle to suit his new appearance as the evil henchman, but this name change was undone during the original run except for one line that Gilbert missed.
 * In Wicked, after love makes Nessarose evil, she switches from her neat blue-and-white school uniform to a Victorian-style all-black dress. Her wheelchair also gets far more decadent as her power corrupts and turns her into the so-called "Wicked Witch of the East".
 * Averted with Elphaba, who's switch to her soon-to-be-trademark black hat and robe heralds the budding friendship with Glinda and becoming accepted at the school.

Video Games

 * As soon as he reveals his Big Bad status, the Big Bad of Jade Empire trades in his robes for a black suit of armor.
 * From some of the flashback cinematics, it's clear that this is very similar to what he wore before he started pretending to not be a Manipulative Bastard.
 * Common in the Star Wars verse, where a shift to the Dark Side is indicated by a switch to black robes and a red lightsaber (if you remove Dark Bastila's robes in the first Knights of the Old Republic, you'll find she's also changed her underwear). The facial features also tend to become more twisted. Inevitably, female Dark Siders look like Goth dominatrixes, while Dark Side males look like George Romero rejects.
 * Kreia does this, as shown in a cutscene right after the Exile arrives on Malachor V.
 * Word of God reveals that Atris and her handmaidens were meant to change their white robes to black after Atris' Face Heel Turn, but it seemed implausible for them to keep black robes around.
 * The main character's underwear will change too, but oddly, the Dark Side underwear is actually more conservative, basically consisting of a full body stocking. Those Siths. Such prudes...
 * In the recently-scrapped Star Wars Battlefront sequel, there was supposed to be a Sith version of Obi-Wan Kenobi. Of course, there was a costume change that gave him a lot of similarities to the Emperor.
 * In the Rumble Roses games -- all-woman wrestling titles -- every character has a Face and Heel persona. Most of the heel costumes follow the pattern, except for the characters that start as heels. Race queen Reiko becomes a biker chick, cowgirl Dixie turns into a Stripperrific cop, and conversely punk-rock schoolgirl Candy Cane becomes a strait-laced student/cheerleader.
 * In La Pucelle: Tactics, the character Eclair develops a "Dark" side, which appears to wear nothing but black lingerie, especially when compared to the dress she normally wears.  gets one also, scoring a new outfit similar to the one Succubi wear.
 * In the Heaven's Feel scenario of the Fate Stay Night game, Sakura drops her rather plain pastel outfit and goes with a form-fitting black dress with red trimmings instead. Since the dress is made of pure magic, she's technically naked.
 * In the same scenario,  also gets one of these upon going bad.
 * from Lunar: The Silver Star starts out as a simple White-Haired Pretty Boy in dark blue robes, but upon, he gets a brilliant suit of armor with a fancy cape and shoulder plates large enough to rival those of Il Palazzo.
 * Let's not forget, going from wholesome girl to evil slut upon.
 * In Neverwinter Nights, the heroic paladin Aribeth turns into an evil blackguard about halfway through the game. Since her original costume was pretty revealing anyway, all she has to do is Paint It Black and get a wilder hairdo.
 * To be fair, the blood-red light emanating from her sword helps.
 * Anders in Dragon Age II changes from his old, light blue-grey and light brown robes into a black and grey costume once he loses any hope of improving the mages' lot peacefully.
 * In Disgaea, gets a new red-trimmed outfit after becoming a demon. She also gets a pointy tail and little demon wings to go with it.
 * Inverted in The Force Unleashed, since the story is meant to be about redemption. As the story progresses, Starkiller gradually changes from a very menacing set of Sith robes to a set of white, yet still badass Assassin's Creed-esque robes. Of course, this is the canonical version. The player can choose to change their costume throughout the game. This is paired with a switch from red to blue lightsaber color when you "defect".
 * In Jeanne D Arc, all of the Transformations tend to look somewhat evil. Additionally, when doffs  traveling clothes and wears a dark, menacing suit of armor. Subverted when
 * Schirach in Romancing Sa Ga, especially her Human form.
 * Most of the signature heroes in City of Heroes have Mirror Universe Evil Counterparts who typically favor darker colors and spikes and such. The two exceptions are the Dark Is Not Evil Infernal and already deeply disturbed Malaise; tellingly, their Praetorian counterparts share their names as well as their costumes.
 * Prince Arthas, in Warcraft III, after taking up the soul-stealing sword and becoming evil, also manages to pick up armour with a lot of skull motifs and a long purple cloak. Also, his skin and hair turn deathly white. Apparently, he's able to stroll right back into his father's throne room looking like this without raising anyone's suspicions.
 * In the "bad ending" route of Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles, Richter's girlfriend, Annette, gets turned into a vampire/succubus by Dracula and ends up wearing skanky black succubus lingerie.
 * In the second Castlevania Pachislot game, the dancer/sorceress Angela gets turned into Dracula's minion and goes from wearing white and blue frills to a barely-there red-and-black leather one-piece. Being Ms. Fanservice, both her good and evil outfits are actually equally Stripperific.
 * In Resident Evil 5, is dosed with Psycho Serum and ends up the Brainwashed and Crazy Dragon of series Big Bad Wesker. She ends up with blonde hair and wearing a purple-and-black leather catsuit.
 * In Tales of Symphonia, whenever you see  after The Reveal, his outfit has switched from.
 * In Arc Rise Fantasia, when it's revealed that, she swaps outfits so that she wears a shiny red dress that looks like it's weaved out of oversized ribbons, and gets a funky tornado-like head-dress to match.
 * In Paper Mario the Thousand Year Door, Princess Peach gets one when she is possesed by the Shadow Queen. Her pink dress turns black, and the blue jewels turn red. She has a cape and a collar that goes behind her head in a fan like way. Also, her skin is white and she has purple/pink eye shadow.
 * Fawful from the Mario and Luigi games gets one of these when he becomes Dark Fawful. After the wardrobe change, he gets Evil red eyes, a Cackletta-esque cape/cloak that is dark purple and grey, his black jumpsuit is the same, but instead of a belt, it has the image of the dark star on it. His headgear has also changed to fit his new look.
 * Humorously played in the fifth episode of Sam and Max Freelance Police Season 2. Just before
 * In Tales of Monkey Island, when usual attire is replaced by
 * The Wii version of Punch Out takes this trope Up to Eleven in Title Defense Mode. It takes every single opponent in the entire game, gives them all a badass makeover (with a few exceptions; Glass Joe will never, ever, EVER look badass), and makes them all horribly, HORRIBLY harder than they are normally. Some of the makeovers have practical purposes, namely, Glass Joe's headgear and King Hippo's...uh...manhole cover, but for the most part, they just make them look different and distinguishable from their weak counterparts, not to mention Darker and Edgier.
 * In Kingdom Hearts, when usual clothes are transformed into a shirt that looks like it's made of black and red muscle tissue with a Heartless emblem on the chest and what looks like a hula skirt.
 * In Chain of Memories, changes between the two costumes depending on how much of a Jerkass he's being to Sora at the moment.
 * Ace Attorney has
 * The Pokémon Mystery Dungeon series games has Dialga change from a blue dragon with green stripes and white spines to a black dragon with red stripes and gray spines after turning evil and becoming Primal Dialga.
 * Happens in Pokémon Ranger a few times.
 * Fire Emblem 3 provides a strange inversion, probably induced by technical limitations - when Emperor Hardin is defeated and freed from Gharnef's control, his facesprite changes from his malevolent red emperor garb to the simpler white turban and cloak he wore as a playable ally earlier in the game before he dies. This can probably be chalked up to a desire to save on space by not making a portrait that'd be seen for all of ten seconds before never being used again; the DS remake, which doesn't feature the part with Hardin as an ally, fixes this by giving released!Hardin a variation on the emperor garb portrait with the Glowing Eyes of Doom removed, instead.
 * Lufia Curse of the Sinistrals: when a modest dressing priestress in white, transforms into the Sinistrals of Death, Erim, she suddenly wears a black dress sporting Absolute Cleavage.
 * Nie R:
 * During the transition from Final Fantasy IV to Final Fantasy IV the After Years, Kain switches from his blue armor to a dark, red one. Kain is already an Anti-Hero, but the sequel changes his sprite to emphasise he's turned into a bad guy

Web Comics

 * Parodied in this strip of the The Non-Adventures of Wonderella.
 * A small example occurs in Megatokyo, where Miho's Endgames character is not seen wearing Miho's synonymous hair ribbons until just after betraying Pirogoeth (he/she is even seen putting them in shortly after this happens).
 * In Order of the Stick...well...really now, what else would you call this? (spoiler warning)
 * Let's see, Power Glows, Glowing Eyes of Doom, a new Black Robe, Evil Hair, an Evil Laugh, a different text bubble design, sharp, pointy teeth, and Ominous Latin Chanting to boot. Damn, Rich Burlew went to town on this one.
 * Somewhat inapplicable in that the change is not deliberately done by the character, though, making it pure Paint It Black rather than an Evil Costume Switch.
 * The trope is lamp-shaded by Haley when she first sees the new outfit and immediately (and fairly accurately) assumes some sort of alignment shift is in effect. Belkar dismisses the trope and makes her feel guilty for her assumptions (but then secretly reveals he also believes the trope is in effect, but is pleased to see it happen).
 * Eight Bit Theater: after White Mage concludes she spreads nothing but pain and misery in her wake, she trades her traditional white robe for a gray one. Of course, being the most good character in the entire comic, she isn't very good at it.
 * Also, Evil Princess Sara.
 * Technically, Erfworld's Wanda Firebaugh was already evil before, but in a sympathetic, Villain Protagonist way, and she rocked the Evil Is Sexy look. In Book Two, however, she started dressing as a hideous Rocky Horror reject with pale makeup and big, puffy hair with a Skunk Stripe, which has significantly reduced her Draco in Leather Pants status among fans.
 * She later changed back into something sexier.
 * Homestuck:
 * of Girly goes from  to...well see for yourself.
 * In El Goonish Shive, during the period in which Ellen was trying to be evil, she wore a suit to school.
 * When Kendra chooses to become a villain in To Prevent World Peace, her halo grows spikes and her magical girl costume disappears completely. So, of course, she has to get a new outfit made by a villain fashion designer.
 * In Drow Tales, starts off the series in a fairly conservative suit of armor that leaves only her face exposed, but after  switches to a red and black outfit with very low pants, a bare midriff and a Cleavage Window.

Web Original

 * Played straight in Doctor Horribles Sing Along Blog
 * The Nostalgia Critic showed his desire to conquer the world in Kickassia by dressing up as M. Bison.
 * To a lesser extent, The Nostalgia Chick went from normal clothes and acting disinterested to dressing like Sarah Palin and trying to kill the Critic every five minutes.
 * From the Global Guardians PBEM Universe, when Fury suffered a Heroic BSOD and turned from a superheroine into a crazed criminal-killer, she changed her costume (which was already Stripperific) from a red, midriff-baring halter and tight pants to a black thong bikini-and-leather jacket combination.
 * Generator can't resist playing with this trope in the Whateley Universe every time she gets to play a supervillain in the holographic simulations. The first time, in Team Tactics class, she goes for the Dragon Lady look with a cheongsam. In "Ayla and the Mad Scientist" when she is asked to play 'the team member who has gone Dark Phoenix' in the holographic simulation, she goes with glowing black eyes, Kirby Crackle, and a black and purple minidress with Absolute Cleavage.

Western Animation

 * The "Justice Lords", Alternate Universe Knight Templar versions of the Justice League, all wore redesigned costumes with much more black and monochrome. Except for Justice Lord Superman, that is, whose costume was mostly white, reflecting his more black-and-white view of morality than "our" Superman.
 * Note that Wonder Woman's famously Stripperiffic outfit becomes extraordinarily conservative for her evil version, either inverting the trope or reflecting the moralizing Knight Templar philosophy.
 * Used extensively in Teen Titans:
 * Robin: when he dons the costume in order to catch Slade, entering Knight Templar territory. And again, when he, wearing another black costume with armor plates and a spikier mask.
 * Raven is briefly seen with a red cloak and the four eyes of Trigon - never a good sign. This one shows up again in the comic; a red-skinned Raven is seen when she's under the influence of her demonic father, and a white-cloaked version appears after she's purified of said influence. Inverted when a Malchior is teaching Raven dark magic, whereby Raven's robes turn white.
 * When Cyborg goes undercover in the Villain School, he designs a "villain" costume for the occasion, along with his disguise (as himself without cybernetics): himself with rock skin.
 * The rather late origin story episode featured Starfire with a much blacker, more armored costume, along with an alien and less-than-girly princess crown. She was a villain for about half the episode, during which she was very badass.
 * Beast Boy...doesn't actually get an evil costume, unless you count his Shapeshifting into The Beast, then yes, all the Titans had an Evil Costume at some point or another.
 * Terra also gets an evil costume switch or, rather, two.
 * In Kim Possible, when the HenchCo made Mood Reverser was accidentally used on Ron, he simply continued to wear a fictional villain's costume for the rest of the episode. His villain outfit was, in fact, quite lame. His regular clothes turned to a Fonzie-style badass look. Also, his skin turned blue as a result of getting an infusion of blue-skinned Dr. Drakken's evil, while Drakken's reverted to pink fleshtone.
 * During the second appearance of the Mood Reversal device, there wasn't any costume switching. However, when a person was hit, they would glow Red for evil or Blue for good. The only real change that could be noticed was that evil was less cowardly and Ron Stoppable was competent.
 * Shego began dressing in a Teacher uniform after being hit by the Moodulator. Good Costume Switch?
 * Averted with the Face Heel Turn in Shego's backstory; her current costume is the same one she wore when she was part of Team Go.
 * When Drakken manages to put Kim under Mind Control, she wears one of Shego's outfits.
 * In The Venture Brothers, makes the switch following his Heel Face Turn with Phantom Limb.
 * In South Park, Butters adopts the name Professor Chaos and a costume when he wishes to do evil.
 * In The Spectacular Spider Man, Doctor Octopus' first battle against Spider-man is fought in the civvies he wore during his Freak Lab Accident. The fight is soon cut short when his tentacles run out of power. He plans to get another, longer-lasting power source, but when he next confronts Spidey, he's also undergone quite the Evil Makeover, having donned a Badass Longcoat and replaced his Nerd Glasses with equally Badass goggles.
 * Done straight, then reversed in Avatar: The Last Airbender. For all of Season 1, Zuko wore fairly standard villain wear for the show. Lots of militaristic red, Shoulders of Doom, the whole enchilada. Season 2 had him "on the fence", so he wore mostly nondescript clothes, in the greens and browns of the Earth Kingdom, whose members we had seen both as heroes and villains. After his in the season finale, we see him wear the full black-and-red military garb of Fire Nation royalty, the same as Azula. After he, he gets a red-and-gold costume that isn't nearly so intimidating...though it still looks cool.
 * Also, Ozai in the finale, kind of. In this case, it's less an Evil Costume Switch than an Eviler Costume Switch.
 * Code Lyoko: after being possessed by XANA and falling in the Digital Sea, William gains a fully evil (and skintight) costume of black and red spandex with what is sometimes described as a corset (maybe to symbolize his servitude to XANA). His sword also gets a full change, with a prominent Eye of XANA and evil-looking black veins all over.
 * Danny Phantom has an evil future. The costume change, however, comes some time after becoming a Fallen Hero. Lesson to villains everywhere: don't ever remove your archrival's emotions/humanity. Girls just love that hypnotic voice of his, though.
 * Sam also gets not one, but two evil costumes. One is a rather Stripperiffic Poison Ivy-ish affair, the other very elegant. Her voice work during it is very much Azula.
 * Although his good civilian clothes are only shown in flashbacks, Vlad also gets one. He was a geek in college, now he's a suave debonaire billionaire in a fancy black suit.
 * Subverted in Barbie and The Diamond Castle. The villainess does not get an evil costume switch, as her regular clothes were already evil enough. However, she does transform her flute to make it more evil-looking.
 * Played straight in the illustrated Novelization, where she wore a white tunic before turning evil.
 * In Gargoyles, when Elisa went undercover to infiltrate Dracon's protection racket, she changed into a low-cut belly top and leather jacket and trousers to seem more criminal-like.
 * An episode of The Fairly Odd Parents had Timmy wishing to do the opposite of whatever his parents tell him to do in order to escape their overbearing nature. Unfortunately, they tell him to "be good", which immediately transforms him into a sinister villain with a long black cloak, classic top hat, and an evil glint in his eye.
 * Princess Jasmine gets one of these in The Animated Series, thanks to Abys Mal and a flower that causes Laser-Guided Amnesia. In her new identity as "The Scourge of the Desert", she wears a dark-blue version of her usual clothes, a hooded cape, her hair in a ponytail (just like how she wore it when she was Jafar's slave in the original movie), and wields a whip. Interestingly, after getting her memory back, she keeps the outfit (and the whip), wearing it as a Spy Catsuit when Aladdin & Co. infiltrate Mozenrath's city.
 * When Barnacle Boy turns to The Dark Side, he gains a villainous cape and his overall appearance grows darker.
 * When Shockwave from Transformers Animated is still disguised as, he is mostly colored blue and gray, but when all of the Autobots find out that   is actually Shockwave, he actually changes to purple and white (the same colors as G1 Shockwave) to show that he is indeed a Decepticon.
 * Happens quite a bit in Beast Wars, along with Good Costume Switch.
 * When Megatron made Rhinox into a Predacon, his brown hide turned purple and the gold plating turned silver.
 * Subverted in the first episode when Dinobot goes from being a Predacon to a Maximal, then played straight a couple of seasons later when.
 * Justified in season 3 when Black Arachnia turns from Predacon to Maximal due to the Transmetal driver.
 * In Transformers Prime, when  is turned into a Decepticon after Megatron erases his memories, his normally red-and-blue color scheme is replaced by that of a magenta-and-purple one.
 * When Grune from ThunderCats (2011) reveals himself to be a traitor, he discards his Thunderian armor and dons gold raiments emblazoned with the symbol of Mumm-Ra.
 * When Princess Luna becomes the evil Nightmare Moon prior to the first season of My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic, she actually transforms into a demonic black-and-purple winged unicorn. When she is redeemed in the second episode, she becomes a less sinister dark purple winged unicorn.
 * Jane Porter has actually dressed as Queen La at least twice in The Legend of Tarzan, when La turned her evil.