Clothes Make the Legend: Difference between revisions

The line can be hard to tell, but one good way to know it's this trope is with [[Long Runners]] that stick with the same basic outfit for a character. Even if there is a temporary change, they revert because it turns out the audience prefers that outfit.

 

 

Compare [[Iconic Item]], [[Memetic Outfit]], [[Limited Wardrobe]].

 

Not to be confused with [[Clothes Make the Superman]].

 

== Anime & Manga ==

*** Except his first one was more red than orange.

** Vegeta's Cell arc armor is pretty iconic as well despite him going through the most costume changes over the course of ''Z''. If there's any promotional material including him, nine times out of ten he will be wearing that outfit.

* Ash's hat in ''[[Pokémon (Anime)|Pokémon]]''. Later they did change it, but he always has a hat, and is the only major character to do so.

 

** This works so well that when one Phantom was incapacitated and his sister had to cover for him, people not informed thought it was still him. Despite the, er, fairly apparent differences in height and weight. Oh, and ''breasts''.

* In a manner similar to above is Batman, whose black cloak and pointy-eared cowl have allowed a number of people to pass as the genuine article, including Dick Grayson (now a 'Batman legacy' character).

** Also [[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshaded]] during the "[[Knightfall]]"/"Knightquest" arc when Bruce is replaced by Jean-Paul Valley, whose methods take a turn towards uncharacteristic brutality and Commissioner Gordon expresses suspicions that it may be a different "Batman"; the character he's discussing this with points out that it's a bit naive to assume there's only ''been'' one Batman up to that point.

* To follow up on Batman, his partner Robin has also taken to this ever since becoming a [[Legacy Character]] in his own right. Every Robin has worn some variation of Dick Grayson's original ensemble; the red chest piece (with 'R' insignia), yellow cape, occasionally some green thrown in (more evident in the earlier versions), and tied together with a classic domino mask.

* [[Halloween (Film)|Michael Myer's]] pale white mask and mechanics jump suit.

* A tuxedo is not a common outfit, but try having [[James Bond]] not wear one at least once in one of his movies.

* [[A Nightmare On Elm Street|Freddy's]] striped shirt and fedora is probably only ''slightly'' less of an icon.

* Although [[Star Wars|Darth Vader]] needs the suit to live, it probably fits this trope better than any outfit in the films series.

 

== Literature ==

* [[Doc Savage]]'s jodhpurs and torn white shirt. Eventually, every cover depicted him wearing them. Cover artist Boris Valejo even had to rip a new shirt once after the original shirt was lost, using old cover paintings for reference. Ironically he forgot that he was facing into the painting and the new shirt turned out to be a mirror image of the old one.

* [[Where's Waldo|Waldo]] wears blue jeans, a shirt with red-and-white horizontal stripes, and a red-and-white hat with a red bobble, the latter two intended to make him stand out in a crowd.

** In ''[[The Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess (Video Game)|The Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess]]'', the clothes seem to have become somehow intrinsically linked to the bearer of the Triforce of Courage. The Link of that game only starts wearing those clothes because when he was restored from his wolf-form for the first time, they appeared on him in place of his work clothes. The Light Spirit who restored him indicated this as a sign that he was [[The Chosen One]].

** ''[[The Legend of Zelda Spirit Tracks (Video Game)|The Legend of Zelda Spirit Tracks]]'' takes a slightly different approach, in that the cap and tunic have become the uniform for the royal guard (presumably in honor of the ''Wind Waker'' Link that helped found this kingdom). This game's Link starts wearing them when he has to dress up as a guard to sneak Zelda out of the castle.

* Mai Shiranui, from ''[[Fatal Fury]]'' and ''[[The King of Fighters (Video Game)|The King of Fighters]]'' suffers from this, mainly due to her status as [[Ms. Fanservice]] in both games. They attempted a change of outfit in the ''[[Fatal Fury]]'' series, but it only lasted two games and she returned to a variation of her original outfit after that. In ''[[The King of Fighters (Video Game)|The King of Fighters]]'' only minor changes were ever made to her clothing, and only in the ''Maximum Impact'' she get to wear different ''alternate'' outfits, which are still heavily based on her traditional one.

** ''King of Fighters'' native Iori Yagami has only had one outfit for about 10 years (from his debut in 1995 to ''The King of Fighters XI'' in 2005): a black jacket over a long white shirt with red pants that are tied at the knees. In ''The King of Fighters XII'', as part of his character's change away from flame powers to purely slashing attacks, he also got a new set of threads (the same black jacket but now over a short red shirt and a pair of white pants).

 

== Western Animation ==

** Ariel is an exception, because she is either shown in her [[Princesses Prefer Pink|pink dinner dress]] or her [[Seashell Bra]].

** Belle is too, appearing about as often in her more demure blue-and-white dress, or pink dress and [[Pretty in Mink|fur cape]], as she does in fancy gold one.

** It is much less ubiquitous in comic books than you think. Ever since [[Floyd Gottfredson]], the ''first'' guy to seriously write [[Mickey Mouse Comic Universe|Mickey Mouse strips]], Mickey has been shown wearing just regular clothes in comics. (Gottfredson started a trend where Mickey is just a regular action comic hero who happens to be a [[Funny Animal]]). The original outfit is generally acknowledged by making his standard outfit red trousers and a white shirt, with whatever other clothes fitting the occasion (he generally wears a green baseball cap outdoors when casual, a [[Badass Longcoat]] and fedora outdoors when formal, etc.). When he started wearing the original shorts in recent European-sold Disney comics, fans cried [[Dork Age]].

** Donald's sailors outfit has changed subtly over the years. His hat was white until around 1943, as were the stripes on his collar and sleeves, and the buttons and sleeve stripes disappeared for a brief period during the 1950s.

* Characters in ''[[Daria]]'' all have a signature outfit. Lampshaded in one episode when Daria looks through her closet to "decide" what to wear. Her closet contains 3 sets of the same green jacket, brown shirt, and black skirt...and nothing else.

* Perhaps it's because he's a Mack truck, but [[Transformers|Optimus Prime]] is always red-and-blue, with the truck's windshield acting has his pectorals. Except for [[Beast Wars (Animation)|Optimus Primal]], of course. Likewise, it's quite common for Megatron to either have some sort of Fusion Cannon or other type of weapon on his right arm, or a strangely bucket-shaped helmet.[[Legacy Character|Other examples exist in the Transformers francise]], such as Rodimus Prime (always red-with-orange, with flame decals on his chest and large spoilers for his alt-mode) or [[The Faceless|Shockwave]] (a black plate with a single red LED light for a face), a yellow [[Kid Appeal Character]] (Bumblebee) or Cheetor, etc.