Clothing Damage/Literature

In the reprints of the Doc Savage novels in the 1960s, artist James Bama painted Doc with his shirt ripped beyond repair from his continual fights, showing off his rippling muscles. There was even a contest run by the publisher called "Doc Savage Needs a New Shirt!"
In the Spellfire novels, Shandril frequently incinerates her own clothing during particularly intense battles. This is something of a Running Gag.
In Tanith Lee's Vivia this is all that is achieved by burning the title vampire at the stake. Ah well, at least it made her hide inside the flames for a while.
In Robert E. Howard's "Gods of the North", The Vamp is wearing a gossamer veil, and nothing else; escaping Conan the Barbarian, the veil tears loose.
Your Mileage May Vary on if it qualifies as Fan Service, but Duncan vomiting on Kelly and Jason in Mystery Team. Parodied with Charlie, who thinks they're just taking off clothes.
In Breaking Dawn, newborn vampire Bella gets mauled by the mountain lion that she's hunting. The mountain lion's claws can't damage her vampire skin, but that fancy dress that Alice put her in doesn't fare so well.
Deliberately done by Matilda in The Monk to tempt Ambrosio into sleeping with her.
"Another shirt ruined!"
Non-humans in the Dresden Files tend to wear clothes less durable than their semi-immortal selves. Hence, if one is hit by, say, a point-blank concussion grenade, they may outlive their clothes.
- Harry's amped-up protective gear in Changes, courtesy of Leah. After her magic dissipates (at noon, thank you very much, she's a Winter Fey), it scales back down to his regular old duster - and had sustained so much damage that one could have made a rather risque bikini out of the remains.
- Certain brands of werewolf suffer this regularly - and the Genre Savvy among them have caches of clothes that they try and make their way to in wolf mode. It makes returning to civilization slightly less awkward.
Non-fanservice example; a novelization of Dick Tracy shows that Tracy's hates are ruined on the job quite a lot. Fortunately, he has several spares, and saves the ruined ones for a friend who collects them.

Back to Clothing Damage