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{{trope}}
▲[[File:empty-piles-of-clothing_2233.png|link=Dragon Ball (Manga)|right]]
Stumbling across a discarded pile of empty clothing is a ''bad'' omen in [[Speculative Fiction]].
After all, those clothes used to belong to ''somebody'', and people don't just ... decide to take off and leave their clothes behind on a regular basis. (Sure, [[Naked People Are Funny]], but let's be serious here.) Therefore, discovering a pile of uninhabited clothing is a definite clue that something ... ''unnatural'' happened to its owner. The cause may be anything (disintegration, a [[Shrink Ray]], [[Baleful Polymorph]], [[Caught Up in
This can be considered a combination of [[No Body Left Behind]] and the inversion of [[Magic Pants]]: For example, if a character was subjected to a transformation into some kind of monster (say, a [[Our Werewolves Are Different|werewolf]]), they may have had to rip and shred their own clothing off during the process (unless the process did this all by itself). If the owner's companions should stumble across this monster standing near an empty pile of their friend's shredded clothing, they might mistakenly assume that the monster ''killed'' the person (unaware that said monster ''is'' that person).
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Compare [[Skeleton Crew]] or [[Smoldering Shoes]], which are similar visual hints that something ominous has happened to a character.
In the event that the owner was merely teleported somewhere else and is otherwise fine (sans clothing, that is), see [[Naked
{{deathtrope}}
{{examples}}
== Advertising ==
* In the new{{when}} Axe Anti Dandruff commercial called "Dusted," three lovely young women are instantly reduced to dust in the presence of a certain young man, leaving their empty clothes to flutter to the ground.▼
* Happens in a Koff Beer commercial called "cinderella," where a man walks up to the bar looking confused and carrying a single shoe. He sees a beautiful woman across the bar. She runs out and he chases her. She runs down an alley about half way. For some odd reason that isn't explained, she disappears in a flash of light. Her dress falls to the pavement covering one of her shoes. He picks up the exposed one and finds himself walking up to the bar looking confused and carrying a single shoe. It's a loop!▼
== Anime
* In ''Lily CAT'', a flesh-absorbing virus leaves only clothing behind after it assimilates crew members on board the ship.
* In ''[[
* Vampires that get staked in ''[[
* Kirihara in ''[[Darker
* Used in ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist (
* Occurs in ''[[
* In ''[[Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha
* In one work submitted for serialization in ''[[
* In ''[[
* In ''[[
* ''[[
* In ''[[
* In ''[[Baccano
* Combined with [[No Body Left Behind]] in ''[[Ranma ½
* This is what happens whenever someone dies of Troy in ''[[
* The dreaded Third Impact in ''[[
== Card Games ==
* In ''[[Magic:
** [http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=220265 Turn to Frog] uses the same basic concept in its art.
== Comic Books ==
* In ''[[Crisis
* In the ''[[Chick Tracts]]'' "Last Generation," this happens to the people who ascend in the Rapture.
* ''[[X-Men (Comic Book)|X-Men]]: The Hidden Years # 1'' "Once More the Savage Land": Marvel Girl is said to have passed onto the land of the dead, showing only her empty costume laying across a table.
* In ''[[
* Tiana emerges from her now-empty princess dress after kissing Naveen turns her into a frog in ''[[The Princess and
* ''[[
==
* ''[[The Far Side (Comic Strip)|The Far Side]]''. The last panel of [[media:Beware_the_pigeons_The_Far_Side_3012.jpg|this cartoon]]. Beware the pigeons...▼
▲== Films -- Animation ==
▲* Tiana emerges from her now-empty princess dress after kissing Naveen turns her into a frog in ''[[The Princess and The Frog (Disney)|The Princess and The Frog]]''.
▲* ''[[Rock a Doodle]]'' has the scene where the evil owl turns Edmund into a furry.
▲* ''[[Tangled (Disney)|Tangled]]'': Happens to {{spoiler|Mother Gothel}} at the end, as a result of Flynn finally cutting Rapunzel's hair.
* ''[[Star Wars]]''
** When Vader swings a killing blow at Obi-Wan in ''[[A New Hope]],'' the only thing left of Obi-wan is his robe and lightsaber. Vader stomps on the robe as if to make sure he's not just hiding in there.
** Later in the trilogy, Yoda disappears too.
* In the most recent ''[[Narnia]]'' film (''The Voyage of the Dawn Treader''), Edmund and Caspian find Eustace's smoldering clothes and assume something terrible's happened to him. It has, though not what they expect.
* Another variant in ''[[Night of the Comet]]''. After almost everyone on Earth goes outside to look at a comet, their bodies are reduced to a red dust, leaving their clothes scattered on the ground with the dust spilling out of them.
* The [[Tom Cruise]] remake of ''[[The War of the Worlds (
** Which, of course, was parodied by ''[[Scary Movie]]'': a bunch of rappers instead left their Bling behind.
* In the film ''Vanishing on 7th Street'', during a brief power failure, just about everyone in the city vanishes, leaving only their clothes.
* In the film ''The H-Man'', There is a radioactive blob going around absorbing people until only their clothes are left.
* In the film called ''The Moment After'', the beginning scenes show signs of the recent "rapture" event, showing piles of empty clothes littering the street and homes.
* In the new ''[[Alice in Wonderland (
* In the movie ''Unearthly Stranger'', A man's wife turns out to be a member of an invading alien race. when she tries to stop them, her people, they kill her by fading her out of existance while being held by him leaving only her clothes draped over his arms.
* In the movie ''[[
* In the movie adaptation of ''[[The Witches]]'', when someone is turned into a mouse, they leave their clothes behind. When this happens to Luke, the witches stomp on his clothes in an effort to kill him before he can escape.
* ''Proteus'' (1995) is a movie about an experiment gone wrong on an oil platform out in the middle of the ocean. The creature that is created absorbs the bodies of its victims until nothing is left but clothes, so it can mimic their form. It's based on the book called ''[[
* In the movie ''[[
* ''The Sword of the Valiant'', starring [[Sean Connery]]. An apprentice witch is turned into a red frog for being naughty by his character. The scene finishes as they converse while she is perched a top of her empty dress surrounded by her accessories.
* When Santa dies in ''[[The Santa Clause (film series)|The Santa Clause]]'', all that's left is his Santa suit, which Tim Allen must don.
* ''[[Harry Potter (
** In the first movie, Quirrell collapses to dust, leaving his clothes to fall empty to the floor.
** In the third film, Pettigrew leaves behind his clothes after turning into a rat. Which is weird, seeing how Animagi always have clothes on when they turn human and McGonagall's cat form is noted to have markings around its eyes which resemble her glasses. In the book, this occurs at a different point, also with Pettigrew. After he {{spoiler|framed Sirius for his death}} and turned into a rat, it's mentioned he left behind a pile of clothes and one finger. So... was he naked in the Shrieking Shack? Maybe they just conjure clothes when they turn human since [[A Wizard Did It|they are wizards, after all]].
* In ''[[O Brother, Where Art Thou?]]'', one of the trio's completely missing except for his neatly-arranged clothing (and a toad).
* Empty piles of bandages are all that is left after the protagonist of ''[[Mannequin]]'' is whisked across time and space.
* {{spoiler|Allison}} in ''[[The Grudge]] 2'' is pulled ''into'' her clothes, leaving them in a heap on the floor in front of {{spoiler|Jake}}. [[Subverted Trope|Kayako then manifests inside the clothes to menace her next victim.]]
* In ''[[Daddy Day Care]]'', the guys panic when they find Tony's empty Flash costume. In homage to this trope's prevalence in science fiction, uber-nerd Marvin even worries that he's been vaporised. Turns out he just doesn't want to be Flash anymore. [[Crowning Moment of Heartwarming|He wants to be Tony.]]
* Averted in ''[[Avengers: Infinity War]]'' and ''[[Avengers: Endgame]]'' -- everyone wiped out in the first film by Thanos' "Snap" turned to ash, clothing and all. And while we didn't actually see anyone come back in the second film, it's strongly implied that everyone came back with all their clothes, gear and equipment in place.
== Literature ==
* Used in ''[[Left Behind]]'' and other "Rapture" stories to indicate that the person in question has been taken by the Lord. Depending on the skill of the writer, this can still be pretty terrifying.
** Subverted in ''The Rapture of Canaan''. In a religious community, everyone believes that the narrator's illegitimate son is the second coming of Christ and thus figure that the Rapture is on the way. One morning, they find the leader of the community's pile of clothes lying around, leading the more extreme members to assume that the Rapture happened and they weren't taken because they'd sinned. Most of the other members assumed that their leader (who had recently had a stroke) just went crazy and ran off with no clothes on. {{spoiler|Turns out, that's just what happened.}}
* Used in ''[[The Time
* In ''[[The Indian in
* In one of [[Ellis Peters]]'s ''[[
* Averted somewhat weirdly in [[Stephen King]]'s ''[[The Langoliers]]'', where most of the passangers disappear from a plane when it crosses a time rip, and they leave behind watches, glasses, jewels, even surgical
* In a book called ''The Demon in Me'' by Michelle Rowen, Dark Witches are dissolved to nothingness very quickly when killed leaving only a pile of clothes.
* In the book ''Samantha Slade -- Confession of a Teenage Frog'', a girl tests a "formula for greatness" created by a small boy she babysits to help her win an election at school. It turns out that the stuff randomly turns her into a frog, so she is constantly having to crawl out of a pile of her clothes.
* In the [[Stephen King]] book series ''[[The Dark Tower]]: [[The Gunslinger]] -- Little Sisters of Eluria'', one of the sisters betrays the others to help Roland, The Lone Gunslinger. After they have gotten away and believe they are safe, they rest in a cave. But during the sleep, Roland hears tiny bells and awakes to find only the empty clothes of the woman who helped him. {{spoiler|She was turned into a bunch of tiny bugs by the sound of the bell.}}
* In the book ''True Angel: Hero'' by Laura Amy O'Hanlon, Kennedy kills her mother Ocran, who is a bad woman. When she dies, she vanishes instantly leaving her empty clothes to fall to the ground.
* In the book ''[[
* In the William Essex novel ''Slime'', the living, flesh-eating toxic waste dissolves and consumes its victims, leaving nothing but their empty clothes behind, without any blood or even any residue of itself.
** Speaking of slime, ''[[
* ''[[The Clone]]'' has an interesting variation. The titular [[Blob Monster]] is an [[Extreme Omnivore]] that absorbs both living and nonliving matter, but there are certain types of fabrics it won't eat. Nylon, for example, will get incorporated into the "clone" mass, but cotton will be rejected. Regardless, there's always ''some'' kind of empty clothes left after it gets done with someone.
== Live-Action TV ==
* ''[[
** In "Long Live Walter Jameson", an immortal man gets shot and [[No Immortal Inertia]] kicks in, reducing him to a pile of dust in an otherwise empty suit on the floor.
** "Queen of the Nile". A man suffers [[Rapid Aging]] and becomes dust inside his clothing.
* ''[[Star Trek:
* ''[[Star Trek:
** An example occurs when Deanna and her mother are transported to a Ferengi ship without their clothes.
** In "The Best of Both Worlds", after Picard is captured by the Borg, the search party looking for him on the Borg cube initially find only his uniform in a locker. They shortly thereafter find out he's been turned into a Borg himself.
* ''[[
** In the episode "Utopia", a crewman is vaporised by Particle of the Week Radiation, leaving only his clothes behind.
** In the episode "Partners in Crime", little creatures called Adipose are born from the fat of those who have been taking the enzyme used to create them. In a pinch, however, the Adipose can convert all types of cell tissue, resulting in this trope.
* In the show ''[[
* In the UK ''[[Being Human (
* ''[[
* ''[[
** When they [[Ascend to
** This is also what is left after an attack with the Dakara Superweapon set to destroy living matter, in season 10 episode "Conterstrike".
▲* In the new Axe Anti Dandruff commercial called "Dusted," three lovely young women are instantly reduced to dust in the presence of a certain young man, leaving their empty clothes to flutter to the ground.
▲* Happens in a Koff Beer commercial called "cinderella," where a man walks up to the bar looking confused and carrying a single shoe. He sees a beautiful woman across the bar. She runs out and he chases her. She runs down an alley about half way. For some odd reason that isn't explained, she disappears in a flash of light. Her dress falls to the pavement covering one of her shoes. He picks up the exposed one and finds himself walking up to the bar looking confused and carrying a single shoe. It's a loop!
== Newspaper Comics ==
▲* ''[[
== Video Games ==
* ''[[
* In the game ''Missing on Lost Island'' you and your girlfriend are attacked by goons. During the fight your girlfriend is shot by a strange ray gun and vanishes leaving only her clothes. Soon after, you are also shot with the same gun.
== Web Comics ==
* [[Trope Namer]]: In one strip of ''[[The Dragon Doctors]],'' an explorer investigating a science station exclaims, "Empty piles of discarded clothing! That's bad. That's always a bad sign!" He wonders if they've been disintegrated or mutated into monsters; turns out most of them overdosed on a [[Fountain of Youth]].
* ''[[The Good Witch]]'': The only thing left behind after a sinister minister sucks people up into himself to consume their life force.
* ''[[
* ''[[Girl Genius]]'' has [http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20141024 this] little flashback. While not quite empty, addition of what looks like glowing salt crystals where bodies should be doesn't really explain much.
== Western Animation ==
* In the ''[[
== Real Life ==
* When Harold Camping declared that [[Caught Up in
{{reflist}}
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[[Category:Stripping Tropes]]
[[Category:Costume Tropes]]
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