Limited Wardrobe: Difference between revisions

** The most notable example is Ana Lucia, who wore the ''exact'' same clothes her entire time on the Island...even after they reunited with the main group. The only difference was that sometimes she had the jacket, and sometimes she didn't.

** While most characters would change the wardrobe every few episodes, Frank Lapidus only got to change his clothes once over the course of ''three full seasons''.

** A slightly less extreme example of the straight version is Deanna Troi who (as one humorist put it) went from cheerleader to aerobics instructor after the first season typically wearing one of only two or three full body unitards throughout most of the series.

* Horatio Caine of ''[[CSI: Miami]]'' regularly wears a black or dark blue suit with a tieless blue shirt.

* Justified in ''[[24|Twenty Four]]'' where an entire season takes place in 24 hours, giving most characters no chance to change outfits between episodes.

* Justified for Annie in ''[[Being Human (UK)]]'': she's a ghost, and always wears the clothes she died in. However, there are subtle changes depending on her mood, etc. The benchmark seems to be her strength and confidence in herself; the stronger she is, the more form-fitting her outfit is, but when she's more scared and self-conscious, she develops more layers to hide in.

** Even if the white shirt is taken off for whatever reason, Jamie tends to stick to the black/gray/white color scheme. It was almost shocking to see him in bright red Nomex for one test.

*** Grant is very rarely seen in anything other than blue jeans and a black t-shirt.

* ''Get a Life'' had a particularly odd version of this: Chris's parents wore pajamas and robes at all times, in and out of the house.

* Patrick Jane, ''[[The Mentalist]]'', only seems to own the one set of clothes (brown shoes, dark blue suit, light blue shirt, no tie, blue waistcoat).

* Ben Matlock on ''[[Matlock]]'' always wore the same light colored suit in court. One episode even made fun of this when his daughter tried to get him to wear more modern custom suits for an episode.

* Justified in ''[[Battlestar Galactica Reimagined|Battlestar Galactica]]''. Most of the cast are military and wear uniforms, and the rest are pretty much stuck with whatever they happened to have in their suitcases when the Cylons attacked.

** Also the [[Self-Imposed Challenge]] to pick up a woman while wearing overalls.

* ''[[The Amanda Show]]'' always featured crazed fan Penelope Taynt wearing the same outfit. A closet gag in one episode revealed that she had many copies of the same outfit.

* Lampshaded and parodied in a ''[[Saturday Night Live]]'' skit. David Spade, Adam Sandler, and Chris Farley are playing three teenage girls at the mall. It briefly cuts to "Four Days Later", and they're in the exact same place wearing the same clothes. Spade's character mentions "I can't believe we're all wearing the same thing we did four days ago."

* If you're a regular viewer of ''[[Raising Hope]]'', you're likely to become familiar with the recurring pieces of clothing in the Chances' wardrobe, such as Jimmy's "[http://www.glarkware.com/adult/bigfoot-vs-abe-lincoln Bigfoot vs. Abe Lincoln]" and "[http://www.kotapparel.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=2_131&products_id=149 Mr. Natural]" tees. Justified in that the Chances can't afford a huge closet full of designer clothes.

=== Western Animation ===

* Many of the western animation examples that follow below are of programs that originally aired on Saturday mornings, where children are the primary audience. The reasons vary, but one example can be what's stated in the explanation: children find it easier to identify a character by keeping what the character's wardrobe identical from episode to episode (along with hairstyle and other identifying characteristics remaining consistent). The trope is typically broken only when it relates to the plot, such as the characters going to a formal party (for instance, a pretty college-age girl who always wears a green T-shirt with her high school's name printed across the upper chest and blue jeans would not be acceptable, so she wears an evening gown to the party).

** Shaggy and (obviously) Scooby didn't actually change notably. Velma's outfit is identical, what's changed is that now she's got a figure (compared to the original series, when her body could be described as "boxy" at best, although I prefer "Hazmat drum on legs".) The change probably had something to do with the fact that Linda Cardellini (who played Velma in the live-action movies) is hot and looks really good in a bikini.

** In some of the newer animated movies, all of the human characters but Shaggy wear a variety of updated clothes, although Daphne still always wears something violet and Velma still looks nerdier then Fred and Daphne. They lampshade their previous consistency when they get sucked into a video game a friend of theirs made of their adventures. The computer version of them are all wearing traditional outfits. Daphne says that they must not have seen their friend often enough because he hasn't noticed their fashion changes. Then everybody stares at the two Shaggys who are identical except for the color of their T-shirts and the real Shaggy says "why mess with a classic?"

** Funnily enough present-day Shaggy's outfit was identical to his original one, the virtual version was wearing a version from the 80's movies. You know, the ones with Scrappy.

** Used humorously in a [[Cartoon Network]] promo, where Mystery Inc. is waiting for someone in the van. It's Velma, barefoot, shuffling through drawers of socks trying to find orange colored ones.

** Subverted in ''Scooby Doo: The Mystery Begins'', the newest version of the [[Origin Story]], where everyone wears things that would be consistent with their role in a modern-day high school. [http://www.scoobyaddicts.com/Images/SDMysteryBegins.jpg See] [http://www.comicbooknews.us/IMGs/dccomics/Mystery%20Inc-green.jpg for] [http://www.dianechristiansen.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/gang2.jpg your][http://tvmedia.ign.com/tv/image/article/102/1021013/scooby-doo-the-mystery-begins-20090902014732070_640w.jpg self.]

** They also created force-field belts for this purpose, so that they could only slightly modify stock footage for those scenes, instead of having to animate the crew in the full spacesuits (which themselves only appeared in live-action once before [[Star Trek: The Motion Picture|The Motion Picture]]).

* In ''[[Daria]]'', nobody changes clothes, not even the Fashion Club members.

** This was also lampshaded when Dilbert was testing to see if his male coworkers could remember what they were wearing—they couldn't, despite Dilbert telling them that it's the same outfit they wear every day.

* ''[[Phineas and Ferb]].'' [[Lampshaded]] in one episode, when their mother tells them to pick out new clothes for the coming school year, and they enter and exit the store in less than two seconds because, as Phineas notes, "We have a pretty standard look." Then they each pull out the other brother's outfit from their bag, look at each other for a beat and switch them.

* Richie Foley in ''[[Static Shock]]'' especially, but probably many if not all of the characters. Richie is always wearing a green shirt with an orange stripe across it. He wears it so often I didn't notice that it changes to a hoodie eventually. What's incredible is that we're shown the inside of his closet once and see some other colored shirts, ''and he still picks the green-and-orange one''. Even when he becomes a superhero, he's still wearing green. Virgil/Static at least wears an outfit in the first episode that's never seen again; when he's not wearing his Static uniform, he's usually wearing the same T-shirt and jeans unless he's dressed for church or visiting a grave. The villains always wear the same thing, though Ebon and Rubberband Man have the excuse that it looks like their clothes have become part of them. Especially since Rubberband Man can morph his purple jumpsuit to look like any kind of clothing and Ebon could be naked and the audience probably wouldn't notice, he's so much of a black and purple morphing blob.

* ''[[Kim Possible]]'' is an interesting case in that it played this trope straight for the first two seasons and later on subverted it. Everyone wore the same outfits. As the quotes page shows this was lampshaded at times. But in the later seasons Kim started wearing different outfits, although other characters still wore the same thing.

* [[Beavis and Butthead]] only have two outfits each: the [[MTV]] look (Metallica and AC/DC t-shirts) and the merchandising look (Skull and Death Rock t-shirts).

* Lampshaded in ''[[Futurama]]'', when Fry initially moved into Bender's apartment, which an area of roughly three square feet, not counting the closet. He asks where can he hang his clothes, and Bender responds, "Listen, you've only got one set of clothes, and you're not taking them off while I'm around." This is actually justified, since Fry is from the past/present, all he'd have coming out of the cryotube was the clothes currently on him.

* Billy Batson in ''Superman/Shazam: The Return Of Black Adam'' is shown to have multiple copies of the same shirt and pants hanging in his closet.

* Almost everyone in [[Huntik Secrets and Seekers]]. The four proantagonists only change their clothes for a couple of missions, but other than that, they're always seen wearing the exact same outfit.

'''Buttercup''': What to wear?

'''Bubbles''': What to wear?

'''Mojo Jojo''': Oh! That's nice. }}

 

=== Video Games ===

* Peach, in ''[[Paper Mario (franchise)|Paper Mario]]'', is revealed to have a wardrobe of identical dresses. When Twink [[Lampshade Hanging|points this out]], Peach explains that they're actually all different. (When Mario enters the castle, it's possible to enter her room and have ''him'' check out her attire: he comes to the same conclusion as Twink.) The only times she's out of her dress are in ''The Thousand Year Door'': when she's in disguise, hidden by a shower curtain, [[Invisible Streaker|or invisible]].

* ''[[Persona 3]]'': A look into [[Artificial Human|Aegis's]] room reveals that contains little else besides innumerable boxes of ammo, her extraordinarily highly-advanced computerized "bed," and a closet with nothing but dozens of school uniforms in it. Justified in that she only goes out of the dorms for school and Tartarus (which happens at midnight), but considering they have only a six-day school week, you'd think there would be fewer uniforms.

* ''[[Leisure Suit Larry]]'' and his titular leisure suit. At least in the 7th installation ("Love for sale") he indeed has a whole wardrobe of such identical suits in his cabin.

* In the [[The Flintstones|Flintstones]] episode "Fred Strike Out", while taking a marriage test in a newspapaer, Betty asks Wilma if her husband notices if she buys new clothes. Wilma replies "What new clothes?".

* In one episode of ''[[Invader Zim]]'', Dib opens his closet to reveal a rack full of the same outfit.

* The titular character of ''[[Kick Buttowski]]'' lampshaded this on several occasions, one of them was the standard closet reveal.

** In another episode he gets all the kids (and adults) on his street to dress up like him... he's of course able to provide everyone with his standard outfit.

== Exceptions ==

=== Anime & Manga ===

** Technically, only the outfits were reanimated. There was underlying [[Stock Footage]] of Sakura sans clothing (with [[Barbie Doll Anatomy]], natch).

* In the first season of ''[[Sailor Moon]]'' we quickly see that (outside of their Senshi outfits and school uniforms) these 14-year-old girls actually have their own wardrobes, and they're quirky and individual. (Who would have expected that the Shinto shrine maiden would wear pink overalls and baseball caps when not on duty at the temple?)

 

=== Western Animation ===

* On ''[[As Told by Ginger]]'', the boys wear the same things, while the girls have an actual wardrobe: you can see the girls' varying fashions at [http://www.cooltoons2.com/ginger/ the show's official website]).

* To some extent, ''[[All Grown Up!]]!''

[[Category:Signature Tropes]]

[[Category:Costume Tropes]]