Memetic Outfit

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    You instantly know who this is, but how often has he actually worn this outfit?

    An outfit that, for whatever reason, sticks in the mind of the audience forever. This can happen even if it's not intended to be embarrassing or funny, but simply a strange fashion choice that is never commented on by anyone else... except fans. The character might never wear it again, nor even anything like it. Maybe the wardrobe people or artists were just bored one day. There's just something unique, inappropriate or just plain odd. Very rarely, the producers are aware of it, and it may become a sort of alternate outfit if a similar situation lets the makers bring it out again.

    It can be even more noticeable in a character who rarely wears anything else. Nice Hats and Cool Shades are especially prone to this.

    Sometimes the popularity of these outfits make the writers have the character wear the outfit as much as possible. Then you have Clothes Make the Legend. Being remembered for lack of clothing would (probably) be Everybody Remembers the Stripper.

    Compare Iconic Item. If what the character is called is itself derived from the outfit, in the Person with the Clothing.

    Examples of Memetic Outfit include:

    Anime & Manga

    • JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Everyone knows Dio Brando by his yellow jacket, yellow pants, black sleeveless undershirt, and heart-symbol headband.
    • Naruto
      • Naruto's orange jumpsuit with the blue stripes and white collar.
      • As well as his Part 2 outfit with the black shoulders and collar. Double points with his Badass Longcoat.
      • Sakura's pink skirt thing and biker shorts.
      • Sasuke's outfit with the light purple "butt-bow" thing and the shirt revealing much of his chest...
        • More so his black part 1 outfit.
      • The Akatsuki's oufits: Cloak (w/Red Clouds) + Straw hat + Hat wind chime thing.
      • The standard Shinobi uniform, especially the Konoha flak vest, definitely counts. Bonus points to Kakashi for his Mask Power, making him one of the few to actually resemble a ninja.
    • Haruhi in Ouran High School Host Club is first seen by the viewer in a plain, ugly sweater and glasses combo with messy hair. This is explained by a long string of coincidences and Haruhi's overall disinterest in fashion. Fans responded to the unflattering outfit she wears in the series by dubbing her "Haruhi Potter."
    • Bleach: Urahara's hat. Also the black outfits they all wear, and Byakuya's weird... hair thingies.
    • Sailor Moon
      • That has got to be the most memetic outfit ever. She even has Memetic Hair.
      • There's also Sailor Mars's civilian outfit, a miko priestess outfit that is in some ways more recognizable than her Senshi uniform.
    • The Tokyo Mew Mew animators weren't so good with costume design, so most clothes that didn't first appear in the manga got weird looks. One recurring outfit, a white and lime green hooded top given to the resident bad boy, stuck out so much (both for the color scheme and for being out of character) that it appeared again, in a Tantei Gakuen Q ending theme, worn by his same-voiced Expy.
    • Dragon Ball Z
      • The fandom is never going to let Vegeta live down the bright pink "Bad Man" shirt. The outfit was such an odd choice, the dub adds a line with Vegeta being defensive about it. It wouldn't have been quite as memorable if it hadn't been for those retina-searing yellow pants and green shoes that went with it.
      • Similarly, although it only happened in one episode, Piccolo in a bright yellow t-shirt and a baseball cap is a pretty well-known image... which is understandable, considering it's damn funny. Especially since he could not possibly have been stuck for things to wear, since he can create clothing from thin air.
      • Goku, Gohan, and Goten's signature orange gi is pretty memetic itself. Also, the battle armor with shoulder wings/spandex underwear that the Ginyu Force, Nappa, and Zarbon all wear.
      • Gohan also gets remembered for his Piccolo-inspired outfit during the Cell Games, although this may have been exacerbated by the fact that time slowed down even more in this arc than it did in the Namek arc, to the point that Gohan and Cell fire Kamehamehas at each other at the end of one episode and are dueling with Kamehameha for the entire next episode.
      • Speaking of the episodes with Vegeta in pink, Goku's Yardrat costume was an interesting lapse in fashion sense.
      • Where's Muten Roshi's turtle shell on this list? Seriously, it's the only one here that seems to have actually had a function.
    • Mahou Sensei Negima
      • Setsuna was once made to wear a cute alternate Catgirl maid costume to make her more attractive to the crowd watching her fights. She started wearing it later for no reason other than being popular with the readers—the Pactio can be registered with a variety of outfits for battle. Maybe Konoka liked it...
      • Negi's Opera Gloves got not small attention, especially that with his chinese clothes they gave a filling similar to Zettai Ryouiki.
    • Haruhi Suzumiya's Sailor Fuku, complete with yellow ribbon, is so universally known in the anime fandom, you'll get wry looks if you cannot immediately recognize the color patterns like here.
    • Neon Genesis Evangelion
      • The plug suits are extremely iconic.
      • Likewise, Gendo's white gloves and amber shades as a part of the "Gendo Pose" meme.
    • Code Geass
      • Lelouch vi Britannia's Nice Hat after he became Emperor of Britannia started a fanclub... before the episode aired. That entire outfit he wore is also quite distinctive, having been described as a cross between pope and old-fashioned sea captain, resulting in him being drawn in it whenever he shows up in new fan art, as opposed to his old Zero outfit, which was already quite memetic by itself.
      • Not to mention CC's Bondage-riffic jumpsuit from the first episode. It's basically the only thing she wears until about halfway through the first season, at which point Lelouch got tired of seeing it and bought her an entire wardrobe. She puts it back on when Lelouch gets his sweet hat after usurping the throne.
      • I'd like to say that Suzaku's Lancelot outfit and all of the Knight of Rounds's outfits are some.
    • Sakura from Cardcaptor Sakura has her rubber Catgirl Meido outfit, among others... In fact, in the series the same outfit is never used twice, which is done on purpose.
    • Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann
      • Kamina's Cool Shades.
      • Also, Simon's own star-shaped ones.
      • And Yoko's infamous "Starboobs" outfit from the last arc.
      • Kamina's ragged Badass Cape also.
      • Also, Simon's pleather Badass Cape. Just as (in)famous would be the leather man-corset haramaki and posture collar that came along with it.
    • In Minami-ke, Kana's "I AM BOSS" T-shirt led to her Fan Nickname.
    • The mechanized Bonta-kun outfit probably gets more attention than most Full Metal Panic! characters do naturally. It is, after all, a super suit in a fairly hard science (for mecha combat) universe.
    • Knuckles' wonderful, wonderful hat from the Sonic the Hedgehog The Movie OVA.
      • It even carried over to the Alternate Timeline comic story Mobius: 25 Years Later, where it's finally complemented with a form-fitting gray sleeveless jumpsuit (with his trademark white chest swoosh on the front), Crocodile Dundee-esque leather vest, cowboy belt, and brown leather boots. It's Better Than It Sounds, enough so that, in the Furry Fandom at least, it's become a Memetic Outfit of its own.
      • It appeared briefly in the regular timeline too, as a piece of clothing once worn by an ancestor of his. According to one letters page, the reason he never wears it is so it won't get damaged.
    • Utena from Revolutionary Girl Utena wearing a boy's school uniform is part of the concept of her character. The red biker shorts have no such excuse, though, and probably get more attention from the fans.
    • Trigun: The distinctiveness of Vash's yellow-tinted shades with the zig-zag bit and the red leather coat is probably only overshadowed by Wolfwood's massive Cross-Cannon.
    • Ryoma's outfit from Getter Robo Armageddon was supposed to be a reference to Shinichi from Maju Sensen, another series by Ken Ishikawa, but the popularity of the OVA led to the iconic outfit being attributed to him instead.
    • Yu-Gi-Oh
      • When Yami Yugi wears his jacket over his shoulders. Though he doesn't keep this look up for many episodes, it seems to be incredibly catchy among fans. It's probably his most memorable and unrealistic outfit until Millennium World, where he actually dresses like a pharaoh.
      • Kaiba is first seen in a purple trenchcoat, and is also seen in a school uniform at some points. But his white trenchcoat from the Battle City arc is the outfit everyone remembers.
      • Bakura went through something similar; He's been in school uniforms, rather fetching cricketing jumpers and a few other outfits including a Black Cloak/Badass Longcoat, but it's the blue-and-white striped tee with the impossibly light sky-blue shirt from the Battle City Arc that everyone remembers and cosplays with.
      • These two designs--The Hero in a jacket colored blue or red, The Rival in a Badass Longcoat colored white or black—have been carried over to the spin-offs. Jaden has his Slifer Red jacket while Chazz and Zane have their longcoats, black for Chazz and initially white and later black for Zane. Yusei has his blue jacket while Jack has his white trenchcoat. As of Zexal they're back to red for the jacket color with Yuma. His initial rival Shark has no longcoat and just wears a jacket (though still purple to draw back to Kaiba)...then Episode 13 introduced Kaito Tenjo as a new rival, with two longcoats—one white, one black.
    • Detective Conan: Conan Edogawa's suit and bowtie. He did had a case of Limited Wardrobe earlier, but even now he has a larger variety of clothes, his suit and bowtie not only means him, but also the entire meaning of Great Detective. In modern comedic manga, changing to Conan's suit means s/he's going into Great Detective mode.
    • Axis Powers Hetalia
      • England, in a single strip and most likely not in his right mind, dresses up in an angel outfit and calls himself "Britannia Angel". Only in one short strip did he do this, but there are a lot of fanworks of Britannia Angel.
      • Also, England scores again with his "Sexy Waiter" outfit, which is basically the lower half of a Hadaka Apron.
      • And then there's his Black Magic get-up, aka the cloak that seems to come with its own Dramatic Wind.
      • Poland crossdresses a grand total of three times in the entire series. The extent to which he does it fanart is....much, much higher.
      • Canada is commonly depicted in his military uniform... even though he has yet to actually wear it in the strips or anime.
    • Rena's hat from Higurashi no Naku Koro ni is quite popular. Likewise her main outfit.
    • Umineko no Naku Koro ni
      • And now we've got George's TOMITAKE FLASH! shirt.
      • Kinzo's and Battler's cape is also fast-approaching this status.
    • Fullmetal Alchemist
      • If one tells you to imagine a red cloak with a serpent-on-the-cross sigil on, need they even mention the black not-supposed-to-be-leather outfit underneath?
      • TINY MINISKIRTS! So memetic, they don't even have to be worn in the series.
      • And who was it again, who wore a white suit with a matching hat and longcoat?
      • Hello, uniforms of the Amestrian Military, quite possibly the most memorable in anime.
      • Does Al's armor body count?
    • From Kuso Miso Technique there's Abe Takakazu's blue jumpsuit.
    • Fist of the North Star: Kenshiro's leather jacket and his brother Raoh's horned "Ken-Oh" helmet.
    • Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny Yuna Roma Seiran's bright yellow pajamas mix this with Narm and Fashion Victim Villain.
    • In Ranma ½, the title character wears a wide variety of outfits throughout the course of the anime. He is likewise depicted wearing Chinese tangs in a variety of colors in promotional artwork for the manga. Try asking some fanfiction authors if he wears anything but his iconic red shirt.
    • The Knight Sabers in the original Bubblegum Crisis OVA had a variety of casual outfits, but the most memorable would probably be Linna's "cow sweater" and Sylia's inexplicably midriff-baring high-collared blouse.
      • The 2040 version of Sylia had a Little Red Dress with Absolute Cleavage that stuck in viewers' memory.
    • Black Butler
      • Ciel probably has more fan artwork of him in the dress he wore to the Viscount Druitt's ball than any other outfit he's worn. Cosplayers seem to love this outfit, too. Turns out the creators liked it enough to base a figure on it.
      • Alois Trancy's booty shorts are practically a meme in their own right, too.
    • Four of the five main cast members of Lupin III get memetic outfits:
      • Lupin's red or green jacket paired with black or white pants and a black or blue shirt and necktie—which is doubly famous thanks to Nabeshin's Author Avatar wearing it... Hell, you don't even have to mention the name itself, all you have to say is "The Red Jacket" and a lot of people will instantly know what you're talking about.
      • Jigen's dark suit with the fedora slouched over his eyes;
      • Goemon's yukata and hakama;
      • and Zenigata's conservative brown plainclothes suit, trenchcoat and fedora.
      • Fujiko's doesn't wear her iconic black Spy Catsuit as much as the other four wear their outfits, but it's still memetic.
    • Although not exactly an outfit, in Princess Tutu Fakir manages to tear up his knight outfit and also has a poorly mended rip in the shirt of his casual clothing and seems to have decided to take out his teenage angst and rage on one of his sleeves. Thanks to this, some fans like to depict him as ripping holes into any outfit he can get away with, and feeling very uncomfortable unless his clothing is falling apart at the seams. Mytho's habit of wearing baggy white shirts without bottoms around his room has also garnered a lot of attention, as has the fact that he's jumped out of a high window twice dressed like this.
    • Ayashi no Ceres put Tooya into a Badass Longcoat, underneath which is a blue espionage suit which bares his midriff. Not even Aya comments on the exposure of his abs.
    • From Dirty Pair, there are Kei and Yuri's distinctive "battle bikinis."
    • Busou Renkin
      • Papillion Mask, especially his speedo or his post transformation outfit in all its bizarre battle ballet outfit glory..
      • Don't forget Captain Bravo's white coat-hat combo.
    • The black outfits Section 9 wear in the V-Formation Team Shot from the opening to the second season of Ghost in The Shell Stand Alone Complex.
    • Durarara!!
      • Shizuo Heiwajima is inseparably linked with his endless supply of bartender's uniforms to the point that they've wormed their way into both his fandom (the Gartender) and canon (God of Destruction in a Bartender Suit) nicknames.
      • Also Celty's Kitty-Cat-Eared yellow biking helmet, which was a joke by the illustrater but loved so much by the animators that it became her stock outfit in the Anime. And no, the cat ears don't have anything to do with anything, especially when you know that Celty is a Dullahan.
    • Going by fan works, one would think that Fate of Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha wears her New Sonic Form outfit whenever she goes in battle, as opposed to it being a rarely used last resort kinda thing. One could only wonder why...
    • Pokémon
      • All of Ash's main outfits count, but his Ashley and Meido outfits are remembered even though he only wore them once each.
      • Wait, no mention of the iconic Poké Ball-colored hat?
      • Misty is most remembered in her original style for the anime, even more so than any of her game looks. Super Smash Bros.. even had her trophy with it, despite everything else being game-based.
    • Inu Yasha: Arguably, Inu-Yasha's everyday attire of red robes and restraining necklace, not to mention his long, White-Haired Pretty Boy and dog ears. While his design wasn't the first to popularize these fashion aspects, the combo is pretty much associated with him.
    • Nabari no Ou: Raikou's infamous "USA-CHAN" outfit. It's amazingly well-known for something he was only shown wearing for a single panel in the manga.
    • Spice and Wolf: Horo is often remembered in either a purple long dress or... nothing...
    • The Protect Gears from Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade and the rest of Mamoru Oshii's Kerberos Saga are Heavily Armored Mooks with gas masks, Red Eyes, Take Warning Glowing Eyes of Doom and an Ammunition Backpack while toting MG-42s. Their distinct appearance has influenced the Helghast to the point where they're often confused for the other.
    • One Piece
      • Pretty much ALL of the Strawhat Pirates outfits are notable and memorable considering they never change. Towards the end of the first half of the series, the crew starts to go through wardrobe changes. Though their default outfits are the best known
      • Interestingly enough, Nico Robin is the only Straw Hat without an iconic outfit. Some fans count her Stripperific cowboy hat/open corset combo from her days as Miss All-Sunday, but she's worn something different almost every episode since she joined the Straw Hats.
    • After an episode of Mega Man Battle Network had most of the main cast (yes, even the males) Cosplay as Aki-chan to serve as decoys, with some of them looking patently ridiculous, drawing various characters in that cosplay caught on. Including characters who originally didn't do the cosplay in that particular episode, and especially characters who look even more ridiculous in it.
    • Inazuma Eleven had a gag where Endou's mom wrote "Endou" in marker across the back of a pair of his boxers in embarrassingly large handwriting, to ensure he wouldn't get his laundry mixed up with anyone else's at an overnight training camp. That pair of boxers tends to show up in fan works as Goofy Print Underwear whenever an I See London gag has Endou as one of the victims.
    • Puella Magi Madoka Magica
      • Madoka is quite often drawn in the white-dressed form she unveils when superpowered in the final episode, often referred to as "Goddess Madoka". This outfit showed for probably about 2 seconds.
      • Madoka's red hair ribbon becomes this in the last episode, when she gives it to Homura. To fans of the series, long black hair + red ribbon instantly brings Homura (and Madoka) to mind. In the first episode, Madoka almost wears a yellow ribbon instead, so the writers apparently planned its iconicness from the beginning.
    • Hellsing
      • Alucard has been seen in a few outfits and they're all very popular among the fandom, but the cake goes to Alucard's usual coat, hat, gloves and glasses. This ensemble is known among his VA as 'pimp'.
      • Both of Seras' outfits are quite popular, too.
    • Tiger and Bunny has what fans like to call the crapsuit, the spandex costume Kotetsu used to wear before Apollon Media made him don the Powered Armor. Despite the name, it's popular enough to warrant its own Pixiv tag.
    • As a broader, franchise-wide example, Goggles Do Nothing on a Digimon character have such a strong association with being worn by The Hero of whatever particular series that Masaru not wearing them is downright unusual. It's more a franchise-wide thing than any particular character, but were it to be pinned to any particular character it would be Taichi (both of him) as a result of First Installment Wins, and because the exact same goggles were passed on to Daisuke (who even before that wore goggles of his own).
    • Gintama has Lampshaded the series' Limited Wardrobe, but Okita's sleep mask has become emblematic of his character even though he only wore it once.


    Comic Books

    • This is the reason why Superhero characters wear brightly colored Spandex, Latex, or Leather. Also why most older characters are still wearing the same outfit they did decades earlier. The one time Superman had his outfit changed in canon is one of the bigger Dork Age moments of the 90s. And Superman's outfit was originally designed simply to be colorful and easy to draw, because comics had very limited printing capabilities in the 1940s. Whenever the comics change a character's look significantly, it likely won't stick to merchandising or adaptations. To wit; grey Hulk, Spider-Man and his black outfit, and Wolverine and his bone claws.
    • Wolverine has two outfits that are used with almost equal prominence: he started in yellow and blue, moved to a brown and tan outfit, then returned to the yellow and blue because Jim Lee liked the look. The yellow and blue is slightly more prominent currently[when?], but brown and tan has been used on occasion nevertheless. It's arguable that Wolverine subverts this trope more than any other comic character.
    • Batman's silhouette is so iconic he has a villain whose goal in life is just to steal his cowl. The fight for Batman's successor was even called Battle for the Cowl.
    • The Hulk's most usual clothing, purple pants (that resist everything!).
    • Young Avengers has some:
      • Wiccan, his cape and his (no longer worn) winged head piece. Everyone remembers the cape. Everyone remembers that time Wiccan worn the cape over his civilians. The Young Avengers el-jay comm has declared Wiccan/Cape to be canon and the comm's unanimously accepted OTP.
      • Kate Bishop's "original" outfit [dead link] consisting of a torn purple bridesmaid dress, Black Widow's belt, Mockingbird's mask, and the original Hawkeye's bow - ah remembered well. (This also led to her initially being referred to as "Hawkingbird")
    • That one time Deadpool wore Marvel Girl's outfit. Because it was burned into the eyes of readers (you can't unsee it, even if you've never seen it!), but still remembered (though the panties turn up again later).
    • The X-Men are invariably remembered, redrawn, and cosplayed in their 90's era Jim Lee outfits, particularly Cyclops's blue-and-yellow chest belt and his Underwear of Power, Rogue's yellow-and-green bodysuit with headband and bomber jacket, Psylocke's Leotard of Power, Storm's white uniform, and Jubilee's bright yellow trench coat and pink sunglasses. That the X-Men wore these during the height of their popularity (to mention the '90s cartoon and Marvel vs. Capcom games) probably has something to do with it. Only Psylocke's bathing suit has survived to the present day. Storm also has her fan-beloved 80's leather outfit and mohawk.
    • Watchmen
      • If a Memetic outfit can be extended to other people, fanart of Silhouette shows her as pretty fond of nurses, probably because the girl she kisses in the movie is a nurse.
      • The canonical memetic outfit of Watchmen is Dr Manhattan's lack thereof.
      • Rorschach's mask is his face.
      • This goes more for the film than for the comic, but Adrian Veidt's delicious purple blazer so qualifies. He's dressed very innocuously most of the time, and the jacket's not exactly odd for the 80s, but when you think of Adrian Veidt, you probably think of him in that blazer. God, so purple.
    • The Guy Fawkes mask from V for Vendetta. It's even used in Anonymous-based protests. Possibly subverted in that the mask is Older Than Steam.
    • Gwen Stacy's headband. The black headband has become such an iconic symbol that it's appeared in movies, cartoons, and even Gwen's long-lost daughter Sarah was given one to remind us she looks exactly like Gwen.
    • Delirium has a bunch of different hairstyles in The Sandman, but what the fandom thinks of when they picture Delirium's hair is a style with multicolored flowing locks on one side of her head and a buzzcut on the other side (she appeared to have that hairstyle in her first major appearance, but closer inspection reveals the long part to be more like a mohawk that doesn't stick up. Which is why it keeps changing sides).
    • From Transmetropolitan, there's Spider Jerusalem's open black shirt, black tattoos and especially his unusual sunglasses.
    • Zatanna's tuxedo shirt, coat, tails, top hat, fishnets and thigh-high hooker boots.
    • Wonder Woman with her corset and star spangled panties. DC has tried to give her pants on at least a couple of occasions. Never sticks.
    • The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles have their masks, belts, and elbow/knee pads. It's especially memetic because that's the only thing they wear.
    • Stargirl's braces. She got them all the way back in issue 2 of Stars and S.T.R.I.P.E.", and even though she later got "invisible" braces, she still has them. Their possible removal was a central plot point in the last issue Geoff Johns wrote of the current volume.
    • Conan the Barbarian can't be illustrated without the furry Loin Cloth. You can give him a BFS, long black hair, and otherwise make him a Walking Shirtless Scene, but he's still not Conan without a furry loincloth. Note that neither the original Conan pulp stories by Robert E. Howard nor the first Arnold movie nor even the Frank Frazetta paintings had him looking like this very often; the look mostly comes from Marvel Comics, and the second Arnold movie bowed to this.
    • Iron Man has a memetic color scheme. His armor changes every few years (and with pretty much every artist change), but with a few notable exceptions (the Silver Centurion and War Machine armors), it's always red and yellow/gold ever since the late 60s. The helmet is also very consistent with its stylized eyes and mouth, with the Modular Armor being one of the few without a mouth.
    • Like Wolverine and the Riddler, Spider-Man also has two iconic outfits—the classic red and blue tights and the symbiote/black costume. In fact, people actually attribute it to his moods—if he's wearing the black costume, run.


    Comic Strips

    • Peanuts: Charlie Brown wouldn't be Charlie Brown without the zigzag stripe shirt. Ironically, in early comics he wore an ordinary blank shirt, but his zigzag has overshadowed it for good.
    • Little Orphan Annie's red dress and red curls. The musical plays off of this by only putting her in said outfit when she's adopted by Warbucks.
    • Calvin and Hobbes
      • Calvin is never seen without his red T-shirt, sneakers, and shorts-that-are-too-long-for-his-legs.
      • Then there's STUPENDOUS Man! See above, but add a cape and a red Luchadore-esque mask.
      • Spaceman Spiff's jumpsuit and blaster, plus goggles.
      • Tracer Bullet's Fedora, cig, and Badass Longcoat. Possibly subverted, since Badass Longcoats may or may not be Narm for viewers.


    Film -- Animation

    • The iconic dress worn by Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs.
    • Pretty much every Disney Princess has one of these. With the exception of Pocahontas, every single one of them had at least one wardrobe change during their respective movie. Tiana sets the record with a multitude of clothing changes, plus a full-on frog transformation, while most Disney Princess media depict her in her Pimped-Out Dress.
    • A little jarring in the case of Mulan, whose Memetic Outfit is her matchmaker dress (which she was uncomfortable wearing), but even more for Rapunzel from Tangled, whose long blonde hair is in every piece of merchandise.. while it being cut was what freed her from her oppressor.
    • The Nightmare Before Christmas
      • Jack Skellington's pin-striped tuxedo and bat bow-tie]].
      • Sally's stitched-up dress is pretty well-known as well.


    Film -- Live-Action

    • Charlie Chaplin's Tramp outfit.
    • Buster Keaton occasionally played Upper Class Twits in well-tailored clothes, but is usually pictured in a baggy suit, slapshoes, and his trademark porkpie hat.
    • Harold Lloyd's horn rim glasses.
    • Indiana Jones' brown, tattered fedora, bomber jacket (Which he pretty much wears regardless of the weather or terrain) and bullwhip.
    • James Bond
      • The trademark tuxedo, of course. This has lead to a misguided notion that he wears nothing but it (a staple of the typical Shallow Parody of the series), which isn't true. He wears plenty of normal, practical outfits (even military fatigues) and the tuxedo is limited mostly to social events. Bond's tuxedo is so emblematic that it's often invoked in things inspired by Bond, as a Shout-Out.
        • The always-wears-a-suit idea might stem from a Crowning Moment of Suave in Goldfinger, where he climbs out of scuba gear to reveal full evening dress underneath, complete with carnation.
        • Casino Royale, in many ways about Bond becoming Bond, makes much ado about the first time he puts on the Tuxedo. And Quantum of Solace has him wear the tuxedo for the first half of the movie. It gets increasingly unkempt as the story goes on. By the end, after having his money suspended, he's in a grubby fleece.
        • There is an urban legend (of unknown veracity) that actors who agree to play James Bond are forbidden to wear a tuxedo in any other role for the duration of their contract. Supposedly, this is why Pierce Brosnan's tuxedos in The Thomas Crown Affair were always "off" in some way, with something untied or missing.
      • Honey Ryder's white bikini from Dr. No.
    • The Dark Knight Saga has a scene with The Joker dressed in drag as a nurse. The internet seems to have an odd obsession with this image.
    • Star Wars
      • Princess Leia's cinnamon-bun hairdo. Her white dress and blaster are also part of her classic look, but not as important as the hair. Her more famous outfit, (if you can call it that...), is the metal bikini. In fact, parody depictions will often combine the cinnabon hair and bikini, despite being from different movies.
        • Incidentally, the memetic power of Leia's buns is a dramatic plot point in Transmetropolitan. Seriously.
      • Not to mention Han's vest, Luke's kimono... thing and boots, Obi-Wan's robe, Storm Trooper armor, Darth Frickin' Vader, as well as The Emperor's black cloak and Boba Fett's armor.
      • Boba Fett doesn't do anything in the movies. All he does is standing around, showing off his armor! And even though he suffered the most ridiculous (apparent) death in the entire series, he's still considered at least as Badass as Vader, if not even more. And all because of his armor.
      • Padmé's white outfit with the erotically slashed shirt from Attack of the Clones.
      • Not to mention her elaborate royal costumes and face paint from The Phantom Menace.
    • Clint Eastwood's poncho in the Leone Westerns. The Good the Bad And The Ugly, which takes place chronologically earlier during the war (whether the characters are the same or not), doesn't give it to him until two and a half hours in.
    • Bruce Lee
      • The yellow and black tracksuit from Game of Death (although it only appeared in one movie for a few minutes), especially after Uma Thurman wore the same outfit in Kill Bill. In fact, that track suit is one of the many ways to tell if someone's a Bruce Lee Clone.
      • A close second would be bare-chested in black pants as seen in Enter the Dragon.
    • A Nightmare on Elm Street: A red and green striped sweater and fedora.
    • Jason Voorhees' hockey mask from the Friday the 13 th series, which he put on in Part III.
    • Die Hard's John McClane and his (soiled and bloody) wife-beater.
    • The Ghostbusters outfits are still a fancy dress mainstay, though the film was released over twenty years ago.
    • The Blues Brothers black suit pants and jackets, ties, shades, hats, and white shirts. Mostly the shades, if anything gets parodied.
    • Labyrinth: Jareth's tights. They could have been painted on. Well, they are often referred to as "criminally tight" pants for a reason.
    • The Night of the Hunter: Harry Powell. Knuckle Tattoos. That is all.
    • The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari: Dr. Caligari has stolen the top hat forever. And Cesare made that whole look fashionable.
    • The Big Lebowski: The cardigan and Jellies worn by The Dude, as well as Walter's jacket and aviator shades.
    • Breakfast at Tiffany's: The Little Black Dress.
    • Beetlejuice: Betelgeuse's black and white striped suit is only one of about the six costumes he wears throughout the film, but it's the one everyone remembers.
    • Pirates of the Caribbean
      • Captain Jack's hair (and everything in it) alongside his bandanna and, of course, his hat. Pretty much everything about Captain Jack's appearance is memetic, especially his sometimes drunken swagger-stagger.
      • Barbossa's wide-brimmed hat with a huge feather.
    • The Mask: Stanley Ipkiss becomes The Mask four times. Only in one he wears that yellow zoot suit, but it's so iconic any derivative works, such as the video game and the Animated Adaptation, turns it into his regular outfit.
    • In Back to The Future, Marty McFly's denim jacket, checkered shirt over a red T-shirt, jean suspenders, tennis shoes and, of course, his red "life preserver". Understandable, seeing how he wears this in the most iconic scenes of the first movie. Marty gradually loses this outfit over the course of the sequels. It also makes him seem kind of "All-American" with the "red, white and blue". At the end of Part I, he has lost the vest ("life preserver", if you prefer) and denim jacket. At the start of Part II, he loses the checkered shirt shortly after his arrival in 2015 and then he wears the red T-shirt, jeans, and tennis shoes (along with accessories which come and go) for the whole rest of the movie. He's still wearing this at the start of Part III. Then he gets the '50s cowboy outfit, at which point the shoes are the only part of his iconic outfit to remain. He loses them after he arrives in 1885 and gets a proper Old West outfit.
    • Dracula's black suit and cape.
    • Hannibal Lecter's restraint mask. Not even mentioned in The Silence of the Lambs novel (he wore a hockey mask instead) and appearing only for a single scene in the movie, it went on to have a starring role in Hannibal, which opens with Mason Verger buying the mask for a ridiculous amount of money, has a scene of him wearing it and eventually putting it on Hannibal. It gets featured again in Red Dragon for a brief scene and Hannibal Rising features a moment with him putting on an ancient samurai mask that resembles his later restraint. The mask has become a symbol for Hannibal Lecter despite him wearing it for just a few minutes in every movie.
    • Bo Derek's yellow bathing suit and cornrows in 10.
    • Jake Gyllenhaal's skeleton outfit in Donnie Darko.
    • Carrie White's pig-blood-drenched prom dress.
    • Laurel and Hardy's bowler hats (often depicted in their movies' opening titles for instant identification) -- gives them a little dignity against all odds. True to the Hat Shop trope, wearing them in Way Out West marks them as out of their element.
    • Alex's giant grey sweatshirt and red heels from Flashdance.
    • James Dean, in all post-mortem representations, is wearing the red windbreaker from Rebel Without a Cause.
      • To the point where Fry's outfit from Futurama is modeled after it.
    • From A Clockwork Orange, we have Alex with his boots, pajamas, jockstrap, bowler and fake eyelash on one eye. Interestingly, fans who dress as Alex for costume parties often exaggerate the eyelashes in their makeup, sometimes putting them on both eyes. In the movie itself, the eyelash is quite subtle and only noticed in closeups (but then, since the very first shot of Alex in the movie is a closeup....).
    • From Inception, Eames's Paisley shirt, Arthur's waistcoat and Ariadne's scarf has pretty much become character identifiers in fandom.
    • In the Harry Potter movies, the main trio's most memorable outfits outside of the Hogwarts uniforms and robes are the regular clothes they wore in the third act of Prisoner of Azkaban. Especially Hermione's pink hoodie. Plus the blue-grey T-shirt with blue trim that Harry wore in the third act. He wears it throughout the [dead link] series [dead link]
    • Tony Monero in Saturday Night Fever wears different clothes throughout the movie but the white leisure suit is the one people remember most.
    • Carmen Miranda's fruit hat and samba outfit. Among younger people the outfit is more well-known than her.
    • Austin Powers' thick glasses, crushed velvet suits, Beatle boots and male symbol medallion.
    • Fred Astaire's Memetic Outfit has its own song: "Top Hat, White Tie and Tails."
    • Johnny Depp's portrayal of Hunter S. Thompson in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas is never without a pair of aviators, a cigarette holder sticking out of his mouth, and a bucket hat (or a green transparent visor.)
    • Mad Max's leather jacket with the one torn sleeve and the armoured shoulder pad is iconic not only of the series itself, but of post apocalyptic cinema in general.
    • The Ghostface Killer's (no, not him) black robe and distinctive elongated white mask from the Scream movies.
    • A trailer for The Mask of Zorro opened with a completely silhouetted figure strolling out to center "stage." Practically anyone seeing the shape of his hat, the rapier on one hip, and the coiled whip on the other knew who this movie was about from that instant, even before he drew the sword and slashed the "Z" across the screen.


    Literature


    Live-Action TV

    • Doctor Who
      • The Tenth Doctor's pinstripe suit and Chuck Taylors. As well as the Fourth Doctor's bohemian outfit with the long scarf and the Fifth's cricket outfit, with, um, decorative vegetable. The Sixth and Seventh Doctors were intentionally designed to be as memetic as possible (the former involving a profusion of colors, the latter a shirt with question marks on it and an umbrella carried in any weather), but weren't as successful as the subtler examples.
      • The earlier Doctors were more iconic for a specific style, but it wasn't until John Nathan-Turner's run as producer that their outfits literally became more like uniforms than styles. While the Third Doctor was always seen in some elegant outfit, it was often enough a different outfit each time. In the case of both the Fifth and Sixth Doctors, they more or less wore an identical outfit in every single story.
      • And the Eighth Doctor also bears a distinct resemblance to Wilde, in what seems to be a more obvious way. Evidently, the costume department will keep making this joke until you get it.
      • The scarf is probably the most iconic item of any Doctor's outfit, based at least partially on Toulouse-Lautrec's painting of Aristide Bruant.
      • "City of Death". Romana. School Uniform.
      • Sarah Jane's 'Nandy Pandy' from Hand of Fear.
      • And Captain Jack's indestructible greatcoat, a World War II-era coat which has by now lived through World War II at least twice and survived from 1869 to 2008, and then again from 27 AD to 2009 (though roughly a century of that period was in stasis).
      • Also, the Ninth Doctor's leather jacket, always paired with a complementary colorful sweater.
      • The Third Doctor had his velvet smoking jacket and the puffy sleeved shirt under it.
      • Even the Eighth Doctor gets in on it with his Victorian waistcoat.
      • The first season of the Fifth Doctor was deliberately attempting to invoke this trope, with the characters pretty much staying in the same costumes for most of the season.
        • Adric's pyjamas and gold star.
        • Tegan's purple flight attendant uniform, which was a short, tight dress.
        • Nyssa's puffy maroon trouser-suit.
      • Ace—most fans picture her in their head as wearing some t-shirt, a big black bomber jacket, short black skirt, black tights, and trainers. And carrying a ghetto blaster.
      • Zoe, in the (in)famous sparkly sequinned catsuit; she actually only wore it for one and a half stories (all but the first few minutes of "The Mind Robber", and about half of "The Invasion").
      • Jamie - being a proper Scotsman, always wore a kilt; usually paired with a pullover and a waistcost (sometimes not).
      • Turlough -- despite not actually being school-aged, and not even being human, always wore the uniform of the Earth boarding school that he had been exiled to from his home planet.
      • Leela's cavewoman outfit.
      • Eleven's tweed jacket and bowtie. Bow Ties Are Cool.
        • Also, Fezes—of course there was an intervention.
        • In "The Impossible Astronaut", he wore a Stetson for all of a minute. That was all it needed.
      • Fitz, in the Eighth Doctor Adventures, wears a leather jacket most of the time, but is hardly ever seen not wearing it in Fan Fiction. It's Fanon that Nine's leather jacket was formerly Fitz's, although the supposed circumstances behind this range from, well, bittersweet to tragic.
    • Ugly Betty's Guadalajara! poncho.
    • Glee: Sue Sylvester's red track suit.
    • Catwoman's costume from the 1960s Batman.
    • Happy Days: The Fonz in his iconic leather jacket, now hanging in the Smithsonian. Ironically, in his first few appearances he wore an ordinary windbreaker because the network that Happy Days was on wouldn't allow his character to be portrayed as a juvenile delinquent even though he was, but later allowed the jacket to be worn.
    • Mork and Mindy Mork's khakis, skintight multicolor shirt and rainbow braces/suspenders with buttons/pins on them.
    • Emma Peel of The Avengers: black leather Spy Catsuits. The thing is that they weren't very rugged and after any action scene all the seams would be ripped out, so after the first few episodes she stopped wearing them, but that is all that anybody remembers her wearing. Apart from the purple ones, of course.
    • Power Rangers Wild Force
      • The previous season's Rangers came back during a teamup two-parter that the fandom remembers fondly. The fandom also fondly remembers the apocalyptic future-based black leather/PVC outfit the Pink Ranger was dressed in during her first appearance in said episodes as she singly handedly saves everybody else in the cast.
      • There's also the cloak Andros wears in his Establishing Character Moment in Power Rangers in Space. Both times he's brought back for a crossover, he's shown wearing it.
      • The Ranger outfit itself is iconic enough to be recognised by non-fans - base color bodysuit & helmet, long white gloves, boots & belt, and large black eyepiece on helmet, hardly varying from one season to another. Making it easy enough to create Evil Twins for a Mirror Match, just color the white parts black. There was an understandable Internet Backlash over the Juken Sentai Gekiranger (later Power Rangers Jungle Fury) outfits for having short-cuff gloves, shoes and no belts.
    • Much like Power Rangers above, Kamen Rider is known for his bug-eye lenses, antennae, silver mandible mouthpiece, Scarf of Asskicking (at least early on) and always, always, the chunky belt buckle.
    • Many of the Heisei Riders have a fairly set clothing style out of suit (for example, Shotaro and his fedoras and waistcoats, or his partner Philip and his far less common long-sleeved shirts and parkas) but special mention goes to Eiji Hino, whose Establishing Character Moment cemented his Memetic Lack of an Outfit.
    • The regular Star Trek uniforms.
    • Firefly
      • Jayne's clever homeknit hat -- "A man walks down the street in that hat, you know he's not afraid of anything."
      • Also River's floaty skirts coupled with cycle shorts and big clompy boots... or not, as the plot demands.
      • Captain Tightpants, anyone? Those, and his Badass Longcoat, from which the Browncoats take their name.
    • Whose Line Is It Anyway?
      • Ryan's Shoes.
      • And Colin's "tacky shirt," though he only wears it for one taping (which spawned two episodes).
    • Beakman's World: Beakman's fluorescent green labcoat.
    • From Robin Hood: Much's hat. He wore it for three seasons straight.
    • The Red Green Show: Red Green's red-and-green suspenders and plaid shirt.
    • Merlin's Neckerchiefs. Also, the Hat.
    • Number Six from The Prisoner, with his white-piped black blazer.
    • Heroes
      • Claire was defined by the writers as "The Cheerleader" from day one, so they always have to find a way to show her in a cheerleader outfit, even when it stretches credibility, and everyone still refers to her as "The Cheerleader".
      • Mohinder's hot-pink shirt (matched with striped purple-and-yellow scarf). There are multiple crack fics starring it.
    • Home Improvement: Al Borland's flannel shirts.
    • Are You Being Served: Captain Peacock's executive red carnation.
    • Supernatural: Dean's leatherjacket, and even more so, Castiel's trenchcoat (which is modeled on John Constantine's trenchcoat) and blue tie. In "The Rapture", it is fairly weird to see Jimmy in other clothes.
    • The Dukes of Hazzard: Daisy Duke's incredibly high-cut, tight jean short-shorts. So much that they were named after her.
    • Hee Haw: Minnie Pearl's flowery straw hat with the price tag hanging from it.
    • Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Spike's leather trench coat, (which he took from the second Slayer he killed), combined with his bleached blond hair made for a pretty distinctive look. Angel's own Badass Longcoat also took on this status in the spinoff show.
    • Gossip Girl: Chuck Bass' signature scarf.
    • Played with in Sherlock, where the deerstalker cap is something Sherlock spontaneously steals and dons as something of a disguise, and thanks to the press gets associated with him in the public mind.


    Music

    • The Beatles' outfits (mostly the dark suits they wore on the Ed Sullivan Show, the tan Nehru jackets at Shea Stadium, and the colorful military outfits with epaulettes from Sgt Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band).
    • Elvis Presley
      • The white jumpsuit and shades he performed in during the Seventies.
      • The black leather outfit he wore at his '68 Comeback Special.
    • The green US army jacket John Lennon wore in the early Seventies. Also his distinctive round NHS glasses.
    • Michael Jackson
      • The glove. Just the one.
      • The Thriller red jumpsuit as well.
      • And the leather jacket with the assload of zippers he wore in Beat It.
      • Never forget the white/glittery silver socks with black penny loafers.
      • His fedora.
      • Pinstripe suit and blue armband.
      • His faux-military outfits. Dad gone it, anything he ever wore!
    • KISS
    • Hair Metal in general.
    • Bjork's swan dress.
      • At the 2006 Academy Awards, Jon Stewart joked that "We're sorry Bjork couldn't join us this year. She was getting into her dress and Dick Cheney shot her."
      • Mad TV paid homage to this outfit when a recurring character wore it. Her name: Ms. Swan.
    • Many outfits worn by Lady Gaga, including the origami dress, the mirrored dress, the meat dress, the bleeding bodysuit, and the Poker Face suit.
    • Jethro Tull's Ian Anderson is known for the long black frock-coat, tight ballet tights, exaggerated codpiece, thigh-high boots and bedraggled long hair and beard he wore in The Seventies, all of which Tull used for publicity long after he stopped adopting that style of clothing or hairstyle (he's actually balding and wears a short goatee and less dramatic clothing in his old age).
    • The white trousers and yellow leather jacket (and mustache) worn by Freddie Mercury during Queen's last tour in 1986.
    • ACDC: Angus Young's school uniform.
    • The Smashing Pumpkins: Billy Corgan's Zero Star Shirt.
    • David Bowie
      • The lightning bolt makeup from the album cover and inner sleeve of Aladdin Sane (1973).
      • The eyepatch he wore (due to conjunctivitis) during a Dutch television appearance in 1974 is forever tied to his character Halloween Jack from Diamond Dogs, which he was promoting at the time.
    • Owl City's "I AM" raglan.
    • Kurt Cobain
      • He only wore a flannel shirt for a few months in 1990, but it is the article of clothing most frequently associated with both him and grunge fashion in general.
      • Otherwise, his stripped shirt and jeans outfit from the "Smells Like Teen Spirit" video and that green sweater, jeans and sneakers outfit he wore during his MTV unplugged performance (Neversoft went with this look when he appeared on Guitar Hero 5).
    • Madonna's conic bra. Honorable mention to the wedding dress on the Like a Virgin cover and the black dress from the "Like a Prayer" video.
    • Geri Halliwell of the Spice Girls is usually remembered for wearing a dress with the Union Jack on it, which was surprisingly lampshaded at the Royal Wedding between Prince William and Kate Middleton when a reporter pointed out a similar dress that an attendant was wearing. More recently, she teamed up with British clothing retailer Next to release her own line of Union Jack-designed clothing.
    • Earlier, you had Pete Townshend wearing a Union Jack suit during the early days of The Who.
    • Rapper Flavor Flav always wears a large clock around his neck.
    • Similar to the Elvis example, Jim Morrison's own leather outfit that he wore in 1967-68.
    • Miku Hatsune of Vocaloid. Both her futuristic schoolgirl uniform and green-and-white striped panties are very memetic.
    • Liberace says hello, by candlelight too.
    • The outfits worn by Jennifer Lopez at the 42nd Grammys and Gwyneth Paltrow in the 72nd Academy Awards, so much that they would later be worn by South Park creators, Trey Parker and Matt Stone.
    • Practically anything Lady Gaga wears, but her meat-dress deserves special mention.


    New Media

    • Board 8 has a wiki. The very first line in the page for one longtime regular is that he has an awesome shirt... with a link to the wiki page for the shirt.


    Tabletop Games


    Theater

    • Mark Cohen's scarf from Rent. Heck, some people even ship him with it.
    • The popular dress from Wicked. Cheeseypoofs has seen people tried to find it so they can go as Galinda for halloween.
    • Quite a few from Les Misérables (Valjean's national guard outfit, Eponine's trenchcoat and hat, Cosette's black dress), but most notably the red vest that Enjolras wears from the Act 1 finale onwards. It is known as the "Red Vest Of Doom" to fans.
    • Jesus's "Superman shirt" and clown pants in Godspell.


    Toys

    • Holly Hobbie's patchwork dress and bonnet.


    Video Games

    • Appearing (or not) in a variety of media, Carmen Sandiego has her matching red hat and trenchcoat.
    • Brink has near-infinite potential for memetic outfits, but one, created in the early days of Brink, stands out-Designing a black guy with skull facepaint, The Wasted jacket, The G pants, and dreadlocks is a very popular choice among players, possibly because of how grungy it looks and how it is damn near invisible on the infamous Container City map and Shipyard map is very popular. It may have originated with an Xbox player named Haru Daniels.
    • Scribblenauts: Maxwell. Rooster helmet. That is all.
    • Super Mario Bros
      • Red cap, white gloves, blue overalls.
      • Donkey Kong's monogrammed necktie.
      • Pauline's torn red dress is Enforced Trope as this in the Mario vs. Donkey Kong series, as whenever Donkey Kong kidnaps her, Mario grabs for her but only grabs the hem of her dress and tears it (the same way, every time).
    • Castlevania has a few of these in the latter days.
      • For example the infamous "Black leather skirt and high-heeled Dominatrix boots" that Simon Belmont was saddled with for Castlevania Chronicles.
      • And Soma's ever-loving white, fur-collared, and blue-trimmed Pimp Coat. Even with the questionable change in artists he kept the iconic coat.
      • Isaac's pants are quite infamous.
    • The Legend of Zelda
      • Link's green tunic, leather boots, and hat.
      • Zelda's purple and white dress from Twilight Princess also counts to the point that it's practically her default outfit. It even shows up in fanarts for other games where she wore mostly pink.
    • Final Fantasy has the jobs come with recurring costumes.
      • Final Fantasy I gave four of its six classes (White Mage, Black Mage, Red Mage and Monk) ones that are still being used. Final Fantasy III did it for Summoners, Dragoons, Geomancers and Thieves. Final Fantasy V gave Time Mages a red hat with a star.
      • While Final Fantasy VI has many popular outfits worn by the main characters, none of them are as memorable as Big Bad Kefka's truly bizarre mismatch of various outfits.
      • The same could also be said for Kuja as his villainous man-panties.
      • Kain Highwind's Dragoon armor, featured as a part of Kain's iconic pose for the game's logo. Richard may have worn it first, and the Final Fantasy III Dragoons came before Kain too, but Kain wore it better
      • Celes is depicted in FMV renders and concept art as wearing yellow leggings with a deep purple top and a yellow jacket, but her sprite's appearance is far more iconic. The outfit consists of a green Leotard of Power with white boots and a white Badass Cape, and that's about it.
      • Tifa's Cowgirl outfit has hit this status thanks to the fact Tifa is Ms. Fanservice, and the cowgirl uniform makes her Hotter and Sexier than ever. There was much rejoicing when this outfit was revealed as an alternate costume for her in Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy. Canonically though, her midriff-baring tank top and her Advent Children barmaid outfits are worn more often while the cowgirl outfit was only worn in Crisis Core, but it is much more infamous.
      • Cloud's Kingdom Hearts uniform. He only wore it in the first two games, and ditched it for his Advent Children outfit in Kingdom Hearts II. However, it's famous as his trademark gear in the series. The developers took notice and brought it back for his appearance in coded. As with Tifa above, the fandom cheered when the outfit got in as a bonus costume for Cloud in Dissidia 012.
      • For Final Fantasy V, the Job System features virtually every iconic Job look, but there are also two within the game itself, specific to Bartz: his Freelancer [dead link] or 'jobless' look, remarkable for being very simplistic compared to most other Final Fantasy protagonist looks, has nevertheless become very popular, and was chosen for his additional alt for Dissidia 012, where even Penelo notes it as a fan-favourite getup. Even more memetic is his Dancer outfit; in fan art of Bartz, if he isn't in his Freelancer or Amano looks, chances are he's wearing his Dancer costume. It became easily the most popular choice for Bartz's DLC costume for Dissidia 012, and much like the previous two examples, it did.
    • Metal Gear
      • Solid Snake's sneaking suit in Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty has become a fondly remarked-upon outfit, especially for the the way it highlights his backside—remember that he only wore it for about two hours, in a game where he wasn't even the lead character, and yet it's eclipsed everything else he's ever worn to the point where it's considered his 'default' look. The Bandanna would probably fall under this as well, if it wasn't already an in-game meme/Infinity-plus-one-bandanna. Not to mention his trusty cardboard box...
      • Certainly the mullet. Even though he wore his hair short in as many games as he wore his hair long, including in his first appearance on the PlayStation, and even though it's not even technically a mullet, the meme's stuck and the haircut is invariably associated with him. Although as a charm point rather than a means of mockery.
      • Don't forget Raiden's Skull Suit. Although, does his lack of Skull Suit at one point count?
    • Grand Theft Auto IV
      • Niko Bellic is often portrayed wearing fingerless gloves, even though he never actually wore them in-game. The reason for this is because of early artwork showing him wearing them, although they were removed from the game later on. Asking where Niko's fingerless gloves were became a popular meme on GTA message boards.
      • Niko's starting outfit, a leather jacket and tracksuit, has become rather memetic, too, to the point where he wears them in all his appearances in the expansion packs, despite having access to a designer clothing store and plenty of money.
    • Master Chief's armor in the Halo trilogy. That might be because he never wears anything else.
    • Silent Hill: Pyramid Head's, um, pyramid head, a huge, implied-to-be-very-heavy torture helmet that may or may not be his actual head. Note that the original is solid and has five sides, whereas the most popular version from the movie is four-sided and included grating (because it was impossible for the actor to wear otherwise).
    • Half-Life Dr. Freeman's HEV Suit.
    • Super Smash Bros.. Brawl
      • Wolf O'Donnell's outfit in Super Smash Bros. Brawl—combined with Leon's proclamation of sadomasochistic love for him—has since cemented the Star Wolf leader firmly in the crack between Memetic Badass and Memetic Molester.
      • Captain Falcon's "Captain Fabulous" pink and white outfit from Super Smash Bros. Brawl has become so popular, sometimes it's referenced as a different character.
      • Ditto for the red on pink ensamble worn by Gay Luigi a.k.a. Mama Luigi.
      • And also Marth in his white, "Wedding Marth" outfit.
    • Street Fighter
      • Ryu's sleeveless white gi with Red Headband. Ken's red and Akuma's gray ones follow on from this.
      • Blue female outfits with spiked wristbands and white hair-puffs work too.
    • Banjo-Kazooie
      • Banjo the Bear is memorable for his yellow shorts. He was granted the chance to talk about it in a Facebook Q&A promoting his latest game. Of course, he also has the backpack that houses his longtime friend Kazooie, but uh...that may cause some uncomfortable conversations these days.
      • His shorts and backpack are so memetic that they appear on every. single. transformation. that the pair have been through in both the original and sequel. Yes, even the ones that don't make any semblance of sense, like a pumpkin, a snowball, or a washing machine.
    • Power armor for the Fallout series. As well as the iconic blue-and-yellow-trimmed Vault suits, complete with PipBoy 3000.
    • Metroid
      • The Varia Suit. Although Samus rarely starts the game with it (and if she does, there's a pretty good chance she loses it pretty soon) and usually gets another upgrade or two to her suit, its design (complete with the iconic Shoulders of Doom) and color scheme are synonymous with her Powered Armor.
      • Also the Zero Suit, especially since appearing in Super Smash Bros..
    • Pokémon
      • "I like shorts. They're comfy and easy to wear!" The playable characters are also easily recognizable in their attire.
      • Lampshaded in Hotel Dusk: Room 215 sequel Last Window by player character Kyle Hyde: "I like suits. They're comfy and easy to wear."
    • Zero from Mega Man X has his armor's Booblights. And his square shoulders.
    • Koei is responsible for doing this to the Romance of the Three Kingdoms characters. While many elements of the more iconic characters' appearance, like Guan Yu with his long flowing beard, do exist in the original literature, the Dynasty Warriors games and any predecessors and successors therein always depict recurring characters with now-signature features, to the extent that other properties depicting Three Kingdoms, like this Three Kingdoms webcomic and the toyline BB Senshi Sangokuden also use them—Lu Bu with his pheasant-feathered headgear, Ma Chao with spiky anime hair, Sun Ce's choice of weapons, the list goes on.
    • Dead Space
      • Isaac Clarke]]'s gothic-looking, horror-show engineer suit. Other people obviously wear it, as you'll see in Dead Space Downfall and Dead Space Extraction, but none wear it as stoically and as facelessly as Isaac does.
      • Moreover, in most promo and fan art, Isaac's wearing the midgame level 3 suit, rather than the basic or fully upgraded versions.
    • Touhou girls have some pretty iconic and unmistakeable outfits:
      • Suwako's combination of a purple dress with long wide sleeves paired with her epic wide-brimmed frog-eyed hat makes her stand out in the divine crowd.
      • Two-toned red/blue nurse's dress that Two-Face would approve of? It's Eirin!
      • Red-white number with Detached Sleeves? Reimu's Incident-resolving dress!
      • Oh wait! We forgot to mention the new good green haired miko in white and blue who lives with Suwako and Kanako in the Moriya Shrine. That's right guys! It's Sanae Kochiya (or Kotiya, depends upon your choice).
      • Reisen Udongein Inaba only wore a suit jacket in one game out of all the other official games which she had been in. In all the other official works she doesn't wear it; but even so it has become her Memetic Outfit (probably cause without it her outfit looks too plain)
      • Flandre Scarlet's distinctive metal-and-"Christmas lights" wings certainly make an impression (unfortunately missing in the picture is a single glowing eye peering out of the darkness at you). Although, the Memeticness might partly come from the fact that Flandre's wings resemble Marx's wings.
      • Cirno's ice wings.
      • A red, plaid dress and vest, with a white shirt and a Parasol of Prettinesssol? Yuuka Kazami.
      • In fact, a rather famous Fan Vid uses the incredible number of unique outfits by showing only silhouettes of the characters. Behold the variety! More experienced Touhou fans can identify each character shown.
    • All of the Team Fortress 2 classes' outfits, and for good reason—they were designed so that players would be able to identify their opponents at a glance. They were designed and tested to be instantly recognizable in silhouette, in low lighting, to contrast with the backgrounds, and to draw focus towards the torso and head, the two parts you aim for. They have a big presentation on it floating around the interblag, that includes the fiendishly complex shading algorithms.
    • Left 4 Dead: Nick's $3,000 white suit with blue shirt underneath. The style has recently come back in Real Life, causing many fans' heads to whiplash whenever they see it in stores or on TV on unrelated people.
    • Hazama/Terumi from BlazBlue became playable in Continuum Shift, complete with a white color scheme for his suit that confirms his status as a Smooth Criminal.
    • The standard Assassin outfit in Assassin's Creed is this. White robes with a blood-red ribbon tied around the waist, a hood shaped to resemble an eagle's head, and a bracer on the left wrist with a surprise attached. No matter the time period, every Assassin will wear some variant of this: the Roman Empire, the Crusades, the Renaissance, the Russian Revolution...
    • Tekken
      • The Mishima studded gloves and Heihachi's tiger's head gi.
      • His Fundoshi from the third fourth game is hard to forget, too...
    • Dead or Alive has several of these, especially for the women in the game (Lei Fang's Little Black Dress, for instance). But one of the most memorable belongs to a male character: Zack's silver "Teletubby" outfit.
    • The King of Fighters
    • Mass Effect
      • Commander Shepard's N7 Onyx armor in Mass Effect 1. So much so it became the only suit s/he could wear in the sequel. Though you can modify the colors and tweak the armor pieces. Though other armors became available due to Pre-order bonuses and other DLC. The reason for this was because in the original game, hardly anyone wore the Onyx armor once they had other options due to its lousy stats. 'Tis the curse of starting equipment.
      • Phoenix armor. It's pink and white and you can put Wrex in it. The fandom has not failed to run with this. Made even more notorious because the Virmire Survivor starts the second game with it. Complete with a close-up of their pink-delineated butt-cheeks as they dart through the halls of the Normandy.
    • Dragon Quest IX plays with this: among the many equipment options you can discover are an array of Mythology Gag gear that lets you dress up your current party to look like heroes from all of the previous games in the series. You even gain Accolades by collecting and donning a complete set, as well as several Accolades if you manage to match what the representatives for each class are wearing in the example illustrations. On top of this, a lot of the gear that isn't directly connected to one of the past heroes are still references and holdovers from older games in the series, like the Water Flying Cloth/Flowing Robe.
    • In Mitsumete Knight, Raizze and her red gloves. There's actually a reason why she wears them at all times : it's to hide the bedsores she got with her constant sword training, as one of the Eight Generals and a spy for the enemy mercenary army, and red is the color of said army.
    • Sonic the Hedgehog: Sonic's sneakers.
    • Kingdom Hearts
      • Three words: Giant. Yellow. Shoes.
      • Three more words: Black hooded trenchcoats.
    • Resident Evil
      • Jill Valentine and the (in)famous blue tube top, miniskirt, and sweater wrapped around the waist combo that she wears in Resident Evil 3: Nemesis. This crossed over to the film version, as well. Her purple battlesuit seems to be heading this way, as well, with appearances in Resident Evil: Afterlife and Marvel vs. Capcom 3.
      • Likewise, Claire Redfield and her iconic pink cycling suit from the second game.
      • Wesker and his penchant for sunglasses at night and wearing all black.
    • Hitman: Agent 47]] has a really snazzy black suit with a striped white shirt, a diagonally striped red tie and black leather gloves, with those specific details. The suit's almost as recognizable as his barcode (which it should be, considering how much it costs).
    • Rocket Knight Adventures: Sparkster's awesome armor.
    • Professor Layton: Professor Layton's top hat.
    • The World Ends With You: Sho Minamimoto's hat.
    • No More Heroes: Travis Touchdown. His red-dyed leather jacket with the Santa Destroy star is quite popular, as well as his Bizarre Jelly T-shirt. His pink and white Bizare Jelly outfit is pretty popular as well.
    • The standard Iron Helmet from Skyrim has come to represent the main character, due to its appearance in the first trailer.
    • Yume Nikki: Madotsuki's pink shirt with a chekerboard pattern in the center.
    • Demon's Souls has the Fluted Armor Set and Dark Souls has the Elite Knight Armor Set, seen (if not on the Player Character) worn by Ostrava of Boletaria and Oscar of Astora, respectively. They were featured heavily in advertisements, trailers, and official art for their respective games and more easily appear in artwork and are considered each settings' iconic suits.
    • Dragon Age
      • The Warden in is frequently depicted in artwork wearing Warden-Commander Armour, Leather Armour, or Circle Robes.
      • Hawke in Dragon Age II, having become a living Folk Hero, has the Mantle of the Champion as their memetic outfit. The Mage version of the armour is the one used in the promotional materials and box-art.


    Visual Novels

    • Fate Stay Night
      • Archer. Of course is identified by his not-quite-a-longcoat. Technically, it's two red sleeves and a battle skirt. Try and imagine him without it and, at best, you get a tanned Shirou.
      • Let's not forget Rin Tohsaka's S-Grade Zettai Ryouiki.
    • Ace Attorney
      • Miles Edgeworth's maroon suit and cravat.
      • Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney's blue suit is iconic within the game universe. Want to impersonate him? Just wear the suit and spike your hair. Nobody will be able to tell.
    • In the Tokimeki Memorial series : Shiori Fujisaki and her hairband. Yumi Saotome and Megumi Juuichiya, and their hair ribbons. Minori Akiho, and her X-shaped hair decs. Rhythmy Kyono and her headphones.


    Web Animation

    • The immense popularity of Half Life Full Life Consequences means that almost every video made using Gary's Mod uses the same "John Freeman" sprite as it's star.
    • Even before John Freeman, Male 07 had been a popular character model due to its starring role as Gordon Frohman in the webcomic Concerned.


    Web Comics

    • Marten's "TEH" T-shirt in Questionable Content.
    • Due to the fact that everyone is a stick figure in Xkcd, the one extravagance worn by recurring characters is this. Black Hat Guy is the most prominent, followed by the guy in the beret.
    • In-universe example: the white dress from Agatha's holographic message in Girl Genius.
    • The Adventures of Dr. McNinja: It's probably justified because we never see him wearing anything else, or his face through it, but Dr. McNinja's lab coat and Ninja mask. When Franz Rayner made an army of Doc clones, he even made sure to equip each and every single one of them with that same lab coat and mask.
    • Homestuck
      • We get Courtyard Droll's absolutely ridiculous hat, and to a lesser extent the rest of his outfit. Though it's more just "odd hats in general".
      • Each of the kids has a shirt design that is iconic of them, and almost all of their alchemised clothing still has a basis in their original shirts in that they share the logo. Pink hairband and shirt with a defaced purple octopus? Rose. Broken record and baggy pants? Dave. Japanese Slimer T-shirt and cargo shorts (or these days, blue God Tier gear with a windy symbol)? John. Shirt with a dog-head silhouette and a long buttoned skirt? Jade. All the trolls get this too because they almost never wear anything else; trolls think fashion is stupid.
      • Although it's more of a case of Off-Model, Pantskat probably counts, especially since it became an Ascended Meme when his ancestor was intentionally designed with extremely high-waisted Righteous Leggings.
    • Penny Arcade: Gabe in yellow and Tycho in blue.
    • Sluggy Freelance: Torg's plaid jacket (with vertical and horizontal only stripes) and riff's Badass Longcoat.


    Web Original


    Western Animation

    • The Batman has the Joker in a purple straightjacket, yellow vest, fingerless gloves, and no shoes.
    • The Fairly OddParents: Timmy Turner's pink hat.
    • Scooby Doo
      • Fred's ascot (actually a neckerchief). Though present-day Freddie doesn't wear one, they do bust it out for homages every once in a while, as well as plenty of Lampshade Hanging in the series of Fred's fashion choice.
      • The other members of Mystery, Inc. also apply, though the ascot (being so out of place) is the most known.
    • Black shirt, gray gloves, and khaki cargo-pants define Kim Possible's mission look. Also in-universe, to the point that one of the plot points of one episode was how everyone at her school was copying her (now popular and mass-produced) outfit ("Kim Style") without giving her the proper credit. Her mission outfit changed in Season 4, but you wouldn't know it from the fanart.
    • In an interesting case of an adaptation spawning a memetic outfit for a character, April O'Neil's iconic yellow jumpsuit spawned in the 1987 cartoon, and has been either in or alluded to in most other canons.
    • SpongeBob's square pants.
    • Mickey Mouse has his red shorts and yellow shoes.
    • Donald Duck and his sailor hat and shirt.
    • Ben 10: Ben has his signature green jacket. Even more memetic is the single striped shirt he wears, which transfers its color scheme to all his aliens.
    • Freakazoid!'s crazy outfit.
    • Phineas and Ferb's signature outfits, as lampshaded in one episode when whey went back-to-school shopping. In the earlier episode "Run Away Runway", they manage to get everyone in Danville wearing their signature outfits.
    • Every one of The Simpsons. Heck, pretty much everyone in Springfield. (Moe's apron, crazy cat lady's crazy cat lady apparel, Milhouse's glasses...)
    • Speaking of Matt Groening's work, the red windbreaker jacket and the tank top Futurama's Fry and Leela are mostly seen in should count too.
    • Finn's awesome hat in Adventure Time.
    • Lola Bunny's midriff-baring yellow tank top and short purple gym shorts, which has a different colour scheme in her introductory appearance in Space Jam (white top and blue shorts). Also, her purple dress with the yellow belt and hemline in The Looney Tunes Show, which has a bluish colour scheme in the promotional images.
    • Avatar: The Last Airbender: Wang Fire's beard. It only appeared in three episodes, and yet the legend lives on.
    • Doug: Doug Funnie's trademark outfit.
    • Rocko's Modern Life: Rocko's blue collared shirt with purple triangles.
    • Hey Arnold!: Teal Sweater, blue cap, red shirt-skirt thing.
    • Ed, Edd n Eddy: The black sock hat. And as for that particular character's empty headed friend, the green jacket with the red striped shirt.]]
    • My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic
      • Applejack's hat and mane-ties, while several other minor characters are known almost as much for their accessories as for their looks.
        • In particular, Vinyl Scratch sports a pair of Cool Shades while Octavia has her pink bowtie, and Doctor Whooves is frequently depicted in fanworks as wearing one of a few different outfits designed to make him more closely resemble the Doctor.
      • The Mane 6's Gala dresses are also considered quite iconic.
      • In the fanart community, art featuring the ponies in anthro or human form have settled for some commonly accepted outfits.
        • Twilight Sparkle in vaguely schoolgirl style outfit featuring a purple sweater vest.
        • AJ adding jeans, a yellow plaid shirt and boots to her iconic hat. Often with the jeans cut short and the shirt tied up.
        • Fluttershy with a loose yellow sweater.
        • In contrast to her sister's white gowns, Luna has recently been often portrayed in a militaristic dark uniform.
    • Recess
      • Red baseball hat turned backwards, greenish-grey jacket, white t-shirt, baggy jeans...
      • Not to mention for his friend, orange ski cap, red oversized t-shirt/dress, dark grey jacket, red-and-orange striped stockings, dark grey boots, not to mention wearing pigtails.
    • KaBlam!: Yellow t-shirt, baggy dark green shorts, orange oversized hoodie, purple and black sneakers...
    • From Codename: Kids Next Door we have Numbuh Five's red hat and Numbuh Three's oversized green sweater, among others.


    Real Life

    • John Hodgman is pretty much always seen wearing the same brown suit with orange tie.
    • Abraham Lincoln's beard and stovepipe hat.
    • Davey Crockett's coonskin cap. Jonathan Coulton wears one, too, to go with his "mountain man" image.
    • Jamie Hyneman's standard outfit, including the iconic white shirt and beret. He wears that outfit all the time unless he has a logical reason not to.
    • The obligatory all-concealing Ninja outfit, rarely if ever worn by actual ninja in real life.
    • The Nazi uniform. Skulls on a cap, black trenchcoats, or an armband will remind people of the Nazis more than any other group. Writers often use this to make it more obvious that their villains are based on the Nazis. The brown party uniform isn't used as often, mostly because it's quite ugly.
    • Similarly, Mussolini's black military uniform, including the black cap.
    • Robin Williams' Hawaiian shirts. There's rarely a parody of him where he isn't wearing one.
    • Similarly, Weird Al Yankovic and Hawaiian shirts. Al doesn't even wear them much anymore, but it's one of the immediate things associated with him. In addition, he had his eye surgery done and shaved his moustache before he started work on The Weird Al Show. However, his glasses and moustache were so iconic that he wore fake ones for the duration of the show, aside from skits. The image change wasn't popularly known until the album Running With Scissors.
    • Tina Fey and her glasses.
    • Aretha [dead link] Franklin's hat that she wore to Obama's [dead link] inauguration.
    • The Duke of Wellington: "I shall come in any damn trousers I like!"
    • Colonel Sanders and his iconic white suit.
    • Carl Sagan's tan blazers, often worn with a turtleneck.
    • George W. Bush and his flight suit.
    • Winston Churchill's pen-striped suit.
    • Douglas MacArthur's corncob pipe. Not to mention the aviator shades, before the aviators started wearing them, in a literal case of Follow the Leader. It helps that General MacArthur had been a Brigadier General since 1918, which for many people only familiar with him from World War II and The Korean War, makes him Older Than They Think. Before the shades, he as known for his turtleneck sweater and swagger stick which he'd wear on the battlefield.
    • The comforting sweaters and sneakers of everyone's favourite TV show host Mr. Rogers?
    • Steve Jobs' penchant for rollneck shirts and blue jeans.
    • Matthew Lesko's Riddler-like question-mark suits.
    • American writer and journalist Tom Wolfe and his trademark white suits.
    • Ryan Ross's Rose vest. The vest alone has fangirls.
    • Napoleon Bonaparte's bicorne hat and uniform.
    • Audrey Hepburn's outfit [dead link] . Specially the cigarette holder.
    • The yellow suit worn by Bertie Ahern to a meeting of world leaders.
    • Mr. T's gold chains
    • George Lucas' flannel shirts.
    • George R. R. Martin's glasses, button up shirts, suspenders and hat, to the point that any guy with the right build and beard can be a decent lookalike.
    • Jackie Kennedy's pink Chanel suit—used as a plot point in The House of Yes via the character of Jackie-O.
    • Mike Jittlov's green jacket and green sneakers, to the point that his credit on The Wizard of Speed and Time simply reads "Directed by the man in the green jacket".
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