History Main / DressingToDie

* In the Literature/ErastFandorin novel ''She, Lover of Death'', the title heroine, Columbina, chooses her best dress to commit a ritualistic suicide in, which she believes to be a "marriage" to Death itself (or "himself", as she prefers to word it).

* On ''WesternAnimation/KingOfTheHill'', Cotton puts on his old military dress uniform and all of his BlingOfWar in preparation to kill himself, but ultimately does not go through with it after [=DiDi=], overworked and unaware of Cotton's depressed state, barges in just in time and forces him to watch Good Hank for a while since she's been with him all day. [[spoiler:Though he eventually ''does'' kill himself in a much later episode, for entirely different reasons and while wearing a very ''not'' fancy hospital gown]].

* In ''VideoGame/SpecOpsTheLine'', Colonel Konrad commits suicide while wearing his dress uniform.

* ''Literature/TheAndromedaStrain''. Almost everyone in the small town of Piedmont dies when the Andromeda Strain is released. However, some people go crazy and kill themselves instead of dying from the effects of the disease. One of these is William Arnold, who puts on his WorldWarI U.S. Army uniform before shooting himself in the head.

* Averted in ''Series/HowIMetYourMother'' when Barney goes to jump from Robin's balcony: he ''is'' wearing a suit, but he is usually wearing a suit.

* Inverted in ''Literature/NewesOfTheDead'': Anne Green is a servant girl and walks to her execution in her undershirt, giving her cloak and gown to her mother even though it's freezing cold. The novel takes place in a time period when clothes were very expensive, so the decisoin makes sense from a practical point of view.

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SuperTrope to BarefootSuicide. Often leads to FrozenFashion when the character was from the past and gets resurrected.

* Inverted to a degree during the final episode of ''Series/BreakingBad''. [[spoiler:Walt's trap for his final enemies, the Aryans, can only be pulled off if they think that he's desperate, penniless, and without any resources that could harm them, so he looks and dresses the part for his confrontation with them. Only when they've relaxed and gathered everyone that Walt wants to take out in one place does he unleashes MoreDakka on them]]. The fact that he looks like crap is even commented on by Jack.

* In ''WebComic/HeroOhHero'', [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold Daryl]] is seen wearing his old Captain of the Guard uniform. Everyone's wondering why he [[HesBack didn't come to reclaim his old job]] [[spoiler: and they realise he's probably going to commit SuicideByCop by challenging the hero (who he blamed for the situation).]]

* In ''WesternAnimation/XMen'', during the "Dark Phoenix Saga", Jean Grey puts on her old Marvel Girl costume [[spoiler:while preparing to be executed for her crimes as the Dark Phoenix]].

-->-- '''Dahlia''', ''[=McQueen=]: or Lee and Beauty''

* Dahlia in the play ''[=McQueen=]'' has Lee make her a dress, wanting to look pretty when she dies though she doesn't tell him this. Though, she could be a figment of his imagination as a personification of his depression and so when he tries to save her life she asks him what he was doing with his belt when she came to get her dress, suggesting he should have known because he was doing the same/they are the same.

Part of dressing to die, if the death is a suicide, is commonly testing a belt around the knuckles. A common version of this trope is for a former or current member of the military to get out their dress uniform. Likewise, law enforcement, superheroes, athletes, and others with a similar uniform often will don it before suicide. There are quite a few such examples below.

Part of dressing to die, if the death is a suicide, is commonly testing a belt around the knuckles.

* Inverted in ''Literature/NewesOfTheDeath'': Anne Green is a servant girl and walks to her execution in her undershirt, giving her cloak and gown to her mother even though it's freezing cold. The novel takes place in a time period when clothes were very expensive, so the decisoin makes sense from a practical point of view.

* In the US ''Series/BeingHumanRemake'', Sally, after realizing that the body she returned to life in is going to die soon if she doesn't kill people, decides to FaceDeathWithDignity and become a ghost again rather than hurt anyone to stay alive. However, this time her friends help her pick out a good outfit to wear to her death (since that'll be what her ghost form will wear forever, and last time she was unfortunate enough to suffer a sudden death while wearing something rather boring).

SuperTrope to BarefootSuicide.

->"I came for a dress, like I said. But I lied. It was a dress to die in. It matters how things are seen. You make clothes that make the dark bits in me matter. If I'm in this then I will mean something."
-->--'''Dahlia''', ''[=McQueen=]: or Lee and Beauty''

* Dahlia in the play ''[[=McQueen=]]'' has Lee make her a dress, wanting to look pretty when she dies though she doesn't tell him this. Though, she could be a figment of his imagination as a personification of his depression and so when he tries to save her life she asks him what he was doing with his belt when she came to get her dress, suggesting he should have known because he was doing the same/they are the same.

Compare BringMyRedJacket. Contrast KillerOutfit, WhiteShirtOfDeath.

* In ''Film/{{Titanic}}'' some of the men are seen returning to their rooms to change into their formal suits when they realise that they're going down with the ship. The captain also goes to put on his Captain's hat and jacket, parts of the official regalia not usually worn when actually captaining a ship but for ceremonial purposes, when he chooses to stay on the bridge.