"Let me tell you something about Willow. She's a loser. And she always has been. People picked on Willow in junior high school, high school, up until college. With her stupid mousy ways. And now? Willow's a junkie."
Evil Costume Switches in Live-Action TV.
- The Journey of Flower:
- Zi Xun starts wearing dark colours after defecting to the demons' side.
- Qian Gu starts wearing more make-up and dark red clothes after she becomes a demon.
- The Eternal Love: Yi Huai starts wearing dark colours and black eyeshadow after he decides to usurp the throne.
- Ten Miles of Peach Blossoms: Xuan Nu starts out wearing bright colours, but switches to darker clothes after becoming a traitor and marrying Li Jing.
- Princess Agents: Yan Xun starts wearing black clothes and dark eyeshadow after his Face–Heel Turn.
- In the fourth series Blake's 7 episode "Assassin", the female assassin pretends to be a slave and spends most of the episode in frumpy clothes, blubbing. Naturally, when the truth is revealed, she stops to change into a rather stylish little black number and redo her hair.
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer:
- A variation of this happened in early season 2: Drusilla was introduced as a Virgin in a White Dress to exemplify her child-like mentality and vulnerability. After she got her power restored, thus became more actively evil, she dressed in much darker colors like red and black.
- Dark Willow is the Power Dyes Your Hair version. Wishverse Willow is an Alternate Universe vampire who dresses in a black leather corset. Lampshaded in "Doppelgangland" when Willow has to do some Dressing as the Enemy.
- In the episode where Vampire Willow first appears, "The Wish", there's also Vampire Xander, with his leather pants.
- Similarly, Angel's switch to Angelus on Buffy or Angel was usually accompanied by wearing a lot more leather. A lampshade was hung on this in season 2 of Angel, when the possibility of Angel turning evil made Lorne consider the great benefits of Angel in leather.
- Also lampshaded in "Eternity", where Cordelia says that she knows he's still Angel because Angelus would never wear the outfit Angel had on.
- Really, any time someone mainly wears leather, they're going to be evil. Other than Buffy herself, who has worn some pretty hot leather pants while still kicking evil's collective ass.
- When Anya is introduced, she has brunette hair. She colors it blond after becoming human, then goes back to brunette when she becomes a vengeance demon again. When she turns human for the second time, she goes back to blond.
- The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance: When Seladon becomes the new All-Maudra, all the negative comparisons to her mother drive her to renounce the crown and deck herself with a new black crown and gown. Naturally, her new regalia is compared to those of the Skeksis, whom she had pledged her undying allegiance to.
- Heroes:
- Eden, after being revealed as a mole, spends a lot of time wearing black leather.
- There's also Sylar, who apparently got contacts when he went insane and decided to go around stealing people's brains, not to mention trading in his unfashionable knitwear for a more stylish, predominantly black wardrobe. In one of the alternate futures, he is shown wearing glasses again when he becomes good and stops using his powers.
- Lexx had the Brunnen-G, who wore very bright colors. When Kai, last of the Brunnen-G, became an undead assassin for His Divine Shadow, his clothes became a blackened version of the same outfit. This was slightly subverted when Kai joined forces with our "heroes", and his clothes remained black for the rest of the series.
- Well, he is still undead. The dead do not need colors.
- And then, he was dressed in those clothes, as opposed to choosing himself. The whole point of making undead assassins was that The Order tried (and mostly succeeded) in taking everything from their new servants, including their memories and sense of identity. This was supposed to be doubly ironic in Kai's case, being the one predicted to destroy His Shadow, and turned into a tool of the villain, while his purpose was supposed to be removed, along with his identity (this last part mostly succeeded). It didn't go too well on the destiny part, though...
- Kamen Rider loves to color-code alignments with this. Business suits are usually a good sign of someone being evil or turning evil, Kamen Rider Drive being an exception.
- Kit Taylor/Kamen Rider Dragon Knight is an interesting subversion as he had nightmares about turning evil, complete with a dark Palette Swap of his usual red armor, but his alignment did not change after receiving it. Yes, he is slightly less nice than before, but that's because of the things that has been heaped on him over the course of the story and not even a significant change.
- Eiji Hino/Kamen Rider OOO starts out wearing bright, garish colors, but midway through the show, he gains a Deadly Upgrade that slowly begins turning him into a Greeed. Just like all of the other Greeed wear colors in their human guises matching their monstrous forms, Eiji soon starts wearing almost exclusively purple, black, and white to match his own.
- Mitsuzane Kureshima of Kamen Rider Gaim starts out with light blue Team Gaim hoodie and formal school uniform as a part of his dual life. His progress through darker shirts and sweaters, ending with a black business suit, mirrors both his increasingly awful decisions and his scattering marbles.
- By the end of the first season of Kamen Rider Amazons, protagonist Haruka has gone from wearing a pristine white shirt to one that's red and black as he's lost his innocence and embraced his savage nature.
- Kamen Rider Ex-Aid's Hiiro Kagami changes from his white doctor's coat to a black business suit after being enticed into working for the Big Bad. Kiriya Kujo wears a black leather jacket when he makes a similar heel turn, as well as gaining a new Rider form that features far more black and uses the black Proto Gashats as power-ups, which give him dark monochromatic armor. Both characters switch back to their original clothes upon turning face again, but the latter keeps his new gear.
- Parodied in How I Met Your Mother. Barney's backstory reveals that he became the womanizer he is today due to being rejected by one woman. Classic trope style, Barney shaves, aggressively pulls on his sleeves, then the camera pulls away to reveal his new, entirely black suit.
- In a Charmed (1998) Mirror Universe, the gals' alternate versions are dressed in black. In an episode where Piper temporarily becomes evil, her look changes to what Television Without Pity's recapper aptly described as "Dungeon Mistress Barbie". And then there's the time Prue went undercover as "Ms. Hellfire".
- In the first season of Who Wants to Be a Superhero?, when the Iron Enforcer became the Dark Enforcer, Stan Lee gave him a new (almost entirely black) outfit.
- In season 4 of Breaking Bad, Jesse swapped out his brightly coloured hip-hop ensemble for black pants, a leather jacket, and a shaved head after he kills another meth cook that Gus was planning to replace him and Walter with.
- Red Dwarf:
- When Rimmer is infected by the holo-virus in "Quarantine", just look at his clothes! He's in a red and white checked gingham dress and army boots with a penguin puppet he calls Mr. Flibble.
- In "Demons and Angels", the ship and its crew acquire dark and light versions of themselves. The Light Crew, predictably, dress in white and gold, while the Dark Crew look like every stereotype you've ever seen of goth S&M freaks, especially Rimmer.
- Star Trek:
- In the original Mirror Universe episode "Mirror, Mirror", the Imperial Starfleet wear a gaudier uniform than the originals, with gold sashes and lots of decoration. Kirk's uniform top is a metallic vest, and female crewmembers wear midriff-exposing vests. The Deep Space Nine mirror episodes go for the leather.
- A less extreme version occurs in the Star Trek: Voyager episode "Living Witness", in which the holographic Doctor's data back-up boots up in an alien museum and finds that history has painted the Voyager crew as villains. Their uniforms already being mostly black, the main difference is the inclusion of black leather gloves, although Chakotay has a larger tattoo on his face and Seven is still Borg. The undershirts are black instead of the usual grey, as well.
- In an episode of Lois & Clark, where Clark suffers Grand Theft Me, his hijacker dresses him in leather pants and a black lycra shirt. Quoth Lois: "Change out of that stupid outfit, honey."
- Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon: Sailor Mercury dresses noticeably more fashionably and in darker colors when she's brainwashed by Kunzite. Her sailor uniform gains dark accents and a black tulle bow on the back.
- Smallville:
- Clark wears blacks, greens, and reds when evil instead of his usual blues, reds, and yellows. Subverted in season 9, where his superhero costume is black and silver, but he is still goodnote .
- Chloe is once affected by some parasites that makes her go crazy over Clark and doesn't miss the chance to mock Lana on the way about it; she wears only black compared to the varied colours she normally wears. She even dyed the tips of her hair black. The other time was a bit awkward as she happens to be wearing black when Lionel persuades her to turn against Clark.
- In "Wrath", Lana also wears only black after she gained Kryptonian abilities and went psycho.
- Possibly the subtlest is Londo on Babylon 5, whose clothing slowly turned darker and more militant over the course of the first two seasons, without ever changing the basic style. Lampshaded by Vir: "...there's no question the ambassador is going through changes. He even LOOKS different."
- In an episode of Flash Gordon (2007), Dale is possessed by a witch and dons a vampy red dress and lipstick. Confusingly for the viewer, this makes Dale look like Princess Aura, who has similar facial features to Dale but is distinguished by...her red dress and lipstick.
- In the BBC's Robin Hood, both Allan and Isabella start wearing copious amounts of black leather immediately after their Face Heel Turns. Lampshaded by the sheriff after Allan shows him several of Robin's secret routes into the castle: "Upgrade this boy to leather."
- Not that he wasn't already kind of evil to begin with, but once the Dean gives him the go-ahead to take out the remaining players, in the Community episode "Modern Warfare", Senor Chang changes to an outfit similar to that worn by The Killer (1989).
- 24:
- Done to Tony Almeida by having him switch to a shaved head, a beard, and a black leather jacket when he's working with the terrorists at the beginning of season 7. But it actually gets zig-zagged: Almost immediately it's revealed that Tony is actually undercover and secretly working with Bill Buchanan and Chloe O'Brien to stop the terrorists, but later on three quarters into the season it then reveals he's working with another set of terrorists. By the time Tony's done this, he's actually lost his leather jacket by that point. Of course, in the end, he's actually on a rogue vendetta thing targeting the leader of the other group of terrorists... it's complicated. But during a season where he's mostly presented to us as someone we can't trust, his look reflects it.
- Jack's armored-up appearance from one of the final episodes could potentially be seen as this.
- Doctor Who:
- In "The Power of the Daleks", the Doctor notices that the character Bragen has changed into a black, dictatorial uniform and realizes that it means he's about to do something awful.
- At the climax of "The Robots of Death", Dask reveals his real identity by showing himself to the others wearing Uncanny Valley Makeup, a wavy hairstyle, and clothes that make him resemble one of the robots in the setting.
- Over the course of the 3-part Series 9 finale, the Doctor undergoes a Protagonist Journey to Villain (specifically Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds/The Unfettered) thanks to a Trauma Conga Line "highlighted" by the death of his companion/sweetheart Clara. Thus, in the Season Finale "Hell Bent", he discards his red velvet Crombie coat in favor of a dusty black overcoat in the early going; when a character points out that this isn't very "Doctor-y", he says "I can't be the Doctor all the time." Eventually he has his Heel Realization and repents, so the episode ends with him receiving a new red velvet coat, among other things.
- Queen Regina in Once Upon a Time evidently went through this when she transformed from the sweet girl she was into the Evil Queen.
- Game of Thrones:
- In Season 4 after Princess Classic Sansa Stark decides to throw in her lot with Magnificent Bastard Littlefinger, she does a Grand Staircase Entrance in a black gown with feathers on the shoulders (playing on Littlefinger's mockingbird sigil) showing a good deal more cleavage than usual. Littlefinger is visibly stunned. It's downplayed in the following season, where she just wears the same black cloak and gloves as Littlefinger (she's going Oop North and Winter is coming, after all).
- Although she was already pretty unpleasant to start with, to celebrate by far her most vile acts of blowing up the Sept of Baelor along with hundreds, if not thousands, of people to destroy her enemies the Sparrows and the Tyrells and usurp the throne, Cersei Lannister trades in her red and gold flared-sleeved gowns for some black leather dresses with silver chains and shoulder armour accessories. Interestingly it's also a reversal of the usual costume switch in some ways because her previous outfits leant towards being elaborate with Navel-Deep Neckline but her new ones are modestly high collared and minimalist by comparison, probably because they're designed to resemble her late father's clothes.
- After being reinstated as the Faith Militant, the Sparrows swap their humble grey robes for black ones adorned with chains and religious symbols carved into their foreheads.
- The Flash (2014): In the Season 5 episode "Gone Rogue," XS swaps out her white and purple suit for black leather when she joins the Young Rogues. They lampshade that just changing your clothes doesn't say much about your morality, but admit the red Glowing Eyes of Doom are a lot more impressive.
- Done for laughs in a parody of Agatha Christie on That Mitchell and Webb Look. The Poirot expy knows that he has found the killer when a mousy, frumpy woman he has accused starts doing 'the evil voice', using a cigarette holder, wearing sexy lipstick, and showing more cleavage even though she is ostensibly still wearing the same dress.
- Power Rangers:
- Power Rangers in Space: Astronema, Princess of Evil, decides to pull a Heel–Face Turn and side with the Rangers after learning Red Ranger Andros is her long-lost brother. The other evil forces won't have this and put her under intense mind control. She emerges with a red bob cut and a brainwashing device fused to her forehead.
- Power Rangers Cosmic Fury: Ollie takes on the Astronema-esque role of a Ranger's loved one who's been brainwashed into being The Dragon. Lord Zedd and Scrozzle modify his Ranger powers and give him a new costume what is essentially a suit of armor on top of his spandex. The evil upgrade includes Spikes of Villainy, snarling red eyed triceratops heads on his shoulders, and a belt that prominently features the logo of the Evil, Inc. responsible for his condition, Squid Ink Inc.
