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Clothing Switch

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"I wear it better." "Says you."
Simply one or more characters putting on clothes belonging to someone else. It's often for fun, dressing up, or... something more kinky (for them and us). And, depending on the characters, this can be Fanservice.

Heck, this can even happen by accident, just for Rule of Funny (getting wardrobes mixed up at a public laundromat is a particularly common way for this to happen). In more fantastical settings where Shapeshifting Excludes Clothing, two characters with very different physiques who know they're about to undergo a "Freaky Friday" Flip or a Physical Attribute Swap (or if one character is about to change and the other character just happens to have clothes that fit the new size) may preemptively do this to avoid Clothing Damage.

Can overlap with Side-Story Bonus Art. The key is that the characters are wearing each others' outfit, or that a character is clearly wearing the clothes of another character in the same Canon.

Not to be confused with Cosplay, unless that character is actually wearing the clothes of the person that character is dressing up as. Simply making clothes like it doesn't count.

A Super-Trope to Sexy Shirt Switch.

Compare Whole Costume Reference.


Examples:

    open/close all folders 

    Anime & Manga 
  • In vol 1 of Cesare - Il Creatore che ha distrutto, Angelo falls in a river, and Cesare invites him over for a change of clothes and some wine. Thus, readers are treated to a few chapters of Angelo in Cesare's elegantly tailored black silk. Angelo, who comes from a humble background while Cesare is from one of the highest noble families in Spain, says he's never worn anything so fine. Later on, when Cesare wants to disguise himself and enjoy the festival, he borrows Angelo's clothes to look like a Florentine commoner. Only the second scene is included in the musical.
  • The Fairy Tail omake "Whose Clothes Are These" has Gray, after stripping himself again, put on Natsu's clothes from the lost and found while Natsu ends up with Gray's clothes. This ends up leading to a series of Clothes Swap between the guild members, such as Erza using her requip magic to swap outfits with Lucy and Wendy or Happy talking the other Exceeds into swapping clothes with him.
  • Played for Drama in Kill la Kill, a setting where Clothes Make the Superman but can also overwhelm their wearers—Ryuko is rendered Brainwashed and Crazy when Junketsu is sewn into her skin, forcing Satsuki to wear Senketsu in order to fight her.
  • In one chapter of Nabari no Ou, Gau is shown wearing the jacket Raikou had been wearing earlier in the same chapter.
  • In the Kyoto arc of Negima! Magister Negi Magi, Konoka and Setsuna dress like a Japanese princess and a Shinsengumi officer respectively when they visit the Toei Kyoto Studio Park, highlighting their Lady and Knight dynamic. In the Alternate Continuity Negima!? neo, they swap roles: Setsuna wears the luxurious kimono and Konoka wears the Shinsengumi uniform because Konoka wanted to play the bodyguard for once.
  • In the final episode of Pani Poni Dash!, the characters Behoimi and Media swap clothes on some whim. Behoimi finds she isn't thrilled about wearing Media's maid outfit while Media finds herself thrilled to be wearing such unconstraining clothes like Behoimi's school uniform. She begins twirling around in joy showing a fair amount of leg as the skirt begins to rise up. Behoimi begins listing reasons why they should switch back quickly, one of them being along the lines of "and I'm starting to get turned on".
  • At one point in Ranma ½, the title character has to wear his fiance's clothes because all of his are in the wash. It's not cross dressing because he is in girl form at the time. However, it earns him Akane's wrath when he points out that there is plenty of room in the hip region, but it's a bit tight around the bust.
  • Read or Die has a scene in the manga where Yomiko Readman tries on Nenene's outfits. Nenene ridicules her for being 25 years old and not being able to fit into them well, as well as implying she is homely.
  • In an episode of Sailor Moon, to fake out a villain guessing that Usagi is Sailor Moon, Sailor Venus disguises herself as Sailor Moon.
  • In Saiyuki Reload, in a Urasai extra, the four decide to switch outfits. Sanzo wears Gojyo's outfit, Gojyo wears Goku's outfit, Hakkai wears Sanzo's outfit, and Goku wears...a magical girl costume for "fanservice".
  • The Seven Deadly Sins has a cover where Meliodas swaps his clothes with Ban and Diane swaps hers with Elizabeth. Also, Diane has to use Elizabeth's clothes after they shrink and when Elizabeth recovers her real size she has to borrow Veronica's jacket.
  • Fairly early on in ∀ Gundam, Queen Dianna Soreill asks Identical Stranger Kihel Heim to swap clothes with her because they look almost exactly alike and Dianna wants to know how she looks in her favorite dress from behind. Then they get separated before they can switch clothes back, and since they so closely resemble each other, virtually everyone thinks that the woman in the Queen's dress is the Queen, leading to an accidental Twin Switch that lasts most of the series.

    Comic Books 

    Comic Strips 

    Fan Works 
  • In this CSI fanfic, Nick and Greg accidentally out themselves by wearing each other's clothes to work. Hilarity Ensues.
  • Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman try it here.
  • In Dungeon Keeper Ami Mercury's power-up magic (which replaces whatever she happens to be wearing with her senshi uniform, makeup, and jewelry) is duplicated onto each and every minion she possesses, due to the dungeon heart link. This includes goblins, a horned reaper, and giant beetles. Later, Mercury learns the horned reaper's wardrobe spell (which, incidently, was tailored for a male user, and lacks a top). Needless to say, Hilarity Ensues.
  • In A Growing Affection, Hinata ends up wearing some of Naruto's casual clothing in one chapter, after he accidentally gets her uniform all muddy. They end up staying in for lunch because she is embarrassed by the Sexy Shirt Switch implication.
  • As of Chapter 23 of Maim de Maim, in a rather rare serious take on this trope, Nonon Jakuzure has begun to wear Junketsu during Satsuki's sudden jerkass arc, even going as far as to risk her own life to perform "Life Fiber Override" with him.
  • In Pokémon Master, Misty and Erika switch clothes so Misty can get Ash out of the Rebellion's base.
  • Conway and Paul do this independently of each other in Chapter 20 of Travels of the Trifecta.
  • In this Invader Zim fic (part of a series where Zim and Gaz become Vitriolic Best Buds who develop UST), Gaz talks Zim into letting her crash on his couch after being caught in a heavy rainstorm. Since her clothes are soaked, she convinces him to loan her something to wear, which he does in the form of a shirt that's long enough on her that she can wear it like a dress. The next morning, since her clothes are still wet, she keeps Zim's shirt and wears it home.

    Films — Live-Action 
  • In High School Musical 2, in the scene after they sing "I Don't Dance," Ryan and Chad are wearing each other's clothes.
  • In Loaded Weapon 1 when a helicopter is approaching to destroy Colt's house, Colt and Destiny run out wearing each others underwear.
  • Two characters in the early part of Loose Screws switch shirts. The guy wears "Wanna trade?" and the girl wears "Sure".
  • In Spice World, the girls take turns doing this during one of the musical numbers.
  • Mid-way in The Wiggles Movie, the fab four return to their home in search of the missing Dorothy the Dinosaur, and check their rooms to see if she's in there. One by one, they come out of their rooms wearing different colored shirts. When they noticed Murray was wearing yellow instead of red, the four panicked and rushed back to their rooms to undo the switch.
  • Lando Calrissian infamously wears Han Solo's clothes at the end of The Empire Strikes Back. This is not mentioned once by any of the characters in the actual film. The most commonly accepted explaination is that Lando was forced to leave Cloud City with nothing but the clothes on his back, and Han, having just become a wall decoration, wouldn't be needing them.
  • The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent has Nick and Javi try on each other's shoes while stalling orders to kill each other. Javi ends up preferring Nick's taos taupe checkerboard Vans slip-ons to his brown Gucci loafers, resulting in the friends "like, permanently" trading shoes.

    Literature 
  • In Everworld, this happens when the protagonists have to pass through the Hetwan capital with Dionysus and Ganymede, whom Ka Anor wants to eat. This is a problem because gods, as a rule, are larger than mortals—Christopher has to wrap Dionysus' toga around himself three times, while the rail-thin Jalil is left with only Ganymede's very ill-fitting Loincloth. Dionysus, meanwhile, can barely squeeze into a collection of Christopher and David's clothes, while Ganymede can't even button his shirt.
  • Robert Munsch:
    • Thomas' Snowsuit involves a series of these, with a teacher and then the principal trying to get Thomas into his snowsuit. Each time, one of them takes Thomas in one hand, the snowsuit in the other, a fight ensues, and when the dust clears, no one is wearing the right clothes.
    • Near the end of We Share Everything, Jeremiah and Amanda end up switching their outfits when they both decide to share their clothes, and the rest of the kindergarten class follows suit.
  • In The Widow of Desire, Natalie is trying to get away from the KGB following her, and while hiding in a bar, a Russian lady admires Natalie's white Russian lynx coat. Since Natalie's fur sticks out like a sore thumb in the soviet streets, while the admiring lady's brown fur coat isn't so conspicuous, Natalie trades coats to try to hide better.
  • War Junkie by Jon Steele. Steele is dating his producer, and at one point lists all the clothes she's nicked off him. "Do you know how much this relationship has cost me in clothes alone?"

    Live-Action TV 
  • Used to illustrate the phenomenon of "change blindness" on Brain Games and similar cognitive science documentaries.
  • Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Buffy, Willow and Dawn tend to borrow each others clothes, not always with the original owner's permission.
  • This is the twist of Abed and Troy's "awesome elevator" trick in The Tag of one episode of Community.
  • A heavily hyped promo of the short-lived ABC legal drama The Deep End featured the two female leads switching blouses...and then a male co-worker walks in on them changing.
  • Doctor Who:
    • In "Terror of the Zygons", both of the Doctor's companions wear one of his signature clothing items - Harry wears his scarf, and Sarah Jane his hat. (The Doctor himself is wearing a tam o'shanter and a different scarf.)
    • The domestic-TARDIS opening scene in "The Invisible Enemy" features Leela wearing the Doctor's hat.
    • Whenever the Doctor regenerates, he almost always spends some time in the clothes of his previous persona before donning his new outfit. Sometimes it's a single scene (e.g. Nine to Ten in The Christmas Invasion), and other times it's a whole episode (e.g. Twelve to Thirteen in The Woman who Fell to Earth). The exceptions are One to Two in The Power of the Daleks (his clothes change along with his face at regeneration), Seven to Eight in The TV movie (The Doctor is lying nude in a hospital morgue when he regenerates), and War to Nine (regeneration occurs offscreen).
      • Arguably it's debatable whether this qualifies as an example of the trope, since all the Doctors are technically the same character portrayed by different actors, but since each Doctor has a different personality (and each has his/her own character page on this website), there's some justification for its inclusion here.
    • In The Day of the Doctor, The Tenth Doctor briefly dons Eleven's signature fez. And then the Thirteenth Doctor does the same thing in Kerblam! (See above for arguments for/against including this as an example.)
  • The Fresh Beat Band: This happens at the beginning of "Mixed Up Musical" when the Fresh Beats wake up to find that they're wearing a different member's outfit.
  • In the New Girl pilot episode, Jess and Cece do this so Jess can wear Cece's sexy black dress for a date.
  • Our Flag Means Death: In episode 4, Blackbeard and Stede switch clothes so they can "switch lives", after both express their dissatisfaction with their current circumstances. This becomes ominous foreshadowing when it's revealed that Blackbeard planned to kill Stede, steal his identity, and take his place; however, he grows fond of Stede and decides to spare him. This attachment soon leads to him falling in love. Blackbeard actually keeps Stede's tie and wears it with his leather outfit for the rest of the show.
  • Our Miss Brooks: In "Madison Country Club", Miss Brooks spills breakfast on her dress. She borrows a dress belonging to her elderly landlady Mrs. Davis. A kind gesture by Mrs. Davis, but Miss Brooks ends up going to school looking absurd. Hilarity Ensues.
  • In the second season episode of Parks and Recreation "Summer Catalog", non-couple April and Andy switch sweaters off camera in one of their many goofy pranks. The visual of April in Andy's overlarge hoodie and Andy in April's too-tight button-up is a laugh riot, more so when Andy declares "Sweater Swap!" when Leslie finally notices.
  • The Professionals
    • In "No Stone", Bodie and Doyle have clearly swapped shirts in one brief scene. None of the other characters comment on the switch, and it is never explained.
    • In "Mixed Doubles", an unarmed Bodie is facing off with a combat instructor armed with a huge Bowie knife, with Doyle egging on his friend from the sidelines. Doyle then gets angry when Bodie gets his shirt sliced because that's his shirt that he's wearing!
  • Rizzoli & Isles: In "Don't Hate the Player", Maura swaps clothes with Jane so Jane can meet a suspect at a fancy restaurant. Maura's elegant dress fits rather tightly on the taller Jane, while Jane's mannish suit hangs loosely on Maura. The next day, Maura comments that several women hit on her during her walk home.
  • An episode of Small Wonder had Vicki and Harriet trading clothes.
  • In the Starsky & Hutch episode "Foxy Lady," the titular witness sneaks out of the police station by paying the janitor $100 to trade clothes with her.
  • Transatlantic (2023): In the first episode, Mary Jayne suggests to a Ursula, a refugee, that she can clean herself up and present herself on the boat. In the next scene, Mary Jayne walks out wearing Ursula's dirty dress instead of the fine yellow one she was wearing earlier.
  • In Will & Grace, Karen and Grace get drunk and end up swapping clothes. Then they end up passed out, with Grace on top of Karen. Jack and Will walk in and comment on the shame that image is wasted on them.
  • On an episode of You Can't Do That on Television about age discrimination, the dressing room of a Shakespeare program catches fire at the studio, so the adults commandeer the costumes of the YCDTOT cast in exchange for their own charred, smoking period garb. The adults return the clothes once their director realizes how stupid King Lear looks in an undersized T-shirt and shorts.
  • One brief scene in The Young Ones had the four actors all dressed as, and playing, one of the others' character, without further acknowledgment or explanation.

    Music Videos 

    Theatre 
  • William Shakespeare in Antony and Cleopatra where Cleo says "I drunk him to his bed, then put my tires and mantles on him whilst I wore his sword Phillipan". Which makes this trope Older Than Steam.
  • 'Dentity Crisis by Christopher Durang features Doctor Summers and his wife Harriet switching bodies, then trading clothes for the sake of familiarity.

    Video Games 
  • In Action Taimanin, the costumes created via Crafting Facility serves as Palette Swap costumes of other Taimanins. For example, Kurenai's "Crimson Young" is a blue version of Sakura's default costume, and even Kirara's "Crimson Blizzard" has her wearing a light purple version of Kurenai's standard outfit.
  • As unlockable costumes in Disgaea 3: Absence of Justice, Raspberyl and Sapphire swap garb.
  • Happens a couple of times in Ensemble Stars!: in "Mismatched Pair Lessons" Anzu suggests that a number of characters try to learn from each other's strengths by acting as a member of that unit for a day, resulting in unlockable costumes of them dressed in the other's costume. (The pairs being: Shinobu/Yuuta, Keito/Wataru, Souma/Kanata, and Tori/Hajime.) And in "Melty Sweet Chocolate Fest" Tsukasa and Tomoya also exchange unit outfits.
  • In the Kim Possible PS2 game Disney's Kim Possible: What's the Switch?, you can unlock Shego's uniform as one of Kim's costumes, and Kim's mission outfit as one of Shego's costumes.
  • In Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, there are badges that let Mario wear either Luigi or Wario's outfit; wearing both at the same time gives him Waluigi's, and the Luigi one is needed for a sidequest.
  • In the Super Smash Bros. series, Mario has Wario's outfit for one of his alternate colors; in Brawl, Wario also has Mario's original blue shirt / red overalls look as one of his and Luigi has Waluigi's.
  • One of Colette's alternate outfits in the PS2 version of Tales of Symphonia is Lloyd's usual red getup, obtained after an event where she falls into the stream near Lloyd's house.
  • Xenoblade Chronicles 3: The main characters have default outfits that they wear once they change out of their Kevesi/Agnian military uniforms. Each character also has a default Class at the beginning. When a main character switches from one Class to another, his or her clothes will magically change into a version of the outfit worn by whoever started with that Class (i.e. changing their Class to Attacker - Swordfighter will give them a variant of Noah's red jacketed outfit). Played with, as the new outfit is still influenced by the character's personal style (so Sena's outfit always has a bare midriff and short shorts, but shifting the other characters to her Attacker - Ogre Class won't give them those specific attributes).

    Web Animation 
  • Dreamscape: As part of the Art Evolution in episode 7, many of the characters get new outfits.
  • DSBT InsaniT: All of which have been based off of outfits from Tomodachi Life so far.
    • Martha, Portica, and Kayla get new outfits in 'Store Story'.
    • Lisa has a new outfit by the start of 'VRcade', and Amber gets a new outfit as a prize at the end of the episode.
      • Lisa gets a tan shirt that has a ribbon tied around its V-neck collar and a matching dress. Also, she has a tan triangle hairpin.
      • Amber gets a hair ribbon, a short-sleeved white shirt, purple shorts, and pink leg and armbands.
    • The rest of the cast ends up with new outfits as part of the Art Evolution in 'Carneelval'.
  • Minilife TV: In "Poking the Pilot", Goshua pranks Chris and Ian by sending them through alternate timelines. One of them involves Chris and Ian switching outfits, which somehow causes an apocalypse.

    Webcomics 

    Western Animation 
  • In a short scene in the Animaniacs episode "A Hard Day's Warners," Yakko, Wakko, and Dot wear each other's outfits while they hide from their fans (including Elmyra, who spots them shortly afterward).
    • Justified, as they were hiding behind magazines with each other's pictures on them.
      • Yakko dressed as Wakko, Wakko dressed as Dot, and Dot dressed as Yakko. Wakko and Dot keep their hat and flower, however.
  • In Daria, Brittany mentions seeing The Rocky Horror Picture Show with Kevin, and they wore each other's underwear. Jane sarcastically asks "Again?"
    • While not a clothing swap as much as a clone Daria puts on her Quinn-est outfit in the episode "Quinn the Brain." Likewise, Quinn wears Daria's outfit to a "Fashion Don'ts Costume Gala" in "Monster."
  • In the Donald Duck cartoon "The Clock Watcher" 1945. As Donald Duck is trying to pull out the Jack-in-the-box out of the floor, the box comes out and pulls Donald Duck in the box with him trapped inside the box and Donald Duck struggles to get out. When he finally bounced out of the box. Donald Ducks clothes switch when Donald Duck is wearing Jack-in-the-box clown costume with his nightcap and accordion as a shirt while the Jack-in-the-box is wearing Donald's blue shirt and hat.
  • The Earthworm Jim cartoon episode "A Lounge Day's Journey into Night" resulted in Jim getting demoted to sidekick after learning Peter was responsible for most of his victories. When this happens, Peter takes Jim's super suit and Jim ties Peter's jacket and shorts to his body.
  • In the Green Eggs and Ham (2019) episode, "Box", Sam-I-Am and Guy-Am-I are wanted for Chickeraffe theft, so the two switch hats to avoid being noticed. This manages to fool everyone, except Michellee.
  • In the Kim Possible episode "The Twin Factor", Dr. Drakken used a mind-control chip on Kim, and made her dress in one of Shego's spare costumes.
  • In Kronk's New Groove, Kronk and Birdwell do a bombie into the ocean and come out wearing each other's swimsuits. They don't fit well.
  • Looney Tunes: In the Bugs Bunny cartoon "Big House Bunny", Bugs tells prison guard Yosemite Sam that he wouldn't be so tough without his uniform, leading Sam to take it off, while Bugs takes off his prison stripes. The Bugs "decides" that Sam is tough enough and puts on Sam's uniform, tricking Sam into putting on Bugs' prisoner uniform and getting beaten up by the other guards and put in a cell.
  • The Loud House:
    • In "Cover Girls", the Loud siblings are made by their parents to do some spring cleaning, so the girls made Lincoln cover for all of them while they go out. In the middle of cleaning, he is forced to go on a video-chat with Pop-Pop. He initially tries to speak for his sisters, but Pop-Pop insists in speaking with them all, so Lincoln sends his sisters a text message telling them to come home immediately. Fortunately, Lincoln is Crazy-Prepared, having a closet full of his sisters' clothing in case he needs to disguise himself as them. After a while of impersonating them, the sisters start to arrive home, and he drags each of them into disguising themselves as another sister, until ultimately, Lincoln ends up dressed as Lily, who is dressed as Lori, who is dressed as Lincoln; while Leni and Lana are dressed as each other; whilst Luna is dressed as Lynn, who is dressed as Lisa, who is dressed as Luan, who is dressed as Lucy, who is dressed as Lola, who is dressed as Luna. And Pop-Pop is fooled by the entire Zany Scheme, having forgotten his glasses. Shortly after Pop-Pop ends the call, the kids' parents come into the room, and after learning what happened, they let them off on cleaning the house under the stipulation that they continue wearing the disguises for the rest of the day, resulting in humiliating situations for all eleven kids.
    • In "Change of Heart", Leni dresses up as Lori in order to help Clyde get over his nosebleeds around the latter, and Lori later returns the favor by dressing up as Leni.
  • In The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh episode "Luck Amok", Tigger, believing Pooh has bad luck, tries to confuse the bad luck by having Pooh and Piglet switch outfits.
  • Phineas and Ferb: In "Hail Doofania!", as part of the episode's role reversal, Vanessa and Candace get stuck wearing each others' signature outfits, thanks to a mix up at the dry cleaners. Neither is happy about it.
  • A Popeye cartoon "On Our Way to Rio'' ends with Popeye and samba dancer Olive dancing so energetically that after a rapid spin they end up in each other's outfits.
  • In the Recess episode "The Copycat Kid", Mikey starts wearing the same clothes as Vince after deciding to copy Vince (Vince had "saved Mikey's life" earlier in the episode). How does Vince show Mikey how annoying this is? By wearing Mikey's clothes.
  • In Saludos Amigos, Donald Duck trades clothes with a local.
  • In Santa Bear's High Flying Adventure, when Santa Bear meets Bully Bear, he swaps their clothes and ties his paws together while Santa Bear was talking. As they look the same except for their clothes, Santa Bear gets mistaken for Bully Bear and goes to jail.
  • In She-Ra and the Princesses of Power, Spinnerella and Netossa seem to be wearing each other's necklaces: Netossa's palette is mostly blue and grey, but her necklace is purple, while Spinnerella is wearing a lot of purple, but her necklace is made of silver, with a blue shape that echoes the ones on Netossa's boots and gauntlets. They're married. Word of God has it that this is a tradition on Etheria in lieu of wedding rings.
  • Several times in SpongeBob SquarePants.
    • "Boating School": Patrick tries on SpongeBob's clothes.
    • "Big Pink Loser": Patrick starts dressing up like SpongeBob in an attempt to be as successful as he is. SpongeBob tries to get Patrick to act normal by dressing up as him.
    • "The Algae's Always Greener": When Plankton switches places with Mr. Krabs, he also gets his outfit. Krabs, meanwhile, goes around naked just as Plankton was, to everyone's horror.
  • Teen Titans (2003): In "The Quest", Robin leaves to train with the "True Master" and Raven, Starfire, Beastboy and Cyborg all put on Robin's spare costumes while he was gone. Robin walks in on the rest of the team dressed as him when he gets back, but lucky for them he's mellowed out after his journey and has a sense of humor about it.
  • In the Teen Titans Go! episode, "Laundry Day", the Titans' clothes become animated by monster slime. They attack the Titans and force them to wear each others' clothes. Robin and Raven end up cross-dressing; with Robin wearing Starfire's clothes and Raven wearing Robin's clothes.

 
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Judy Fills in For Picture Day

hen it's Picture Day at Lone Moose School and Ham and Moon have to go retrieve Dagmar, Judy fills in for both of them for their photo and Crispin fills in for Ham when Judy and Ham are supposed to get their picture together for "Best Siblings".

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