Embarrassing but Empowering Outfit

"Reminds me of this one group I ran with. The barbarian in our group found, and I quote: 'a pink frilly tutu of Strength +6', and he wore it with pride for the rest of the campaign."

— KillItWithFire (comment on The Order of the Stick's forum)

A character has an outfit that grants them immense power but there's one major problem: The outfit looks ridiculous and its powers can't be accessed without wearing it. Despite the benefits, the character is usually hesitant or refuses to wear the outfit all together.

This frequently overlaps with Stripperiffic as usually the outfits, while powerful, are often extremely revealing.

Sub-Trope of Clothes Make the Superman. Will always overlap with either Blessed with Suck or Cursed with Awesome, depending on whether the wearer deems its powers worth having to wear such a thing.

Compare to Impossibly Tacky Clothes, Chainmail Bikini, Embarrassing Superpower.

Closely related to Rainbow Pimp Gear, where it's a discordant combination of empowering articles that makes the character look silly.

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In-Universe Examples Only

Anime & Manga

• Ayakashi Triangle offers an indirect example, where Matoi deduces regular panties can strengthen Matsuri—not immediately, but as a form of training. Since Matsuri wasn't originally female, wearing girly underwear causes him mental stress, thus enhancing his spiritual power. Ironically, it works, but Matsuri doesn't find quite find his new underwear embarrassing—he was just very attached to the specific kind he was wearing before.
  Matoi: Since you're a boy, you prefer traditional fundoshi! But now you must start wearing panties! You'll feel resistant and experience great discomfort, but those emotions will serve to strengthen your spirit and be far more effective than any ascetic training you might do under a mighty waterfall! This is training only you can do!
• In The Demon Girl Next Door, Yuko's Crisis Management form is Stripperiffic to embarrass her to no end, but it does raise her normally pitiful physical abilities as a former Delicate and Sickly girl.
• For the Tournament Arc of Devil & Devil, Mizuno Soujiro — a devil-hunting exorcist — wears a leather outfit that she describes as a holy armor passed down from generations. This gives her a solid amount of Super-Strength; unfortunately, it also looks a lot like a Dominatrix outfit. Since Mizuno usually dresses rather conservatively, she's seriously embarrassed.
• In Final Fantasy: Lost Stranger, Shogo is given the Sapp Inn's employee uniform to wear while he's working there. He is immediately floored by the uniform's stats, including uncapped 20% boosts to STR, DEX, and VIT. But he soon realizes that a lanky, almost-thirty salaryman Dragged into Drag like him can't make the look work the way a cool guy like Cloud can.
• On Kill la Kill, this is a plot point: the Kamui that both Ryuko and Satsuki wear are extremely skimpy and reveal most of the user's torso, almost all of their breasts, and their butt (although they do still explicitly protect non-covered areas of the skin). The embarrassment of wearing it causes Ryuko problems early on because you have to wear Kamui without shame or rejection in order to access their full power. The revealing nature of Kamui later gets some justification when it's revealed that Kamui are sentient aliens and in order to get as much power as possible from them without them overwhelming the wearer's mind they need to be touching as little skin as possible.
• Yuna, the main character of Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear, is almost completely dependent on a set of 'bear pajamas' that boost all her stats, grant her game-breaking OP skills and recover her HP and mana while she sleeps. She is mortified by the reactions that she gets from everyone, but the suit is too useful and it would be too risky for her to take off now that she's Trapped in Another World. Plus, being non-transferable, she couldn't get rid of it even if she wanted to.
• Yuzuka of Mahou Shoujo Nante Mou Ii Desukara transforms into the Magical Girl version of herself wearing... a swimsuit. It doesn't particularly reveal much, but she hates it.
• The manga Miracle Lingerie parodies Stripperific costumes with a set of actual lingerie that gives superpowers, but only when nothing is worn over it. The heroine is understandably not keen on wearing it in public.
• In Pretty Sammy, the costume Sasami dons when she transforms into Pretty Sammy includes a really short skirt. This is one of the reasons why she doesn't want to be a magical girl.
• Project A-Ko: B-ko's battle armor, Akagiyama 23 enhances her speed and reflexes to match A-ko's. However, it's basically nothing but a skimpy bikini with boots, gauntlets, and a visor. Oddly, B-ko herself isn't at all bothered by wearing it. When A-ko and the other students first see it, they burst out laughing at her. But once the fight begins, A-ko's laughter is short-lived. Later in the film, it's revealed that it also has a built-in jet pack which enables B-ko to fly; which she uses during her attempt to rescue C-ko from Captain Napolipolita. B-ko was able to maneuver effortlessly through a non-stop missile barrage. However, the visor's function doesn't become clear until the fourth movie: Final. It allows B-ko to breathe in outer space. Seen when she flies A-ko into space, to get C-ko back, at 11.5 G's! Subverted when her father steals the design and wears one, and she's the one embarrassed by it.
• Downplayed in The Red Ranger Becomes an Adventurer in Another World. Tougo's Kizuna Red uniform lets him tap into his full power and is typical sentai fare. He's shocked when Idola calls it weird and tacky, as the kids loved it back in his world. Idola mutters that they must have been brainwashed to think such a strange outfit is cool. Misty also calls Tougo a clown for donning such an eccentric costume.
• From Sumomo Mo Momo Mo, Sanae's Uma Kamen outfit. It's an outfit from her tribe that increases its wearer power but it looks like a bondage costume. Sanae hates wearing it and most characters, even the ones she saved, are taken aback to how ridiculous the outfit looks.
• Inverted in Yuusha ga Shinda!. Yuna has a power up that should come without costume changes, but due to the danger of using it her family decided to discourage her by making it so whenever she accessed this power her outfit would transform into the embarrassing Magical Girl costume she made when she was ten.
• Yuusha Gojo Kumiai Kouryuugata Keijiban has two Transforming Heros who despise their outfits (and animal mascots). One is a 20-something Magical Girl given a pastissier theme and the other is a Kamen Rider-esque hero whose outfit is made of vegetables. The latter is so ashamed of his tomato helmet and pumpkin pants that he has arranged to only fight at night.

Comic Books

• In Empowered, the title character possesses a full body super-suit that gives her numerous super abilities, but it's also made of an extremely thin and fragile material. The suit tears easily and even when it's fully intact, it's so form-fitting that it leaves little to the imagination, and nothing can be worn over or under it. These are huge problems for a superheroine like Empowered who has numerous body-image issues — particularly because tearing the suit strips her (pun intended) of her powers. What makes this worse is the main character suspects that the suit is only as strong or weak as the user's self-confidence (with a few memorable occasions that suggest she's absolutely right). This applies both to the abilities it gives, and the fragility of the material. Given how paper-thin the title character's confidence is and how it gets more fragile after every failure...
• In Spider-Man, almost everyone laughs at the Shocker's costume, because it's a big, bulky thing of padded fabric with a cross-patching design that makes him look like a walking mattress or bundled quilt. However, the padding is essential to keep the backlash from his vibration-blaster gauntlets from breaking his own arms, and Shocker's cunning means that Spider-Man, who actually has fought him, never laughs at it.
• In Superman: Secret Origin, Clark expressed his dislike over what would become the Superman costume. Martha Kent designed it to look like standard Kryptonian attire based on what she saw from Jor-El's holograms. Combined with the colorful look and how skin-tight it was, Clark, upon trying it on for the first time, vowed to never wear it again. However, it was also made from the blankets that Clark came to earth with, and was, therefore, virtually indestructible. In fact, Clark's heat vision was the only thing capable of cutting through it, so if he was to continue performing his heroic acts, he would need to wear something that wouldn't easily rip or tear.

Fan Works

• Dungeon Keeper Ami presents us with two examples:
  • Due to the nature of Dungeon Hearts, Keeper Mercury's Transformation Sequence spreads the effects to all her minions and employees. This gives them all her strength and agility boosts, but forces them all to wear sailor fukus as well.
  • One of her rewards for beating a Horned Reaper in a Duel to the Death was the Reaper's transformation spell, which fits the user with the Reaper's Instant Armor and gives them a Sinister Scythe. However, the spell comes with nothing covering the chest area.
• In Imaginary Seas, Percy gets his father's divine armor, which renders him completely immune to all but the most powerful attacks so long as he's by the sea. Neat right? Too bad it's terribly gaudy and leaves his chest and midriff exposed like a metal bra. He puts on a shirt the first chance he gets because of this.
• In The Infinite Loops Darth Vader commissions Rarity to create a cape capable of inspiring fear. She does so... but decorates it with smiley bats. He also asks for a cape that inspires awe and gets one that's white and gold... which doesn't really mesh with his color scheme.
• Starbound, a Lucky Star fic, involves a variation of this, in which Kagami, Konata, and Miyuki's hair end up being restyled against their will. Trying to undo them doesn't work either, as any strands pulled just arrange themselves back into position. Kagami and Miyuki are both embarrassed by this, although Konata doesn't mind so much and finds moe in their new hairstyles. Responsible for their hair situation eventually turn out to be some magical crystals, eventually revealed to contain potent psychokinetic powers.
• In Water Aerobics for the Aquaphobic, Hermione's Jusenkyō curse (Spring of the Drowned Warrior Goddess) comes with a clothing transformation into a Chainmail Bikini, complete with Combat Stilettos. While the outfit actually does protect her (notably, it can absorb magic), it also doesn't change back. Asocial bookworm Hermione is not amused about having to wear it in public, to say nothing of dealing with Scottish weather.
• Vow of Nudity: Spectra suffers this to the extreme with her cursed necklace. It causes anything else she wears to burst into flames, meaning she has to walk around completely naked, but it grants her magical abilities, healing powers, and immunity to disease. Considering the dangerous situations she's constantly getting into, she has little choice but to wear it in order to keep herself alive despite the embarrassment it causes.

Literature

• Is This A Zombie?: The costume worn by Magical Girl Haruna contains lots of ruffles and bows. This isn't so embarrassing for her, but when she accidentally passes on her powers, costume included, to the zombie Ayumu, he is not so amused by the outfit. Unfortunately, in order to activate his powers, the pink bow-covered costume is included. Also when he uses his own Limit Break abilities while wearing it, the costume proceeds to get even girlier. Complete with commentary on his rising cuteness from whoever's on the sidelines.
  Ayumu: What? Not this getup!
  Haruna: It's gonna make you stronger, and way more brave, so don't knock it you jackass!
• In Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear, the main character Yuna is gifted a powerful armor set that grants her massive stat boosts and magical powers, but it looks like a onesie pajama costume with a bear's head for the hood, bear paws on the feet, and a pair of bear hand-puppets. She's quite embarrassed about being seen in public while dressed like that and other characters have a tendency to not take her seriously when they first meet her but she quickly earns a fearsome reputation for the sheer amount of damage, destruction, and death she can cause singlehandedly. The adventurers of the Guild don't say the name "Bloody Bear" lightly.
• In the short story "Origin Story" by Dwight R. Decker, a spirit who's been out of touch with events on Earth for the past century or so offers the protagonist the empowering (and prominently emblazoned) garb of "Captain Swastika". He declines.
• Rebuild World:
  • When Elena hears that Friendly Shop Keeper Shizuka ordered Powered Armor for Akira, she asks to have hers ordered for her too, even though she doesn’t need the help like the uneducated Akira does. As petty revenge (and due to being The Gadfly), Shizuka, after getting a revealing Future Spandex suit for Elena, pushes her out in it for Akira to see, embarrassing both of them. The two soon realize that it’s supposed to go under the user’s regular clothes.
  • There is a Running Gag in the story about armor that looks like maid outfits. The Ninja Maid bodyguards Shiori and Kanae wear them because they’re the best protection they can get their hands on (due to it being a tradition in their MegaCorp). The concept of buff men running around wearing those outfits is brought up a few times, making a few characters wish for Brain Bleach (incidentally, the males working for aforementioned company wear Battle Butler themed armor).
• There's a scene in Slayers where Lina and Amelia put on silly dresses and sing a silly song (in a clear parody of Idol Singers) in order to cast a powerful spell and kill a demon that was supposedly guarding a MacGuffin they're searching for. It produces some lights. The spell was actually for a festival, the Mac Guffin is elsewhere. Lina then killed the demon with her classic Dragon Slave as punishment for watching her embarrass herself.
• In the short story "Wunderpants" by Paul Jennings, the protagonist David is given pink, fairy-print underwear that give him superhuman strength.

Live-Action TV

• Farscape: In the episode "Crackers Don't Matter", Crichton has to face down the Villain of the Week with a jerry-rigged outfit to protect against the light. Said outfit involves a thermal blanket worn as a cape, a shield made from a piece of starship hull, a WWI-era leather pilot cap and goggles, and a cloaking device the size of a hubcap strapped to his chest. The final result is... not encouraging.
  Aeryn: We are going to die.
• In The Greatest American Hero Everyman Ralph Hinkley is given a "super suit" by some friendly aliens. It's spandex but made for someone with a much more muscular physique, and on Ralph it looks a lot like footy pajamas. He is very embarrassed being seen in it, but eventually he gets used to it.
• Incredible Story Studio: One episode stars a boy who makes a Deal with the Devil (who also happens to be his school's American Football coach) for the chance to beat his brother in a match. The Devil/Coach gives him a shirt with a lot of frilly ribbons all over that he has to wear to boost his playing skills. At first he tries to cover it under a sweater, but when his team begins to lose, the Devil/Coach demands that the shirt has to be seen to work, and he reluctantly complies.
• On Wizards of Waverly Place, when Max's powers fully come in he's unable to truly control or use them. In order to do so, he must wear a huge, gaudy, puffy jester hat. Not doing so would cause events like spontaneous indoor blizzards, but doing so made him the laughingstock of the school.
• Charmed:
  • In one episode Phoebe is tricked into becoming a genie, along with all the powers, limitations and garish Bedlah Babe outfit she's forced to wear.
    Phoebe: Would you look at me? I am trapped in pantaloons right now!
  • Piper must defeat a Wicked Witch exploiting Fairy Tale Motifs... by donning Little Red Riding Hood's cape.
  • Billie gains a massive power boost by putting on the Gold Belt of Gaea. The downside is that she gets dressed in a Stripperiffic Amazon costume. Her actress Kaley Cuoco burst into tears when she saw that she'd have to wear it.

Tabletop Games

• Princess: The Hopeful: Since a Princess's Regalia is the expression of her personal nature and hopes, it's not usually possible for its appearance to be something she personally finds embarrassing. However, you do occasionally get cases where the symbolism of a Princess's Regalia is personally meaningful to her, and yet could cause problems if shown in public. This may be because the symbols involved have become associated with some unwholesome group, because the Regalia appears inappropriate to her age and social standing, or just because she has really silly taste.

Video Games

• In Dark Souls, the Catarina armor is ridiculed in-universe for its bulbous, onion-like shape, but the armor itself is masterfully created and amazing for deflecting blows. Male characters might also need to use initially feminine outfits, like a piece of the Priestess set, to help increase other stats, like the amount of magic casts.
• Deltarune has a mild example of this, when you pick up the White Ribbon. It gives +2 to Defense, and Kris can equip it themself, or give it to Ralsei who will ask if it makes him look pretty. Susie however, flat out refuses to wear it if you try to equip it on her, and tells you she's not in first grade anymore. She also has similar reactions to the Pink Ribbon and Twin Ribbon.
• The "Feastday Gifts" DLC from Dragon Age: Origins allows you to manipulate your party members' approval ratings by giving them "gifts" or "pranks" to raise or lower the approval score. The pranks usually follow this trope, being an item that grants bonuses but would be completely out of character, such as a chastity belt for Zevran or a greatsword that emits rainbows and butterflies for Sten.
• In Final Fantasy X-2 if you make Tomboy Paine wear the Songstress dressphere, she will complain in battle in spite of the powers it gives her. She shows more outrage at her mascot dressphere, immediately asking "What the hell is this?" in a very annoyed tone when Shinra reveals it. Her victory pose while wearing it is just her quickly taking the head off and throwing it onto the ground in frustration, despite the fact that it's one of the strongest dresspheres in the game.
• Mai Tsurugino, the primary protagonist of the Makeruna! Makendou trilogy,^note  tetralogy if you count the OAV, is not at all fond of the outfit she finds herself in as Makendou Ichi-go.
• Persona:
  • In Persona 3 there's a bonus female-only costume you can get called the High Cut Armour. It significantly raises a party members attack and defense, can be gotten early on in the game and isn't usurped as the best armor for a while. However, it's also very skimpy and one the few costumes that the girls will comment on specifically if you equip it (usually you get a generic "thanks!" message, but with the HCA you get a "...really? I have to wear this?" one instead).
  • In Persona 3 FES you can actually see what it looks like. Meanwhile, in Persona 3 Portable, the item was renamed to "Battle Panties". Hilariously, the female main character can also wear it, with pride too! This additionally gives amusing reactions from male team members.
  • Persona 5: The outfits the Phantom Thieves wear in the Metaverse are supposed to be reflections of their rebellious souls and yet some of them are ashamed to be seen wearing them: Ann is by far the most vocal at how embarrassed she is at her Spy Catsuit with both Makoto and Yusuke also chipping in to voice their discomfort at their spiky biker getup and fox-themed samurai jumpsuit respectively. This is brought back with a vengeance in Persona Q2: New Cinema Labyrinth where both Ann and Makoto are clearly uncomfortable trying to explain their outfits to both SEES and the Investigation Team.
• The World Ends with You has something like this with its 'threads' system. Instead of buying armor or the like, you buy designer clothing that grants you bonuses. Female clothing tends to have very high bonuses, but most of your characters are male. To get them to wear it requires increasing the "Bravery" stat. Shiki, the only playable girl, starts with a moderately high Bravery stat.

Web Animation

• Discussed in the Zero Punctuation review of Yoshi's Crafted World, in which in-game currency can be used to purchase costumes that Yoshi can wear, which are ostensibly just amusing little outfits to be worn for fun. Some of the rarer ones allow Yoshi to take a few additional hits before any health is lost when equipped, however, and one of the collectable flowers in every level requires the player to complete them at full HP.
  Yahtzee: The super-rare costumes let you tank a frankly insane five additional hits before you start losing health, so why the fuck would you wear anything else? All aesthetic preference is out the window. Maybe you think the bottle cap costume is a sportier little number, but when there's both survival and the extra flower for beating the level at full health at stake, I'll dress up like a fucking cowpat for five free hits.

Web Comics

• In El Goonish Shive, Elliot's Super Gender-Bender spell involves transforming his clothes into an outfit that makes him resemble a cheerleader. The one time he uses the spell while thinking about a different outfit, he ends up with an even more embarrassing skin-tight outfit instead.
• In Girl Genius Gilgamesh Wulfenbach acquires a hat so impressive that no one who sees it can doubt who he is (well, except that one guy). It's huge, purple, on fire, and has "Gilgemesh Wulfenbash: Schmott Guy!" written on it. The moment he's done using it to establish his identity, he orders it taken away and never spoken of again.
• Goblins has a subversion, when Minmax complains loudly about Forgath forcing him to wear a suit of magical pink armor. He doesn't realize that one of the armor's properties is the ability to take on any color he says out loud.
• Homestuck:
  • Most God-Tier outfits (a.k.a. God Hoods) are pretty decent-looking, but some of the class-based variations are just embarrassing — particularly the Page, Prince, and Bard outfits. The hypnotic terribleness of Jake and Gamzee's speedo shorts and jutting codpiece respectively get Played for Laughs. Meanwhile, Dirk gets a ridiculous pair of pantaloons that Caliborn refers to as "NONSENSE TROUSERS". Fortunately, while the outfit comes with ascending to the God Tiers (and is super-comfy and self-cleaning), it isn't required to access any of the other perks. Furthermore, Meenah reveals that it is possible to modify them.
  • Gamzee's codpiece might be an Embarrassing Outfit for anyone else, but he actually seems to like it (especially since it's outright stated by another character that his "Cod Tier" outfit is a fake).
  • Meanwhile, John's god tier outfit is relatively normal, but the hood is longer than he is tall.
• Magick Chicks: The mysterious wand grants Melissa Hellrune unimaginable power, enough to trigger a level 9 magical event. Said wand also comes with an outlandish Cute Witch Magical Girl costume. Melissa is not pleased.
• In one strip of Oglaf, a man asks an apparently really misogynist blacksmith to commission him some armor. The blacksmith, disgusted by the man's lack of facial hair, begins haranguing him for his supposed lack of masculinity. The man ends up getting a breastplate with an enormous bust and the word "SLUT" embossed on the front in big block letters. The man concedes, though, that "it's really good armor".
• The Order of the Stick: Haley has a pair of magical Boots of Speed, but considers them a fashion disaster because they're lime green, and refuses to wear them until she can get them dyed brown to match her armor.
• In Slimy Thief a male warrior goes to Azamat's store and asks for the most powerful armor. Azamat pulls out some magical armor that He initially refuses to wear it because "It has boobs".
• In the xkcd strip titled shoes a character is rewarded with shoes that make their wearer immortal. He can't decide whether or not to wear the shoes since they have "those creepy individual toes".

Web Original

• ProZD's skit "picking RPG clothes based on maxing stats instead of whether they match or not" is based around this, where the hero arrives to fight the final boss dressed in multiple clashing articles of clothing.
  King Dragon: So, you've finally arri— what the hell are you wearing?
  Dennis: It's my ass-kicking outfit, bitch!

Western Animation

• Adventure Time, The Armor of Zeldron, from the episode "Blood Under the Skin", grants its wearer flight, protects them from just about anything (even ghosts!), and looks totally "ker-chick". Finn and Jake go on a quest to find the armor, but Finn refuses to wear what he charitably describes "lady armor"—it's not just have a wig with giant pigtails built into the helmet, but is clearly fitted for a very stout woman and has indents for large breasts.
• This is the entire premise of SheZow, which involves a kid by the name of Guy who is destined to become a superhero through a costume that unfortunately was made for a girl.
• In SpongeBob SquarePants it is stated that superpowers come from costumes, and that is the only reason that the heroes would wear them.
  Mermaid Man: Power's all in the costume. Why else would we run around in colored undies?
  Squidward: I can think of three good reasons.

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