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Hot Chick in a Badass Suit
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There are a lot of ways you can dress a sexy chick to make her even sexier. Cheerleader uniform, tube top and mini-skirt, or you can invoke the rule of cool = sexy. And the best way to do that is put her in a badass business suit. Pantsuits are okay, but suits with short and/or tight-fitting skirts (the better to show off the character's shapely gams, natch) are even better; either way, a pair of spike-heeled pumps usually completes the look.
The Distaff Counterpart to Badass in a Nice Suit.
Compare The Men In Black, Badass Longcoat (and can overlap with), Bifauxnen, Battle Ballgown, Sharp Dressed Man, Kicking Ass in All Her Finery.
Examples
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Anime & Manga
- Balalaika from Black Lagoon.
- Rin Asougi from Mnemosyne.
- Mahou Sensei Negima! has both Kaede
 and Setsuna wearing suits on occasion. When it's Kaede (during the Mahora tournament) it officially puts tuxedos on the same level as tutus (i.e. the outfit became unisex).
- Benika & Yayoi from Kure-nai.
- Another Yayoi - NOS agent Matsunaga from Nightwalker.
- The Major from Ghost in the Shell often wears a formal dress uniform at official occasions. Which doesn't stop her at all from wrestling 400 pound cyborgs and kicking their asses. The one time she wears a man's business suit, it's the least flattering thing ever seen on her, and she's only seen in it for a few seconds. On the other hand, she sometimes appears in snappy black jacket and skirt, which is probably the most imposing and dignified thing she has in her wardrobe. And yes, she can kick ass in that outfit as well.
- Prime Minister Kayabuki deserves mention as well. Considering her assumed age, it's impressive how delightfully un-frumpy she looks in her trademark red jacket and skirt.
- Ennis from Baccano.
- Misaki Kirihara from Darker than Black.
- In Gunslinger Girl, Triela gets the suit.
- Captain "Black Cage" Hina from One Piece.
- Fujiko Mine in some episodes of Lupin III.
- Sir Integra from Hellsing. Occasionally paired with a Badass Longcoat.
- Riza Hawkeye from Fullmetal Alchemist. Admittedly, it's a military uniform and not a "suit" per se, but it's undeniably badass.
- Olivia Armstrong too. She even wears a fur lined Badass Long Coat over the top of her uniform occasionally.
- While all of the main characters in Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha don very professional military uniforms by the third series, its Fate in her Enforcer uniform who stands out.
- Cassandra Jill Warlock from Black Blood Brothers, in the flashbacks.
- Considering they're all High School age in Hayate the Combat Butler, Hinagiku fits this trope very well. Maria did the same when she was a student, and when she was using the dress as a Paper-Thin Disguise.
- Cardcaptor Sakura: The Daidoujis' bodyguards dress this way.
- Iono the Fanatics: Fletch and the rest of Iono's bodyguards.
- Ayame and Kiri-chan from Ga-Rei -Zero-.
- Pakunoda from Hunter × Hunter combines this trope with Absolute Cleavage.
- Rally Vincent from Gunsmith Cats.
- Kneesocks from Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt is briefly seen in a suit in one of the episodes.
- Technically, every female Nation in Axis Powers Hetalia when in uniform. The one most seen as such is Hungary, though Belgium and Vietnam also wear theirs once in a while.
- Ever wonder how good a Moe Anthropomorphism of Cthulhu would look in a low cut business suit? Well, go here to find out.
- Koko Hekmatyar from Jormungand dons her badass suit whenever she's doing her badass business of arms-dealing.
Comic Books
- In Hitman, Tiegel often wears a suit.
- She-Hulk wears a suit for her courtroom sessions.
- Global Frequency director and ex-spy Miranda Zero.
- Carol "Ms. Marvel" Danvers has appeared at least once in a black suit and sunglasses, looking very much like The Men In Black.
- In the Ultimate Comics incarnation, where she's Director of SHIELD, this is her usual outfit.
Fan Fiction
Film
- Unashamedly invoked too many times to count in Porn.
- Pam Grier in her "badass in the room" suit at the end of Jackie Brown (which may explain why she's wearing it on the movie poster).
- In one scene in The Dark Knight, Maggie Gyllenhaal is interrogating a guy, while wearing black slacks, a white dress shirt with wide lapels, and a black vest, or, as one guy called it, "her David Bowie outfit".
- As Rachel Dawes is an Assistant District Attorney, she often wears suits.
- In one of the Charlie's Angels films, Lucy Liu's character wears a leather power suit that borders on fetish gear while pretending to be a business consultant. And glasses.
- Irene Adler toward the end of the 2009 Sherlock Holmes movie.
- In "A Scandal in Bohemia," Adler disguised herself by wearing men's clothing in order to inconspicuously follow Holmes and Watson back to Baker Street. She describes the suit as her "walking clothes" and implies that she does so frequently to avoid notice.
- Audrey Tautou in The Da Vinci Code.
- Sharon Stone in the original Total Recall 1990 when she has to come to Mars.
- Elena from Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children.
- Towards the end of F for Fake, director/narrator Orson Welles and his leading lady, Oja Kodar, conduct a dialogue while wearing his-and-her versions of the same outfit: a Badass Longcoat and a Nice Hat, in black.
- Former medical examiner turned MIB "Agent L" in the first Men In Black film.
- Catherine Zeta Jones as Isabel Lahiri in the second film of the Ocean's Eleven franchise.
- In the 2006 film The Sentinel, Eva Longoria is dressed this way as a Secret Service agent for the entire movie. It's lampshaded at the beginning when she turns up for a job interview in a suit that reveals some cleavage, and her superior chides her for her lack of professionalism.
- Glenn Close in Air Force One, as the Vice President, even if she's going for more "handsome" than "hot."
- Carrie-Anne Moss as FBI Agent Brody in Unthinkable.
- Hermione (Emma Watson) wears a pinstripe suit after her disguise as Mafalda Hopkirk wears off in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part I.
- Ariadne (Ellen Page) wears a fine suit in Christopher Nolan's Inception.
- Hoyle in Yesterday Was A Lie (see also Badass Long Coat).
- In Captain America: The First Avenger, Peggy Carter is almost always seen in her dress uniform, and still manages to do quite a bit of ass-kicking.
- Cheryl King (Mariel Hemingway) spends much of Sunset dressed in a man's tuxedo.
- In Strip Tease, Erin's first dance seen was in one of these. Going from the suit to just a bra and panties was perhaps one of the legitimately sexy moments in the film.
Literature
Live-Action TV
- Most office-based Work Coms, naturally enough, will have at least one attractive female regular who's so attired.
- Every single Police Procedural drama has women dressed this way on occasion. And, of course, it's a standard part of the Hello Attorney look on Law Procedural shows.
- Castle features Detective Beckett. Often lampshaded, especially her 3 inch high heels, to the tune of "how do you run in those things?"
- Miss Parker from The Pretender.
- Special Agent Dana Scully, The X-Files.
- The West Wing: CJ Cregg, like, all the time.
- It's a Joss Whedon show, so it's not too surprising, but Clyde in Whiskey's body in the penultimate episode of Dollhouse. Averted by Adelle DeWitt, who wears a suit-like skirt and a variety of (often tight and low-necked) tops.
- Not to mention the ultra-hot Lilah Morgan on Angel.
- Cuddy in House dresses in a manner similar to Adelle mentioned above.
- Supporting character Agent Audrey Hanson, on Heroes.
- Dexter's sister, Deb, once she gets into homicide.
- Fiona from Burn Notice pulls this off a couple of times, most noticeably when they confront some thugs by trapping them in a car with a nail gun, nuking them with a pepper spray bomb and burned a hole through the engine.
- Shows up a lot in Criminal Minds, although the most consistent provider is probably Agent Emily Prentiss.
- Invoked constantly by ADA Alex Cabot in Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, and occasionally seen with other characters as well.
- One episode involves a sexist judge who insists that women dress "appropriately" in his courtroom. His definition of "appropriate" includes wearing a skirt. And this is far from the worst thing the guy's done during his time on the bench.
- Almost every episode of Leverage features Sophie, Parker, or Tara wearing one of these as a distraction.
- Anna in V.
- The "Nothing Suits Me Like a Suit" number from How I Met Your Mother #100 has both Lily and Robin in suits.
- Not to mention an earlier episode where Barney and Robin were hanging out, and unlike Ted, Robin actually listened when told to SUIT UP! To complete the ensemble, Robin also smoked a cigar.
- Glenn Close in Damages. More "badass" than "hot", but still.
- Agent Olivia Dunham and most of the other female FBI agent characters on Fringe.
- In Supernatural after Balthazar destroys his previous host the archangel Raphael appears like this.
- In the American version of The Office, there's Jan Levinson, who always wore fashionable pant-suits with revealing cleavage. All the men on the show are both terrified and attracted to her. Angela thinks she's a whore.
- Not to mention her counterpart in the UK series, Jennifer Taylor-Clarke.
- Karen (season 3) frequently dons pantsuits as well, while Nellie (season 8) generally favors the skirt version. Mostly averted with the rest of the female regulars, who usually go with more of an office-casual look.
- Veronica Mars - the titular character in the season 4 teaser.
- Stargate SG-1: Major Samantha Carter, whenever she kicks ass while in dress uniform.
- The Avengers' Emma Peel, whenever she isn't in a Spy Catsuit
- Lieutenant Colonel Sarah Mackenzie, USMC in JAG.
- Glee - Jane Lynch's lesbian fandom rejoiced over her custom zoot suit.
Music
- Gladys Knight in the music video of Licence To Kill wears a tux.
- Madonna wears a double-breasted suit in her music video for "Express Yourself", complete with a sexy monocle.
- Janelle Monáe, who essentially considers her trademark tuxedos her uniform.
- Annie Lennox in the video for "Sweet Dreams." With crew-cut hair, black leather gloves, and brandishing a cane.
- Florence + the Machine wears a tux in the original video for "Dog Days are Over." And then in taken to an even more Bifauxnen level in the video for "Sweet Nothing."
- Shania Twain wore a suit in her music video for "Man I Feel Like A Woman".
Theater
- Takarazuka thrives on the whole "women in suits = hot" thing.
Videogames
- Cissnei from the Final Fantasy VII prequel Crisis Core.
- As well as Elena from Final Fantasy VII and the nameless female Turks from Before Crisis.
- One of Sheva's alternate costumes in the PC version of Resident Evil 5 invokes this, adding glasses to raise the level of... appeal.
- King, of course. Especially prominent in The King Of Fighters. Also from KOF, there's boxer-mercenary-housewife Vanessa.
- Mature and Vice, as of their redesign in XII and XIII, also qualify. They have appeared in the suits in cutscenes from previous games, though. note Specifically, this was their attire in '94 and '95 before they became Ascended Extras in '96.
- One of Shepard's alternate off-duty outfits in Mass Effect 2 appears to be a futuristic business suit.
- Although Tiffany from Rival Schools is better known for her ludicrously skimpy American flag-themed outfit, her alternate outfit is a suit with miniskirt.
- Street Fighter IV: Myyy name is Viiiperrr. Criiimson Viperrr.
- Reisen Udongein Inaba from Touhou wears a suit with a skirt, though only in her original appearance in Imperishable Night, as well as the crushing majority of her fanon appearances.
- Keiko from the James Bond video game Nightfire.
- Spies from Rise Of Nations at around the Industrial to the Information age look like this.
- Judith in the PS3 version of Tales Of Vesperia can get Richter's suit as an alternate costume.
- In Metal Gear Solid Peace Walker, you can dress a female soldier in the Tuxedo if you want. She even wears cool sunglasses, for no reason. The tux confers absolutely no gameplay advantage, but it looks awesome.
- From Tales Of Graces we have Miss Cheria Barnes.
Visual Novels
- Ace Attorney:
- Resident mentor Mia Fey invokes this trope six ways through next county; at least during the first case, since she unfortunately gets murdered in the second. Don't worry, being from a family of spirit mediums allows her come back, although in a rather unusual way.
- Lana Skye might be the ultimate example of the series.
- Calisto Yew gets a minor note for badass blue business suit, even if she was probably never a lawyer to begin with.
- Bazette qualifies by being a well endowed mage with a Noble Phantasm and wearing a prim red suit.
- And then there's Saber rocking her androgyny in Fate/Zero, which works so well in contrast to Irisviel's elegance.
- Umineko No Naku Koro Ni gives us Kyrie. She acts like a Cool Big Sis, and she is extremely proficient with guns.
- Akira from Katawa Shoujo knows how to rock menswear fashion.
Webcomics
- Showed up during the 'Sister' arc of El Goonish Shive, when Ellen went somewhat crazy and believed herself to be Elliot's 'Evil Twin.' She wears a sharp suit when she goes out to cause trouble. Dan Shive even admitted in the notations that he had her dress that way because he thought it was hot. Here's the introductory strip.
- Jones from Gunnerkrigg Court. Wearing a suit in all of her appearances, and having the cojones (or something) to stand up to a god in his own territory.
- Serafine Savoy from Lackadaisy is tall and wears a snugly fitting three-piece suit, has a BAR automatic rifle named Boudreaux, and is apparently a Voodoo Priestess. Along with her hulking brother Nicodeme, they make up two thirds of the Marigold Gang's elite killer squad.
- The art style makes it difficult to tell how hot she is, but Jack Cannon's mom is definitely a badass and sometimes wears a suit to match.
- Na Yonsu from Noblesse.
Web Originals
- Phase of the Whateley Universe. You cannot make her/him wear a dress. Only really expensive, tailored suits.
Western Animation
Real Life
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