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Your suit can stretch as far as you can without injuring yourself, and still retain its shape. Virtually indestructible... yet it breathes like Egyptian cotton!
Animated characters can often be found wearing clothing that just looks too good to be real. This can be proven by the occasional attempt made to reproduce these clothes by the costume teams for Live Action Adaptations or by enthusiastic fans. Sometimes this is because of structural elements that flout or ignore real-world physical laws, or because the outfit in question requires an inhumanly perfect (or simply inhuman) body underneath it, or because real-world materials just don't look as good as ink and paint.
Alternately, it may be a version of a real-life style or uniform, cut in ways that would never be allowed in Real Life. Dramatically short dresses or skirts is a common example.
Such clothing is also often so tied to the character that they and only they can acquire it — it seems to come from nowhere, fits them perfectly both symbolically and physically, and may even sometimes appear from nowhere a la the Hyperspace Mallet.
Clothing in animated series also shows near-indestructibility in terms of almost never ripping, fraying, staining or wrinkling, no matter what kind of stresses are placed on it or substances flung at it. Sometimes this is given an explanation (the material is some experimental or magically enhanced substance), but most times it isn't. See: Magic Pants
Alternately, especially for the fancier outfits, the clothing can be destroyed or damaged, and the character somehow repairs the damage or acquires an identical outfit in next episode. Inu Yasha is a prime example of this.
In some cases these outfits are also impossibly easy to don and doff, making changing clothes a free action. Final Fantasy X 2 and its class change system are a good example.
Any character with clothing showing signs of distress is truly in a world of pain, and possibly close to death. Unless, of course, the character in question is a woman in Anime, as clothes-tearing near-misses are a hallmark of fanservice.
Not only is it indestructible, it's almost never a hindrance (unless the story explicitly states so), like an Impractically Fancy Outfit and Requisite Royal Regalia.
Note that despite the name given this trope, such outfits need not be cool, or even particularly good-looking. Shaggy's shapeless green shirt is just as indestructible as Superman's cape. Neither ever get as much as a grass stain. (Which, of course, might have been the point behind the color of Shaggy's shirt. ;)
Polar opposite of the Rummage Sale Reject. Subverted by Cheap Costume.
Compare Bling Of War, Pimped Out Dress, Ermine Cape Effect, Form Fitting Wardrobe, Stylish Protection Gear.
Impractically Fancy Outfit, the version in Real Life, is the Super Trope for this.
Examples
Anime
- Jojos Bizarre Adventure is the king of Impossibly Cool Clothes. Everybody dresses in the most incredibly fabulous way possible. Part 5 went off the chain with this.
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- In Read Or Die, Ms. Deep's leather catsuit with its impressively low-cut decolletage would be impossible to wear in the real world without its occupant suddenly violating indecent exposure laws every few minutes. (See Gainaxing, Theiss Titillation Theory.)
- Likewise, cosplayers have noted that the miniskirt worn by Noir's Mireille Bouquet actually facilitates panty shots in real life, but is a rare instance in anime where the expected fanservice doesn't occur.
- Revolutionary Girl Utena — I'm looking at any of the duelist and Rose Bride uniforms. Oddly somewhat averted by Utena herself, who wears a perfectly reasonable tank top and bicycle shorts under the impossible jacket.
- The uniforms worn by schoolgirls in many anime — Kare Kano comes specifically to mind — would be manifestly unsuitable for school in the real world, and some might even qualify as fetish wear.
- Pokemon — This was proven true with Pokemon Live!.
- Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon proved that the Sailor Senshi's uniforms are just shy of feasible in their original forms. And Tuxedo Kamen's is eminently doable — except it makes him look like a dork.
- Bloodberry's usual outfit in Saber Marionette J and its sequels includes two loops of rope which circle her shoulders at some distance, and simply can not be made to work (and look right) in the real world. (As seen in a brief clip of a live actress in a Bloodberry costume shown in the closing credits of Saber Marionette J To X.)
- In Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha the outfit one's Transformation Sequence produces is called a "Barrier Jacket" and is somewhat determined via the subconscious. As the series progresses, more and more barrier jackets are a pastiche of random pieces of medieval armor, capes, military uniforms, and exaggerated modern teenager apparel. Which actually makes sense, as later characters have more exposure to different cultures (Belka, Midchilda, and Earth) with those aspects. The military uniforms in the series, thankfully, are relatively plausible.
- In Inu Yasha, Ninja-esque Sango wears an incredibly intricate costume and makeup for Walking The Earth in feudal Japan. While timetraveler Kagome can just pop up back to the 21st century for supplies, bathing, and clothing maintenance (and this has been commented on), Sango has no such resources.
- For that matter; having impossibly immaculate and intricate period stage costuming seems to be a standard demonic power for "named Demons" in Inu Yasha. If the title character's "robe of the fire rat" is any indication, they're all semi-living things capable of regrowing by themselves.
- Gundam Seed Destiny: In her guise as idol singer Lacus Clyne, impostor Meer Campbell wears a not-all-that-concealing skirt whose waistband seems to hover around her lower hips without actually touching her body.
- Come to think of it, how do either Lacus' or Meer's hair clips stay up?
- In fact, most of the clothing in the SEED saga skirts this trope due to the character designer's attempts to avoid the No New Fashions In The Future trope.
- For some reason, Ray, Joshua and Michael in Gun X Sword all wear what looks like extremely stylized clerical attire throughout the series. Joshua, at least, changes his clothes on several occasions, but Ray and Michael never do. And the less said about Carmen99 and Priscilla's outfits the better. At least Van's tuxedo is justified (he's fixated on the day his bride was killed). The series also subverts it, though, with the Claw — he has an impossibly cool outfit (the spacesuit he wore when he left Earth), but he hates it and only wears it on formal occasions, preferring a work shirt and overalls.
- Averted in Dragon Ball Z, where clothing is rather realistic without too many fancy doodads unless it's in that character's personality (like Cyborg Seventeen's gunbelt and holster). Also, once in a fight, clothes usually get destroyed with surprising quickness, leaving protagonist Son Goku at one point fighting almost in shorts after his pant legs and shirt were destroyed.
- Not so fast, don't forget the Frieza army's one-size-fits-all armor. According to Vegeta's explanation the material is so stretchy it didn't rip when he turned into a giant monkey.
- Still averted due to said clothes being in no way cool, much less impossibly so.
- Not that Vegeta's clothes didn't get torn too, but he never got it to the level Goku did even when he stopped wearing the armor.
- There exist skin-tight "plug suits" in Neon Genesis Evangelion.
- Of note is the fact that only the male Evangelion pilots (Shinji, Touji, Kaworu) have those "breastplate defibrillator" thingies, or whatever they are; the girls (Asuka and Rei) are mysteriously lacking, allowing the skintight plug suits to most effectively show off their "assets" (and leading one to wonder if these "breastplates" serve any real purpose in the first place).
- This is likely related with the stripperific trope, which demands that female costumes be sexier than their male counterparts. The one difference being, obviously, that they show no skin except the pilot's face. Well, unless you count Asuka's test plug suit in the Rebuild series, which most certainly qualifies.
- Halfway through Spriggan the protagonist Yu Ominae is given a skin-tight combat-suit woven from high-tech fibers and artificial muscles which augments his strength and protects him against bullets. It helps that he is a special agent for a powerful shadowy organization, Arcan.
- Hinamori Amu from Shugo Chara always wears daily clothes that, well, at the very least much more stylized than others. Somewhat subverted that it does take her time to put all of it on.
- Subverted in Princess Tutu — Fakir's knight outfit is torn to shreds in a battle that takes place in the first season finale, and the only other time he's shown wearing it again, it looks slightly different (so it may actually be a different outfit). Also, his casual outfit includes an old, worn blue shirt that's torn up and clumsily sewn back together in a few places, which suggests he gets in situations that end up with him tearing his clothing a lot.
- This also might explain how Kreahe's bodice always stays in the exact right place with out any straps
- Gankutsuou. I'm looking at you, Haydee's opera dress.
- In Infinite Ryvius, Spaceship Girl Neya's metallic-pink bodysuit.
- Appears alarmingly often in The Slayers universe. Lina, Rezo, Gourry, and oh dear gods NAGA are some of the strongest examples.
- D.Gray-Man's exorcist uniforms. All of them.
- Especially Miranda, who seems to have a miniature, completely flexible train track on one sleeve.
- Lampshaded in Dirty Pair (the novels anyway), there the 3WA suits are actually skintight forcefield generators.
- Bubblegum Crisis comes to mind, especially the original OAV (although the reboot is almost as bad). High-heeled, made-for-struttin' power combat suits? C'mon.
- Ginko from Mushishi is an interesting case: by all means the clothes he wears are practical, believable, and something you might even be wearing yourself right now. So why is his wardrobe on this list? Because Mushishi is set in Feudal Japan, meaning that either Ginko has the unmentioned ability to predict fashion trends centuries before they actually occur, or the author's just screwing with us (She is).
- The oneshot chapter that started Mushishi was intended to take place in the present. It was only when it won an award and the mangaka decided to expand on it that the setting changed to a feudal one. The original chapter was even included in the expanded version since it took place in a rural setting where the time period wasn't obviously apparent.
- God in The Demon Ororon is a mild case. He is shirtless and wears a pair of jeans which are unbuttoned, unzippered and do not seem to have anything under them. The jeans never go past his hips even while standing. Justified in the fact that he's God, and can probably keep them up by sheer divine will.
- The girls of Mahou Sensei Negima, most noticeably during the School Festival arc, can be found wearing outfits so beyond plausible function - or possibility for that matter - that their design may very well have been based on the question "How many Fan-Service-y features can I cram into a single outfit per girl?".
- At least the School Festival arc justifies it, as most of them are wearing costumes or cosplaying. Then we get to the Magic World, where everybody dresses like this...
- Ishida Uryuu of Bleach wears head-to-toe white when fighting. His clothing often shows dust and damage for the first few minutes after it happens, but inexplicably seems to regenerate itself until all-over marks become a single scuff on the shoulder. It seems that Quincy have an additional 'stay-white' power that applies to their costumes.
- The same character manages to procure one of his costume's requisite capes from apparently nowhere when the original is ripped.
- In what may be a subtle lampshading of this trope, the Fatimas of The Five Star Stories wear impossibly cool clothes that could never look right on a real woman's figure. This is because they don't have a real woman's figure. When we see them naked they look obviously inhuman, with exaggeratedly protruding joints, unnaturally long limbs & unhealthy-looking emaciated bodies. There are apparently very strict, Sharia-esque laws about how they can dress, probably because few people want to see that. The fact that they don't age still makes them quite popular with men, though.
- As many cosplayers have found out, replicating Yuuko's clothes in real life is no small feat. And that's without getting into the splash pages where the motifs on her kimonos somehow seep out into the background for dramatic effect. Then again, among CLAMP characters, sporting barely feasible outfits is the norm rather than the exception.
- Eruru, Aruru and any number of female characters of Utawarerumono. Aruru especially revels in this: scaling trees, falling out of one, riding a giant tiger bareback and killed by a giant mech just to name a few.
- That last example is rather easy to accomplish. Especially when wearing restrictive clothing.
- The titular Hell Girl, Enma Ai, takes the cake with a simple, traditional kimono... except the fabric is animated. And it glows.
- This long, and no mention of Lelouch's ridiculous Zero outfit? With that cape, which practically qualifies as a Large Ham all by itself? For shame.
- In Naruto, Zabuza and Dosu tape up their mouths, jaws, and necks, yet still can speak clearly. Also Akadou Yoroi looks as though he holds the lenses of his sunglasses on his face by squinting really hard◊.
Comic Books
- The Unstable Molecules created by Reed Richards to allow the powers of the Fantastic Four to not burn away their clothes, or force them to go naked if they want to be invisible, of course, were what The Incredibles' Edna Mode was paying homage to in the first place... They were also used to explain why the X-Men and other spandex clad Marvelites were so hard to hurt — the unstable molecules used in their costumes were flexible under normal circumstances, but hardened to bulletproof levels when subjected to the appropriate stresses. A rare subversion of the Reed Richards Is Useless trope. (Forge, of X-Men fame, is credited with making the costumes for the late-eighties X-teams.)
- And surprisingly, close to Truth In Television — D3O is a material that is now available for a variety of sport clothes which flexes under normal use but hardens into armor under impact.
- Spoofed in Garfield, where Jon wears an outfit with "six gajillion zippers" in an attempt to appear macho, and ends up rummaging through them for his keys at his doorstep (as Garfield notes, "This could take months!").
- Spider-Man seems to openly oppose this trope in most of its formats, other than the movie. In the comics and the original animated series, Peter Parker was known to occasionally patch up his costume with needle and thread. In Ultimate Spider-Man Mary Jane makes and repairs his costume, and there have been several episodes where he's had to go in less than perfect versions of it due to fights with Mary Jane, or because he damaged it so much that she's not finished fixing it. In fact, the only time Spider-Man ever wore Impossibly Cool Clothes, they turned out to be a symbiote.
- In one 1970s comic story, he lost his cowl and had to resort to stealing a copy from a costume shop — one that did not render his eyes blank white shapes but acted like a "real" mask would.
- Also, who can forget the Amazing Bag Man costume?
- And in Germany when his suit was, for some reason not there,, I forgot why, Spider-Man was forced to rob a fancy dress shop. On the back it had a big blue circle and read "Die Spinne".
- In Earth X, Peter Parker gave up being Spider-Man when his secret identity was revealed. When he goes back into action to rescue his daughter, he steals a store costume which has holes in the yellow eye-patches for vision and a rectangle with his name on it on the chest; it also fails to conceal his hefty stomach. His daughter has no such problem, as she's "wearing" the Venom symbiote.
- Even in the movies, his ICC would get damaged during a fight, or he'd have to charge into battle without his mask on (or lose it during the fight).
- You wouldn't think it, but Alex Ross's photo realistic painting of the Flash pretty much proves that his uniform looks ridiculous on any normal person.
- Might apply to books or manga more than comic books, but Raven in Vampire Kisses Blood Relatives, having a wide variety of Gothic clothing you gotta admit you want, at least if your into that stuff.
- Tripp too, who is obviously referencing to the clothing brand, but it has yet to be mentioned in canon.
Film
Literature
- Lampshaded in A Hat Full of Sky, when Tiffany visits a magical supply shop and expresses interest in a particular cloak, the "Zephyr". As the shopkeeper puts it, absolutely useless at keeping you warm or dry but looks fantastic in the slightest breeze.
- The sky pirate outfits in The Edge Chronicles. You have breastplates, goggles, giant tricorn hats, gauges, levers, backpacks, wings, pouches, pockets, several magic charms (usually), and an insanely huge compass, all hanging off of a gigantic coat. And it looks awesome.
Live Action TV
- The live-action version of The Flash had to resort to (movie) Batman-style sculpted rubber, which didn't look nearly as good as it did on Burton's Batman. It was explained as being originally designed as a Soviet space-suit (which, presumably, is why it was red).
- Sadly, no, it was utilitarian black when he first tried it on. The justification for using it was that normal clothes just ripped right off his body when he ran at top speed.
- In the original Superman series, Superman's costume was, as a Seinfeld parody put it, "impervious to stain." It was never damaged, no matter how much of a beating he took. There have been a variety of pieces of Scotch Tape applied to this.
- The current canon explanation is that Superman's invulnerability is a field effect that extends a fraction of an inch beyond his skin — protecting his suit, but not the cape. Which, you know, makes lots more sense than the Magic Spandex.
- That's interesting, but in the original TV show of the early 50's, Ma Kent made the suit from the Kryptonian blankets little Kal-el was wrapped in when the Kent's found him. Obviously, Kryptonian blankets are made of tough stuff.
- Which would make you wonder what kind of needles she used to sew those blankets into a costume... Kryptonian needles and thread?
- Clark also has a very unique way of cleaning the suit — he flies out into space and lets the vacuum and hard radiation take care of it.
- Lois And Clark included a scene with Clark, early in his superhero career, calling his mother for advice on how to get a "bomb stain" out of his outfit.
- Superman may have an Impermeability Field, but what about Hopalong Cassidy, the Lone Ranger, Gene Autry, and Roy Rogers? A hero in a Western series could take on six bad guys, duck a hail of bullets, fall off his horse, and roll 400 feet down a dusty hill - and when it came to his closeup, not only would his pure white suit be in perfect shape, his hat would still be on his head. I suppose Western stars had a Stunt Man Field.
Tabletop Games
- GURPS has the Costume advantage, which is immune to one's powers (a la Human Torch), and approximately all other powers as well, though not giving any sort of armor effect. There is also an add-some-color article sidebar in the Supers supplement that mentions something like "...modern superheroines need not resort to tape or the glue pot, thanks to modern elasto-polymers" or something like that.
- Of course, it also has an optional set of rules covering Bulletproof Nudity, so yeah.
- Champions provided advantages for sufficiently cool costumes and penalties for lame ones.
VideoGames
- Kasugano Sakura from the Street Fighter series wears a school uniform which not only allows for frequent upskirt shots (because of which she has the sense to wear her gym shorts underneath), but exposes her midriff too.
- Videogame example: Felicia and Morrigan of Darkstalkers, who have the excuse of them not actually being clothes (But rather fur and magically shaped bats, respectively).
- ...Lucky bats.
- Morrigan also has the excuse of being a succubus, so she has a reason to expose some flesh.
- The Final Fantasy series has this all over the place; for instance, Fran in Final Fantasy XII, and Lulu in Final Fantasy X, who wears clothing that's impossible on several levels. Pointing out the unrealistically eclectic character designs in recent Final Fantasy games is a common joke on imageboards, often revolving around sticking unnecessary belts and zippers onto every article of clothing imaginable. Older games aren't exempt from odd design choices, either.
- And God help the poor fanboy who tries to imitate Wakka's hair...
- Yuna's Summoner outfit in X is a milder version of this. The overall outfit tends to conceal the amount of jewelry she wears (she actually has THREE earrings, two bracelets, and several rings) and while it's fairly easy to make with sufficient skill, having to wear it is an entirely different matter; her Detached Sleeves are notorious for causing cosplayers headaches, and her shirt in real life often requires safety pins
or and lots of strategic stitching. I'm not even mentioning her obi—this troper found out the hard way that even slight constriction of your ribs would make breathing unpleasant.
- Many of the summoners wear Impossibly Cool Clothes.
- Except Eiko's outfit, which is ... impossibly disturbing? This troper still hasn't figured out how that suit got past the radar, especially for a child character. For those who have never seen Eiko, her outfit makes it look like she's showing off her vagina, because her (skin-tight, form-fitting) pants are nearly the same color as her skin. See here◊. Probably NSFW for the reasons explained above - you try and explain those are pants.
- Don't forget the ridiculous BFG/BFS weapons, often larger than the people carrying them (but strangely invisible outside of battles).
- Dona◊ has strips of cloth attached with a several straps showing her undies. Yuna's dad,Braska◊ wears a heavy robe and an elaborate headdress in all enviroments.
- Every outfit Penelo has worn is at least mildly impossible. The one from Final Fantasy XII basically requires being sewn into, and the later ones need doublesided tape to keep the pants up.
- How about Final Fantasy X-2? The default clothes were okay, but everything else...
- Both sexes get this in the Kingdom Hearts games. Indeed, one of the most hilarious views in the game is Goofy, Donald and (in the sequel) Mickey Mouse and Pete, in anime-style Impossibly Cool Clothes. Mickey, Donald and Goofy's are also based on their classic looks. And, hey, Donald has a zipper on his hat, yet it works — according to some, anyway.
- There's just something about Donald's hat. In the first game, his Court Mage outfit includes a Wizard's hat with square spirals.
- In the (relatively few) [=RPGs=] that actually show injury on your character, through blood and torn clothes, drinking a healing potion or using a medicine syringe will, for some reason, also repair your clothing. This is lampshaded in The Order Of The Stick.
- Clothing in the Devil May Cry series seems to boast a Healing Factor, as they appear to regenerate from wounds inflicted on their wearers. Some fans have taken issue with Capcom's laziness in not properly modeling the Clothing Damage.
- In a cutscene where Lady opens fire on Dante, several of the bullets pass through his coat as he flips past them and he holds up his coat as he lands, annoyed at the holes in them. The holes are not present once gameplay resumes, though.
- Everyone's clothing in The World Ends With You is just too hip for the living.
- Strangely enough, the real Shiki has a practical, realistic outfit, despite the fact that she's shown to be more interested in fashion than any of the other characters are. This troper thinks it works for her, though.
- Probably justified, given that it's set in Shibuya...
- Much of the outfits in Disgaea either feature impossible-to-replicate add-ons, or are prone to Superbowl style wardrobe malfunctions. Usually both. Just try to pull off a half decent Laharl cosplay. Or, for the sake of everyone's sanity, don't.
- This troper has seen a pretty good Laharl, save for the billowing scarf. I've also seen a handful of Flonnes and Rozalins of vary degrees of quality.
- City Of Heroes has almost no limit to the impossible costumes you can design for your characters.
- And its spiritual successor, Champions Online, takes it and turns it up to eleven.
- Snake's Sneaking Suit is very form-fitting without any wrinkles or bends, and seem to do an impossible amount of tricks such as protecting him from the cold despite it's presumably thin material, reduce damage he gets, and helping him hide in plain sight while making him so even guys want that sweet, sweet ass.
- Tekken. Go on, try to last in a serious fight wearing Christie Montaro's clothes — without flashing someone. Double-dog dare you.
- Resident Evil Ada Wong wears an ankle length evening dress while fighting hordes of zombies in Resident Evil 4. Its never addressed exactly why she does this though.
- The entire Resident Evil series features characters in clothing that, taken as individual articles look contemporary and realistic enough, but the combined effect somehow looks distinctive enough to be a costume. The second movie also borrowed this feature. Impossibly cool.
- In Apollo Justice The TREADS of Klavier Gavin's shoes have his bands logo on them!
- If this trope lists Carmen 99, then certainly it should've also listed Lamia Loveless, who practically wears something similar to Carmen's clothing.
- Pretty much anything made by Satoshi Urushihara for Growlanser and Langrisser. Doubly for anything the females wear.
- Slightly averted in Urushihara's Plastic Little; in that the outfit that Tita wears is painted-on and bulletproof, but flexes normally. When shot by the Big Bad, the bullets are stopped, but the force still results in her getting cracked ribs and some serious bruises.
- A good number of characters from "Xenosaga" are quite guilty of this trope.
- Specifically KOS-MOS and T-elos. Making the outfit for cosplay is hard enough, but wearing it is just virtually impossible, whether it's due to a certain level of modesty or the sheer number of pieces to each outfit.
- How does MOMO even keep her dress down?
- Although live-action, the Command and Conquer series of games provide a good example, with high-ranking military personnel, as well as being young, well-endowed models, progressively wearing less and less over the course of the games. They begin with what looks something like real uniforms, until Red Alert 3 where they all look like they're in costumes left over from a porno.
- Stan the Salesman's coat from the Monkey Island games; the patterns are always oriented the same way no matter how he moves his arms.
- Played completely straight in No More Heroes (of all things). All the characters have the most ridiculously awesome outfits, but the shining example is Travis himself, who goes to a store that sells only Impossibly Cool Clothes.
- A contest is being held for No More Heroes 2, in which fans may design their own shirt for Travis to wear in the game.
Web Comics
Web Original
- Just outside Whateley Academy, in the Whateley Universe, Cecilia Rogers has a clothing boutique where she makes supersuits for the students... and also for big-name superheroes. She uses special fabrics and has a superpower over fabric, so the outfits she makes can be (mostly) bulletproof, acid- and stain-resistant, knife-resistant, etc. And she repairs them too. She also tailors school uniforms for the impossibly cool who have to meet school rules.
- Alternately, for people with special needs. Such as werewolves. Who can't change back.
Western Animation
- Parodied in The Incredibles with the character Edna Mode, costume designer for the superheroes (herself a parody of real-life Hollywood costume designer Edith Head). The super-suits she designed could absorb tremendous levels of damage and stretch incredibly without significant tearing or abrasion (and yet it breathes like Egyptian cotton!). Also somewhat deconstructed, as it's shown that Edna stopped making her suits with capes because if they ever got caught on anything, they're indestructible and you'd be stuck to or sucked into such things as rockets, jet engines... which begs the question of "why did they go to the extra effort of making the cape indestructible?"
- Goldie Gold goes adventuring in a white fur coat and gold pants. They never get so much as a speck of dirt, even when she falls in dirt.
Other
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