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"I decree that every day is Casual Friday."
When kings the sword of justice first lay down,
They are no kings, though they possess the crown.
Titles are shadows, crowns are empty things,
The good of subjects is the end of kings.
—Daniel Defoe
This is the opposite of the Ermine Cape Effect, where persons in power, usually members of the royal family or the ruling monarch, prefer very simple clothing and will often refuse to wear anything but the simplest crown. They still won't dress like slobs or peasants (that would be King Incognito), but you might mistake them for well-mannered commoners in the right situation. Color Coded Patrician is possible.
Sometimes the Princess Classic can go this way, but a Rebellious Princess almost always will. The Boisterous Bruiser, if a royal, usually does; fancy clothing interfers with drinking life to the lees.
Also, this trope is usually confined to good (or at least morally sensitive) fictional royalty. Evil royalty tend to go overboard with their costumes and impressive crowns. Some stories have a great conqueror ride amid the well dressed nobility, except the conqueror would have very Spartan clothes just to make him look more Badass. Playing this up a bit would get a very good villain; see also Just The First Citizen.
Largely Truth In Television, if only because you'd have to be extremely sybaritic to walk around every day wearing a fortune in irreplaceable jewelry and fancy clothes, although in the past, some came close.
There is even a correlation with good monarchs: all those dresses, furs, and jewelry cost money, which had to come from taxes, unless the monarch is a miser or, in more recent times, exports some natural resource over which the state has a monopoly. However, those monarchies tend to become corrupt, too.
Compare Royals Who Actually Do Something, Real Women Never Wear Dresses.
Contrast with the Ermine Cape Effect, Costume Porn, Pimped Out Dress, Bling Of War, and some other Luxury Tropes.
Examples
Literature
- Mercedes Lackey loves this one. Most of the good kings and queens (Queen Selenay, Prince-consort Daren, Grand Duke/King Tremane) wear high-quality but simple clothing and refuse to wear heavy robes and large crowns. The evil rulers, on the other hand (Queen Cassiopeia, Queen Clothilde, and the Emperor of the Eastern Empire), go all out for pomp and circumstance. An exception is High Priest Solaris, who as the spiritual and political ruler of Karse has to wear elaborate garb.
- Though Solaris's personal quarters are described as both plain and expensive. A simple chair made with very exotic tigerwood, for instance.
- An occasional exception to the villains typically not doing is the aforementioned Emperor, whose royal regalia is as spartan in some ways as it is lush in others, for the 'making himself look badass' principle.
- It seems like the royalty in Megan Whalen Turner's Attolia books are like this and come to think of it, a lot of fictional works set in Ancient Greece tend to lean in this direction. Maybe Truth In Television- I remember reading something to the effect that Odysseus was rather like this, given that his kingdom was pretty small and rocky- not the kind of place that encourages ostentation.
- Cheradinine Zakalwe in Iain M. Banks's Use Of Weapons: one of his assignments by the Culture is to turn around a war for one side. His coming has been prophesied, but he's not there just to be feted, so he rejects the ornate garments they offer him for military uniform.
- I recall a retelling of the King Midas story in which his princess daughter went to school with the other children, dressing and acting like a fairly ordinary (if wealthy) schoolgirl, despite all the extravagant luxury she had back home.
- Tamora Pierce tends to give the more sympathetic royal characters in her books this trait. In the first book in the Immortals series, when Daine first meets Queen Thayet, she's surprised to learn that Thayet is, well, the Queen, because she's dressed very plainly. In fact, one could go far as to say if a character LIKES dressing up really fancy all the time, they're probably evil. Examples include Roger from the Song of the Lioness Quartet, Ozorne in the Immortals Quartet, Joren, and to a lesser extent, Blake in the Protector of the Small Quartet, Imajane and Rubinyan in the Tricksters books, and any antagonist in any of the Circle of Magic books. Good characters like dressing up sometimes, but only in very simple and understated fancy outfits. The more jewelry and makeup a character wears on a regular basis, the more evil they are with the exception of Dove in Trickster's Queen because she's embracing her "native" side by wearing multiple rings. And if a character does dress to the nines at every occasion and isn't evil, they are at least dismissed as very flippant or silly or petty and mean.
- Ironically, TP is so into long, loving descriptions of what all of her characters are wearing that the effect of any contrast is sort of lost on the reader. She can spend just as much time telling you someone's not dressed up as that they are.
- Frank Herbert's original Dune did exactly this. The narrator takes great pains to point out that Emperor Sheddam IV rarely bothers to wear imperial regalia; he prefers an only slightly more ostentatious version of the uniform worn by the Sardaukar, his private military force.
- On the other hand, he creates medals and honors for himself, has any dish he uses destroyed so no one can use the same cup the Emperor of the Known Universe did, indulges himself aplenty with harems and employs his childhood friend Fenring to assassinate his father, brothers and other various hangers-on at the royal court to assure his ascension to the throne. The whole uniform thing may be just a way to divert attention from his other activities. On the other hand, many of these occurred in the prequel trilogy, so YMMV.
- King Verence II of Lancre in the Discworld series, due to him growing up a jester. Vimes, too, fits this mold, going out of his way to remove most of the frillier things in his "traditional" dress outfits—partly because he's always hated the upper class, and partly because (from the descriptions), they'd look ridiculous. He even gets into this as Commander of the Watch: for example, when his wife buys him new, expensive boots, he always trades them for the cheap, barely-a-sole-to-them boots like he used to wear, because he can tell exactly where he is in the city based on how the stones feel on his feet.
- And another ruler who shuns the fancy stuff: Havelock Vetinari. He doesn't even dress as a high-class Assassin despite having attended and graduated from the school; instead of Assassins' traditional stylish black, he just wears plain, plain black.
- And that's now that he's an actual head of state. Back when he was still an active assassin, he preferred brown, gray, and green - essentially a variation of modern-day camouflage, as he realized that the regulation black is almost always visible except in deepest darkness where you can't see anything, anyway. He did wear black whenever attending the guild functions though, since anything else would have gotten him kicked out.
- A non royal example is from Harry Turtledove's TL-191 series, Jake Featherston. During his rule as President of the CSA he prefers to dress in a Sergent's uniform instead of anything gaudy or elaborate. Considering that he's an expy of Hitler this is understandable.
- Raymond E. Feist's Midkemia novels use this a lot. Most of the protagonists (especially in earlier novels) are gruff, tough, no-nonsense types from the rugged western frontier, so they tend to dress sensibly and conservatively and act in a very straightforward manner. Meanwhile nobles from the Kingdom's eastern realm are courtiers and intriguers, and they keep up with the latest trends and dress ostentatiously, and are portrayed as being isolated from the rigours of life in the real world.
- Jelaudin in Bones of the Hills is an interesting case. When introduced, he's spent most of his life in fancy clothes, as befits the prince of Khwarezm. However, after Samarkand falls to the Mongols and the shah dies, he is reduced to wearing rags. He goes on to raise an army, largely by making a number of rousing speeches, and the fact that he doesn't wear fancy clothes is one of the things his men respect about him. Indeed, when offered the chance to wear something more fitting than rags, he refuses.
- Prince Josua from Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn - admittedly only the King's brother, but quickly becomes the replacement of choice once Elias does his Face Heel Turn. Known for his lack of ostentatious dressing and easily mistaken for someone of much lower status.
- The Prince of Dragonstone in George R Martin's The Hedge Knight (A Song Of Ice And Fire spinoff) - granted Duncan the Tall isn't the world's smartest Knight, but he manages to not be aware that he's talking to the Heir Apparent to the Targaryen king.
- King Mendanbar from The Enchanted Forest Chronicles. Not only does he dress very casually, he hates formal occasions and cancels as many as he can get away with, much to his steward's dismay. At one point, another character chides him for it, saying he should at least wear the crown or else no one would know who he was.
- King Conan of Aquilonia.
- A very common trope with David Eddings, whose nobility tend to only wear their regalia when real monarchs would- at formal occasions for dramatic effect. This is probably based on the simple fact that wearing excessively ornate clothing is heavy, uncomfortable, and hot.
- Notably, near the beginning of the Belgariad, where Anheg, King of Cherek starts talking to Belgarath in a flowery, poetic language. Belgarath then responds with a sort of "what's up with the language, dude?" and the response is "well, we wanted it to look nice in the history books". From there on, though most characters are either royalty or nobility, only very corrupt nobles
- Partially employed in The Elenium; while courtiers are often described wearing ornate and rather ridiculous court fashions, serious or competent nobles tend to downplay their finery to tasteful elegance instead of ermine and other ornate details. In fact, most respectable monarchs are described as disliking court functions precisely because they're so overblown. Ehlana is an exception; while she dresses sensibly enough, she likes court functions and the Ermine Cape Effect because of a neglectful and abusive childhood. Sparhawk actually has to force his wife to not issue him stylish clothing or a rapier.
- Thoroughly averted in the same series, in Sparhawk's interactions with the Bhelliom - he has to use formal, archaic patterns of speech and thought or it won't deal with him, because it believes formality helps shape history.
- In George R. R. Martin's The Sworn Sword, Lady Webber is something of a tomboy and tends to dress in plain, outdoorsy clothes. When Dunk first enters her courtyard, he assumes that an older, better-dressed woman is the lady, overlooking the young woman in leather practicing archery.
- After Honor Harrington gets ennobled on Grayson she starts wearing dresses, but due to her utilitarian nature from her military career tends towards very simple styles. It eventually spreads due to her nature as a Mary Sue until even the Queen of Manticore begins appearing at functions in 'Harrington Style' clothing.
- The crowns of the Kings and Queens of Narnia are described as being simple circlets, rather than the traditional real-world style baroque monstrosities. The rest of their clothing is not mentioned in any detail, however.
Anime
- Princess Fala (Allura) of Go Lion (Voltron), arguably. When not wearing her floor-length pink dress, she goes with a jumpsuit and small tiara.
- Konoka Konoe in Mahou Sensei Negima is this basically. The class' other Ojou is willing to spend the most ridiculous sums of money for whatever reason and has upgraded her dorm room to be twice as large as the standard. Meanwhile Konoka (who's even richer) chooses to live as the other students and has so far used her vast fortune at least once in the series (to gain help for her friends from a miserly Boisterous Bruiser). Konoka specifically concealed it from the class that she was so rich at all (since they never asked). Not many princesses more modest than the type who enjoy housework and cooking. Asuna would also count if she actually knew she was a princess. Likewise the latter's nephew, Negi, who was raised after the kingdom fell in a fairly austere setting.
- In Code Geass, Princess Euphemia may have Rapunzel Hair, but her style of dress is rather plain compared to the rest of the family. (spoiler alert)
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- Van Fanel (as did the rest of the Fanelian royal family, as seen in falshbacks) in Vision Of Escaflowne dresses very plainly, to the point that people outside of Fanelia - noble and peasant alike - don't even realize he's royalty unless someone points it out.
- Princess Nefeltari Vivi of Alabasta. Granted the majority of her time onscreen was infiltrating an underground criminal organization that was trying to take over her kingdom and later fighting alongside the Straw Hats as an honorary crew mate, but she's only ever shown once in a Pimped Out Dress and that was for an official occasion. Mostly she's seen wearing comfortable and practical clothes for everyday duties.
- To some extent, Dalton from Drum Kingdom, but then again he didn't inherit the throne and doesn't like to be called "King" to begin with.
Live Action TV
- Emperor Cartagia of the Centauri in Babylon Five. Subversion of the usual rule since he's the most undilutedly evil bastard in the entire show - he may ponce around in a gleaming white frock coat/tuxedo with gold trim, a golden pendant the size of a dinnerplate, and white spats, but it's still much more subdued that usual Centauri dress. Hell, even Vir is more flashy! Most importantly, he wears his hair short even though the size of a Centauri's hair fan traditionally indicates his status.
- Emperor Turhan, Cartagia's predecessor, refused to wear a wig in his last days.
Film
Video Games
- Arcueid in Tsukihime used to wear royal regalia most of the time, but now tends to be more of a sweater girl. Borderline as everyone who could really be called one of her subjects is now dead but...
- Marle in Chrono Trigger. She appears better dressed than most of the other characters, but the other royalty tends to be much better dressed.
- Galuf & Krile of Final Fantasy V are rather informal, and are also Royals Who Actually Do Something.
- Edgar of Final Fantasy VI dresses casually enough to pass for a non-royal, is on first name terms with most people, and appears to be wearing plain light armour in the tacked-on FMV sequences. He is another Final Fantasy royal who actually does things.
- King Mickey in Kingdom Hearts, it's the natural end result of making an everyman-type character like Mickey Mouse a king.
Webcomics
- From Drowtales, Waes'soloth and Ariel dress rather plainly for the matriarch of an ancient and powerful clan and an heiress to a mercenary empire, respectively. The Sharen clan, on the other hand, tend to have elaborate outfits and crowns, and other clan leaders do the same to show off their wealth.
- HRH Adharia Kuvoe in Last Res0rt dresses fairly simply and modestly, aside from some silky bedtime apparel. Of course, her modesty isn't all self-imposed; she's trying to make a run for the throne, so it's likely she can't afford to carry around her full trappings all the time!
- Thief from 8-Bit Theater, though far from modest in any other sense, is the Prince of Elfland and wears simple leather armor. His post-upgrade outfit (Ninja gear), though far from casual, might count as well, since it doesn't signify his status in any way.
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