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alt title(s): Rummage Sale Rejects 
Well, he thinks it's cool...
"Is there some kind of special store where these guys go to to find the worst, most uncomfortable outfits in the world? Is there a Walking Cliché Warehouse, or do you have to get a mail-order catalogue?"
"Hell, stop making every character look their clothes were chosen by blind clowns. That would HAVE to save some time."
Some characters wear a realistic outfit, to the point that a cosplay of them might be relatively simple. But this gets kind of boring; it's not a challenge for the cosplayer to put together, and very few people will actually realize that he or she is in costume. (Which might explain why even mundane series tend to gravitate towards unique school uniforms and such.)
Sometimes the character designers realize that their characters' wardrobes are too realistic. One way to compensate for this is by mixing bits and pieces of what might be a number of perfectly acceptable outfits into a bizarre Frankenstein mess. The outfit may be comfortable, but something about it just looks slightly, but not totally, off.
It's often a matter of taste whether these are Impossibly Cool Clothes or not. The wearer believes so, at any rate.
Often involves Too Many Belts, Goggles Do Nothing, Virtual Paper Doll (with some questionable mixing and matching).
Contrast Pimped Out Dress, which could have loads of accessories, but always in a stylish manner.
Examples:
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Anime and Manga
- This is the default mode of clothing for the cast of Fist Of The North Star.
- Most of the Digimon cast's outfits — in particular, the infamous use of goggles.
- The cast of Naruto alternate between Impossibly Cool Clothes and Rummage Sale Rejects depending on personal taste, although Naruto's safety-orange hued jacket certainly stands out. Although every ninja wears a village headband, where they do so varies: it's usually on the forehead, but it can be on the neck, on the arm, on the head...
- On the few occasions where Naruto isn't wearing his jacket you can see he has some sort of layer of chainmail under it, which explains having something so loose if not the color.
- Lee and Guy's green jumpsuits are acknowledged as goofy looking by everyone but them... and Naruto.
- And Sai, in a recent Omake.
- In Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha, the outfit one's Transformation Sequence results in is called a "Barrier Jacket", and is partially 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.
- Haruko from FLCL is a big example. Naota isn't; cosplayers are only recognizable as such due to Limited Wardrobe.
- Handwaved in Saber Marionette J, where Lime originally shows up in a fairly standard android jumpsuit and, because of Otaru's poorness, really does get her newer outfit from a rummage sale.
- Solty Rei plays with this when, during a shopping trip, the main character goes through a series of fairly reasonable outfits. Without looking, her guardian assures her to just pick the current one, and she does out of affection — a tight cute, orange jumpsuit with clunky boots number the other women look embarrassed about.
- The Bount in Bleach had strange accessories like headphones and chains to make them look less normal.
- The school uniforms in Princess Tutu are distinctive enough (and odd enough) that they don't fit under this...but what the characters like to wear outside of their uniforms are just normal enough to make you scratch your head. Ahiru wears big poofy yellow shorts and a midriff-baring sweater that is appropriately bird-like, while Fakir seems to be wearing one of the standard boy's dance outfits...except that he has inexplicably torn up the top and haphazardly sewn it back together.
- Chrono from Chrono Crusade has an outfit that at first glance seems distinctly anime, but when he takes off his coat it's apparent that he's wearing what would be a normal outfit for a young boy living in New York during the 1920's—as long as you ignore the bright red color of his shorts, anyway.
- Kino, of Kino's Journey is a fairly subtle version of this. She looks to be wearing normal traveling clothing most of the time, but then you realize she's wearing two trench coats of completely different designs, a hunting cap, goggles, a dress shirt, pants, a belt with a ridiculous number of pouches, a second belt, a boatload of weapons, a scarf, and metal wrist guards. As a traveler, clothing is supposed to be practical rather than pretty, but it seems overkill until the later episodes.
- Very often, Mikako from Gokinjo Monogatari ends up with a case of this in her attemps to dress in a way that is absurdly flashy, original and/or outlandish.
- Sadamitsu in the Tokyo Arc of Otogi Zoshi looks particularly ridiculous. His jacket - an orange and yellow thing with Cupid-style cherubs on the chest and a large red heart in back - is bad enough, but he supplements this with a midriff-baring black shirt, shiny leather pants, studded leather wristbands, a silver medallion necklace, and some skull jewelry on his hands.
Comic Books
- Jack Ryder actually got his costume from a costume shop's rejected costume parts. And it shows. In Batman: The Animated Series he acquired the costume from various clothes in a Vintage Clothing boutique.
- Alan Scott got his costume from a theatre's box of spare costume parts.
- Jubilee before she got depowered. Her costumes were probably inspired by the anime look, but she's the comic book example that jumps out as having WAY too many accessories
- Her most infamous attire is a bright yellow trench-coat, huge hot pink wrap around glasses, and what looks like giant dishwashing gloves, and this was worn over shorts and a red shirt. This troper was convinced that she had to be colorblind.
Film
- The Mad Max film series deserves to be identified the most for this trope for its extensive use of discarded tires and assorted garbage for apparel.
- Tyler Durden's outfit in the movie version of Fight Club, although the Impossibly Cool Clothes aspect of his thrift-store outfits is probably a result of them being worn by Brad Pitt.
- The Joker was apparently designed with this look in mind, to seem as though his outfit was pieced together from different suits he'd stolen.
- Diane Keaton made this look famous in Annie Hall, even inspiring a fashion trend (people are likely to know what the "Annie Hall" look is without knowing a thing about the movie).
Literature
- In David Eddings' Belgariad series of novels, Belgarath developed his trademark vagrant's outfit on purpose in order to pass mostly unnoticed. While everyone thinks that his ragged tunic and mismatched shoes are remnants of rubbish heaps, the entire outfit was custom tailored, including a tunic that has patches over intact cloth, and his mismatched boots were custom-made by a master cobbler and fit perfectly—after Belgarath spent a full day patiently explaining to the craftsman *why* he didn't want them to match and wanted them to be scuffed up a little after they were made.
- "The fact that his boots were mismatched was neither an indication of poverty nor of carelessness. It stemmed rather from conscious choice, since the left boot of one pair was comfortable upon his left foot and its mate pinched his toes, whereas his right boot - from another pair - was most satisfactory, while its companion chafed his heel." Not entirely for disguise.
- That quote was essentially retconned in the prequel novel Belgarath the Sorcerer. Of course, Eddings does quite a bit of retconning in the prequels. Of course, he could (and really should) have had more than one set of specially tailored beggar clothes.
- Most of the time, when characters in the X Wing Series have their clothing mentioned at all, they're in pilot's jumpsuits. But in Wraith Squadron, when three Wraiths doing The Infiltration are passing as wild-shirted tourists, well - better just to quote.
Wedge shook his [pile of clothes] out. A short-sleeved tunic in orange and yellow tropical fruit patterns and short pants in lavendar. "I'm going to throw up."
[...] Donos looked mournfully at his outfit: a shirt with thin red and green horizontal stripes and shorts with black and white vertical stripes. "Sir, permission to kill Face?" [...]
Face unfolded his own fashion disaster. A black silken shirt with a variety of insects picked out on it in glittery silver, shorts in a brighter, more painful shade of orange than that of New Republic pilot's suits, and a red kerchief for his neck. "As you can see, I saved the best for myself."
- Book example: Claudia from The Babysitters Club series was described as wearing the wackiest outfits possible, often a mismash of clothes from totally clashing social situations (ie, a tutu, combat boots, baseball jersey, and top hat) usually followed by the sentence, "On anyone else, it would have looked crazy, but on Claudia, it was fabulous!".
- One book includes a minor character who constantly wears incredibly tacky pants and brags about how little he spent on them.
Live Action TV
- Various incarnations of the Doctor take this approach to their outfits. The Second Doctor had a many-pocketed, unkempt coat to go with his 'space hobo' look; the Third Doctor had a frilly suit that the actor himself (Jon Pertwee) had worn precisely because it looked silly; the Fourth Doctor's enormous scarf; the Sixth Doctor's ridiculous clown suit (to match his ego-inflated personality); the Seventh Doctor's question-mark sweater (with question mark-handled umbrella) which might just have gone too far. The later versions tend towards less outlandish but nonetheless distinctive looks.
- The Tenth Doctor wears a brown pinstripe or blue suit (it varies) with an open collar shirt, a tie and- Converse trainers.
- In one episode during the time of the 9th Doctor, a character made a remark in passing about how he looked like a U-Boat Captain.
- In Britain. During World War II.
- And in another, Charles Dickens told him he looked like a navvy.
- The Fifth Doctor's red-trimmed cricket outfit and decorative vegetable. I mean, come on. Not many men can pull off a decorative vegetable.
- At a who-con in Tampa, Colin Baker (The sixth Doctor) told the audience that he had chosen his garish coat specifically because he didn't have to look at it.
- The Dulcians from The Dominators are Human Aliens where both sexes wear curtain-like dresses.
- For a modest man, James May on Top Gear has a collection of incredibly loud shirts. He especially favors a purple-and-pink striped number. One of them, a white shirt with a blue flower pattern, even has its own fanbase.
Video Games
- Common in Square-Enix video games, such as Tidus from Final Fantasy X (asymmetrical) and Sora from Kingdom Hearts. Since Nomura took over, Too Many Belts became common as well.
- The cast of Final Fantasy XII particularly seems to have gotten their outfits from a rubbage pile. Vaan wears a plate mail vest that's too small for him, Ashe wears what appears to be two halves of a pink leather miniskirt, and Basch wears what appears to be a) belts on the inside of his jacket, b) a potholder, and c) a pirate's frilly shirt.
- Balthier looks pimpin' though.
- But of course. Only the best for the leading man, after all.
- Want to make an Amano character? Take an outfit that might be practical. Then add a few dozen extra scarves until they look like some sort of JRPG Isadora Duncan. It's a wonder Rydia doesn't suffer from the wind resistance. Bonus points if your armor appears to have been glued together from entirely different suits. Ultra bonus points for Maria of Final Fantasy II who has an iron plate pastie serving to cover half of her chest.
- Pre-3D Final Fantasy ladies were quite fond of simply putting on a swimsuit then chucking on extra scarves, a belt, and a cape. Throw on some high-heeled boots and maybe add tights and they're ready for combat! See Maria (again), Rosa, Rydia, Celes (in-game version), Terra (in-game version).
- Despite The Spoony One's complaints, Final Fantasy VIII's characters actually had relatively reasonable and normal-looking clothes, compared with he rest of the series (Squall's consists of a white tee shirt, an aviator jacket, and black jeans; the only thing weird is the extra belt). Most of the characters of Final Fantasy VII also looked fairly nondescript (excepting Vincent and Yuffie), though they each had their own weirdness to them.
- This troper thought Tifa's outfit was perfectly ridiculous. And Cait Sith could have killed enemies in Real Life just by making them hyperventilate from laughing so hard.
- Tifa's original outfit was just a white tank top, suspenders, and a black miniskirt. The bracers and boots get a bye because they're essentially her weapons. At worse, her outfit is only ridiculous by normal standards due to the fact that it's entirely too small for her, and/or she's entirely too curvy for it.
- And the fact that she has to do high kicks in that skirt.
- Except Word Of God says that she's wearing Shorts.
- Oh god, Luso's outfit in Final Fantasy Tactics A 2. The... the overalls... the boots... that random gauntlet... That. Hat. Just... just see for yourself.
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- It's a Nice Hat. I'm more worried about that weapon...
- Which, to be fair, is a reference to the sword held by Marche, the hero of the previous game, in his official portrait.
- You're just not an adventurer until you slip on your high heels, shamrock badge, and pizza cutter.
- The one from Final Fantasy Tactics looks much simpler.
- To wit.◊ Granted, those are about the tallest boots I've ever seen, but it's still worlds better than Luso's outfit.
- Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a Darklord's Mira is wearing different outfits on each vertical half of her body, completing with two-colour hair and Boat Lights. One half is also part armor and part skin-tight dominatrix outfit. She is also wearing a collar with a tiny necktie. Behold!
- Taken to bizarre extremes in the Jak And Daxter series of games: The bizarre half-barefoot footwear in the first game are a particularly notable example.
- Travis Touchdown is no doubt a pathetic enough Otaku to deliberately dress this way. At least the single glove seems kinda handy for using his beam katana, but the rest... note that the player can choose exactly how ridiculous Travis' outfit becomes by buying more clothes (or diving for shirts in Santa Destroy's many dumpsters), all of them awesomely tasteless otaku wear.
- Celine, from Star Ocean: The Second Story, wears what appears to be a hovering shower curtain as a cape.
Web Original
- In Protectors Of The Plot Continuum, Tawaki II wears a mustard yellow shirt and purple pants. The requisite black is supplied by red-winged blackbird lapel pins.
- Jericho, of the Whateley Universe, dresses every day in clothes that are so gaudy and so mismatched that people actually get ill from looking at him. He's blind but has psychic vision and uses that as an excuse.
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