Just as good and evil can be
Color Coded For Your Convenience, you can also tell them apart when heroes dress sensibly (more or less), and the villains dress in skimpier outfits than the heroes.
Although it's not that common nowadays, this likely started as a form of
Getting Crap Past The Radar. "It's okay if they dress immorally. They're the
bad guys! (wink)"
This trope doesn't require the good guys to dress like prudes, nor that they never put on revealing clothing (because, you know,
Fanservice). It's just that their regular outfits are significantly less skimpy than what the villains wear (and the heroes can dress like that with an
Evil Costume Switch).
The exact way an outfit is skimpier can vary. It could be anything from more revealing necklines to being outright
Stripperific.
This often overlaps with
Evil Is Sexy, except this doesn't require the villain to actually be sexy, just dressed skimpily (
there can be a difference).
Furthermore, that trope often has the villains dress just as sensibly as the heroes, or the heroes to dress just as sexy as the villains (most
Super Hero comics). Neither of those is this trope.
A
Sub Trope of
Dress Coded For Your Convenience.
Compare
Good Eyes Evil Eyes,
Obviously Evil.
Examples:
- Yaiba, where the moon empress dresses like a Playboy Bunny (she's apparently an anthropomorphic rabbit possessing a human), while the heroes dress sensibly.
- The Dark Queen of Battletoads: Even though the toads were technically naked, it's not really skimpy due to them being obviously anthropomorphic.
- Lunar The Silver Star. Luna wears a peasant dress at first, then practically nothing after her (apparent) Face Heel Turn.
- Compare Rinoa and Ultimecia in Final Fantasy VIII. Rinoa may be prettier, but evil gets a dress where the neckline ends at the crotch. And then it's slit up to the crotch.
- Dr. Frank N Furter often dresses in nothing more than a corset, fishnets, heels and short shorts (or panties...). When others "succumb" to his power, they start dressing this way.
- Harribel, Grimmjow, Loly and Lillinet from Bleach. Although Rangiku might be presented as sexier, other than a low-cut top she's still wearing much more than the others mentioned.
- In Tarot Witch Of The Black Rose, the dark witch's outfit are even skimpier than those of her good sister, and that's really saying something.
- The Tin Man recent Sci Fi Channel original film with Neal McDonough and Zoey Deschanel, the evil sis had some costumes.
- Let's just say there was a reason why the flying monkeys in this version were nicknamed "boobmonkeys."
- Princess Aura's metal bikini with shoulders & cape
from the 1980s film of Flash Gordon, although some of the heroes were wearing pretty immodest outfits too.
- I-NO of Guilty Gear is... improperly dressed. Works for "That Man", who appears to be The Man Behind The Man.
- The Mirror Universe in Star Trek
- Just compare the Cosmos and Chaos females in Dissidia Final Fantasy. Terra wears a fairly normal outfit, albeit with a miniskirt. Shantotto, as someone marginally on Cosmos's side, wears a full uniform. Ultimecia, as already mentioned in the Final Fantasy VIII example, has almost nothing covering the center of her body, and Cloud of Darkness is literally wearing almost nothing at all.
- The first season of Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha. The Hero wears a long-skirted uniform for her combat outfit, and her allies are either dressed casually or are garbed in full military uniform. Meanwhile, The Dragon is wearing what's basically a black swimsuit with a short skirt and interestingly placed red belts, her Familiar wears even less, and the Big Bad shows Absolute Cleavage. This trope stops applying in later seasons.
- When the Scarlet Witch was a villianess, her sleek red costume—while still covering just as much—was considerably sexier than those worn by Marvel Girl, the Wasp, and the Invisible Girl
- In A Very Potter Musical, once he gets his body body back, Voldemort wears nothing but a cape, tight pants, and tap shoes for the rest of the play. Evil Is Sexy indeed. His outfit is actually far more revealing than Bellatrix's (who dresses rather modestly except for a pretty high slit in her skirt), in an unusual subversion.
- In Metal Gear Solid, Solid Snake wears an (admittedly a little revealing but mostly fairly sensible) Spy Catsuit. His Evil Twin, Liquid Snake, walks around in tight trousers and a coat undone at the front.
