Sexy Shirt Switch - Television Tropes & Idioms

Maybe it's a little too early to know if this is gonna work
But all I know is you're sure lookin' good in my shirt

— Keith Urban, "You Look Good in My Shirt"

After sex (the morning after or right after), a woman comes out of the bedroom wearing nothing but a large shirt belonging to her male partner. Presumably, this is used as a clean indicator of an omitted sex scene because she must have removed her own clothes in order to get into his. She might even wear it before sex, in a way of showing that she's comfortable around him. Obviously, the trope only works if the woman is smaller than her boyfriend (or if he likes baggy clothes). It helps that this is common in real life.

Easily combined with a Shirtless Scene for the man.

The male version, a man wearing a wet T-shirt or frilly robe, is much rarer but not nonexistent, and inevitably is played for comedy or embarrassment (or both). Sometimes wearing his lover's pants is used as a more direct equivalent.

A Sub Trope of Clothing Switch and Sex Dressed.

Examples:

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Advertising

Done, deliberately, for a 2008 Moss Bros. UK ad for men's shirts around Valentine's Day.
A series of Van Heusen shirt commercials from the late 1980s emphasized this trope.

Anime and Manga

FLCL - played with - Ninamori's just staying over at Naota's for perfectly innocent reasons, right? Plus, she points out he's small, so his pajamas don't actually fit her. So this cute girl is in his bedroom, in tight clothing, and starts hitting on him in a way as weird as this example of this trope.
- Manga, Haruko decides to toy with Naota's hormones by having a sleepover in Naota's room with Mamimi (dressed in a Sexy Santa Dress) and Ninamori, who employs this trope (with Tasuku's shirt) and calls the other two amateurs.
An odd example (but definitely played for Fanservice) is in Mai Hime, where Mai, during her Heroic BSOD ends up in Reito's house wearing his shirt.
In Witchblade, Masane Amaha plays this trope straight after a fade out sex scene.
Subverted in Ikki Tousen Dragon Destiny. Yes, in this particular scene Kaku Bunwa is naked except for her boyfriend Kakuka's shirt. Yes, it's raining so it sticks to her curvy body. And yup, they just had sex... But no, this is not as fanservicy as it sounds, as it happens right when she finds Kakuka bleeding to death in the streets, after his doomed fight with Bashoku.
Ranma ½: After finding Ranma and Akane alone together in a rather... secluded... spot out in the woods, Ryoga thinks that Ranma raped her when he sees her wearing Ranma's shirt with tears in her eyes. Subverted in that they never actually had sex. She burned off her shirt (long story), he gave her his shirt and they had an argument (as usual).
In Axis Powers Hetalia, the author once drew England with America's bomber jacket. Fangirls from all around gush in joy.
In the Sailor Moon manga, we see Usagi in her own dress, but with one of Mamoru's shirts around her shoulders. It's never stated that they have slept together, but many fans see this as an indicative that they did.
Ayase from Midori Days manga shows up in front of Seiji for in-universe Fanservice in an attempt to woo him. It doesn't work.
Invoked by Kisaragi-sensei on this page of Umi no Misaki, though it has no effect on Nagi.
The first time we see the main character of Maicchingu Machiko Sensi, she's sporting this style. Subverted in that it is neither the morning after or the night before. She had simply been changing clothes and was interrupted.
Subverted in Fruits Basket: Tohru ends up wearing one of Yuki's shirts early in the series after her own clothes are soiled in a landslide. However, there is nothing sexual in the action, and in the end of the series, she ends up with an entirely different character.

Comics

In an issue of Teen Titans, Wonder Girl walks around in Superboy's t-shirt the morning after he takes her virginity.
Also Titans-related, one of the first indicators that Nightwing and Starfire were intimate was a scene where he was wearing pajama pants while she wore the shirt. Word Of God from Marv Wolfman stated that was so they could depict Kory and Dick as having a sexual relationship and still get it past the Comics Code.
- The same happened in the (also Code-approved) Uncanny X-Men #171 on the morning after Cyclops and Madelyne Pryor had sex for the first time.
Green Lantern lampshaded this when Donna Troy walks into a nude painting session between Kyle Rayner and his neighbor Allison. Allison, quickly sensing what would happen, says goodbye and leaves the apartment, but not before wearing Kyle's shirt. Donna Troy immediately uses this as part of her argument that something happened. (Nothing happened, actually, since Kyle really was an artist.)
Happened in V3 Legion of Super-Heroes when Dream Girl was wearing Star Boy's Star-Spangled Spandex.
This◊ Amazing Spider-Man cover with Black Cat.
Atom Eve ends up wearing a shirt after some time with Invincible. Curiously enough, he was wearing his superhero costume beforehand, so it seems a lot like she created it with her powers specifically for that scene.
When Aquaman and Dolphin got it on, Dolphin started wearing Aquaman's gold scaled shirt as a mini-dress. It look a lot better on her than it ever did on him.

Fanfiction

There is a Star Wars fic about Mara pretending to be Luke's girlfriend to keep away a Fangirl. Well, the moment they sense that fan approaching their quarters, Mara says "Take off your tunic and give it to me." Then she shows up in front of them wearing nothing but that tunic ...The charade became reality the next day.
There is a variation in a Teen Titans fic where Beast Boy and Raven have a date and the next morning Beastboy shows up at breakfast... With Raven's blanket. A later chapter contains a more conventional example with Robin and Star.
In the Avatar: The Last Airbender fanfic Iris, Mai comes out of Zuko's room wearing his pajamas.
Inverted in the TinMan fantic "The Promise of Touch" where DG asks for one of Cain's shirts to sleep in. It's actually part of her scheme to seduce him - and it works.
Toyed with in the Beyond Good And Evil fanfic "All Too Human." Hub saves a random woman from a mugger because that's the kind of person he is, and he gives her a shirt of his to wear because her clothes got torn and damp during the mugging. When Jade sees said woman in his shirt, though, she immediately jumps to conclusions.
In a Phineas and Ferb fanfiction When Lawrence and Linda was still dating, and Linda's kids were still a baby and a toddler, Linda and Lawrence slept together and Linda woke up in Lawrence's shirt.
Played with: My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic fanfiction sometimes depicts Rainbow Dash cuddling Applejack while wearing her hat.
Mentioned (and, from an in-universe point of view, subverted) in this Homestuck fanfic. John and Karkat have, in fact, switched bodies, and it only looks like they've switched clothes because they're still wearing their original outfits.

Film

In the movie version of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Trillian is seen aboard the Heart of Gold wearing a shirt with three sleeves. Who might that belong to?
In the Aaron Sorkin-written The American President, President Shepherd begins to outline his plan to slow down his burgeoning relationship with lobbyist Sydney until she's comfortable...just as she enters wearing one of his dress shirts, which clears up the issue remarkably well.
Jane Fonda in Barefoot In The Park—photo Youtube at 3:40
Spoofed in Scary Movie. Ray liked seeing Brenda in his football jersey and had her put his pads and helmet before having sex with her. But then again, this is Ray we're talking about.
In Hot Shots! Ramada uses this trope to seduce Charlie Sheen's character, coming out of the shower with wet hair wearing a man's shirt:
Topper Harley: So... I guess you've been with a man before...
Ramada Thompson: I'm a virgin. I'm just not very good at it.
- Taken ridiculously in Hot Shots! Part Deux: Charlie Sheen wakes up and puts on his lover's dress, then goes to the mirror and starts brushing his long hair. And at this point he was pretty buff too...
Played for laughs in The Naked Gun.
Perhaps alarmingly, High School Musical 2 has a scene after an innuendo-filled baseball game where Chad and Ryan have unexplainedly switched shirts...
In the movie Charlie Bartlett, Susan wears Charlie's shirt after they sleep together, while he puts his jacket and boxers back on.
The male version is apparent in Kindergarten Cop. When Kimble walks in on Phoebe and her fiancée, thinking she's being attacked, the fiancée retreats to the bathroom and comes out wearing her robe, seeming to be completely un-self-conscious—which of course makes Phoebe's eyes mist over and her to moan "I love you." (It might also have to do with Phoebe being a slender Big Eater and her fiancee being a chef and eating in bed.)
In Iron Man, Christine wanders around Tony's house the morning after, nosing around like the reporter she is. Justified in that she probably would have put her own clothes on if they were available; they were out being pressed and dry-cleaned.
Superman II has Lois do this with Superman's "S" shirt of all things.
One particular scene in The Alphabet Killer might seem like a subversion, given the circumstances, but, uh, so much movement...
Used to show Coitus Interruptus in Real Genius. "So...you'll hammer later?"
In On Her Majesty's Secret Service, James Bond puts on Tracy's robe after he wakes up and she is gone. Also played straight in many other Bond films.
In Date Night, Holbrooke's girlfriend is seen wearing his shirt.
In Shelter, Shaun is seen wearing a beige t-shirt with some kind if pattern on it. Later, Shaun and Zach are in Shaun's bed together when Gabe (who is Shaun's brother and Zach's best friend) suddenly shows up at the house. Zach, in his hurry to get dressed and sneak out before Gabe sees him, accidentally puts on that beige t-shirt of Shaun's. He goes directly to work, and then Gabe shows up there as well and mentions in passing that he likes his shirt. Apparently, it isn't until then that Zach actually realises that he's wearing Shaun's shirt, because the look on his face as he looks down on it is priceless.
In Weird Science, Wyatt absentmindedly puts on a pair of Lisa's panties after they spend the night together. Chet doesn't react well, though to be fair, he never really does.
48 Hrs.: Happens in the beginning with Jack Cates and Elane Marshall who is wearing Jack's blue shirt.
Used in Mr. and Mrs. Smith despite a very unambiguous sex scene, if only so Angelina Jolie will have something to wear in the upcoming action scene.
Occurs in The Wedding Singer, prompting Drew Barrymore's character to rush away to marry Glenn.
Two characters in the early part of Loose Screws literally switch shirts. The guy wears "Wanna trade?" and the girl wears "Sure".
Transformers: Dark of the Moon introduces Rosie Huntington Whiteley as Carly Spencer in this manner.

Literature

Referenced and subverted in Lois McMaster Bujold's Brothers in Arms: Referenced when Miles immediately thinks of this trope after he and Elli nearly don each other's t-shirts. Subverted because Miles is so diminutive they wear the same size.
In one Doctor Who Eighth Doctor Adventures book, we meet an attractive blond girl who's wearing "a baggy white shirt and a tapestry waistcoat", clothes obviously belonging to the Doctor, with her jeans. Another character assumes, for other reasons, that she's the Doctor's girlfriend. Turns out she's his adopted daughter.
Used in the first book in the Darkest Powers series. When Chloe tries to trick one of the doctors into thinking that she and Derek were having sex instead of trying to escape, she puts on one of his shoes.

Live Action TV

On Sports Night, Natalie uses wearing Jeremy's white dress shirt as a trump card. Also, the fact that Casey left a shirt of his after spending the night with Sally and later notices Gordon is wearing, is used as The Reveal that Gordon is cheating on Dana.
Lorelai on Gilmore Girls entering the (crowded) diner in Luke's shirt.
Done in Farscape's "A Human Reaction". Quickly subverted when the man tells her she has to dress as a woman since that's the last thing someone would expect from a Badass Action Girl.
- Also weirdly inverted in "Rhapsody In Blue", when she's wearing a pair of his underwear despite the fact that they weren't even sleeping in the same room. Apparently Badass alien Action Girls find men's boxers quite comfy.
- When Crichton objects Aeryn replies that the underwear is not his, they belong to someone called "Calvin Klein".
Kitty Walker in Brothers and Sisters seems to like wearing male shirts.
Used deliberately and with deception intended by Johnny and Bailey in WKRP in Cincinnati, where she wears a shirt of Johnny's. They hadn't really slept together; they were playing with the rest of the WKRP staff.
Played with in an episode of How I Met Your Mother when Robin buys a bikini t-shirt that really turns Ted on. At the end of the episode he comes out of his bedroom wearing it.
Lily: Is Robin in there?
Marshall: God, I hope so.
An episode of Friends had the male version, with Ross and Richard wearing their girlfriends' robes.
- Ursula greeting Phoebe at Joey's apartment wearing only a dress shirt as an indication they had (or were about to have) sex also occurred in an earlier episode.
In one episode of Strangers with Candy, Chuck and Geoffrey go into the boys' bathroom to investigate some graffiti that's been sprayed on one of the stalls. They come out, some time later, hair mussed up and wearing each other's shirts, having reached no conclusion about the graffiti.
- It was also done much more subtly in other episodes. Like, in one episode Geoffrey would be seen wearing a blue blouse with black stripes, then in a later episode Chuck was seen wearing it. This happened again with a different shirt in some other episodes.
In an episode of Frasier, Frasier is shocked to find his mentor in Roz's apartment, wearing her pink robe. For the rest of the episode, whenever he talks to the guy, he sees him in the robe.
Played with in Scrubs: JD comes home to find Keith and Elliot in bathrobes. Keith is in the frilly pink one, to which JD gives a shocked "Why are you wearing my bathrobe?"
A NewsRadio episode has Lisa wearing one of Dave's shirts to work. After they get in a fight, she angrily strips it off and gives it back to him, then stalks out of the office in her bra (walking past Bill, who she preemptively slaps before he has a chance to comment).
Subverted on The Drew Carey Show, where he's seen wearing the bathrobe of his (much-older) girlfriend. Her adult son meets him this way and freaks out and punches him, thinking he's some kind of pervert.
Believe it or not, this happened in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Specifically, early in the fourth season, Buffy goes to Giles' apartment, only to be greeted by Olivia, an friend of his from England, clothed exactly as this trope might suggest.
- When Xander casts a love spell that goes wrong, he escapes a horde of lovestruck women, shutting himself in his bedroom - where he finds a lovestruck Willow wearing one of his shirts.
- Also in the fourth season, Oz realises his ex has moved on when he sees that her "close friend" Tara is wearing her sweater.
- Happens again in another Joss Whedon show. The scene in which this happens involves Mellie getting assaulted by Sierra's handler, and something about flowers in a vase.
In Grounded For Life, Eddie is shown to reverse the roles, putting on the female's shirt/blouse the morning after. In one episode, when Eddie goes off with another girlfriend for the night, it's even said "You know, he'll really look good in that blouse."
Invoked in 30 Rock when a guest star has a fake romance with Jenna so he can hide the fact that he's in love with a body pillow.
Played with on Getting Personal, after Milo is in a marathon sex session with Robyn's roommate, trying to get her to orgasm. At one point, she comes out wearing his shirt, looking sexy as per usual. Milo leaves the room a few seconds later, wearing boxers and the roommate's flimsy see-thru robe.
Shown in The X-Files episode "Never Again", in which Scully wakes up in a man's shirt after going home with a man she met in a bar. Whether or not anything nefarious went on was unclear.
Parodied/referenced/somethinged in Community during Troy and Abed's "supercool elevator" mime act.
Played with in the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode "Looking for par'Mach in All the Wrong Places": After Worf and Jadzia have sex for the first time Jadzia enters Dr. Bashir's office wearing Worf's baldric.
In the A Day at the Bizarro / All Just a Dream / And Now For Something Completely Different / Elseworld fourth season finale of Bones, in which Brennan and Booth were married (cue the Squee), they answer the door in each others' robes (after having had sex. Onscreen. Fanservice much?). It was very cute.
In All in the Family, Mike and Gloria are shown sharing a pair of pajamas.
In Smallville, Lois is shown waking up one morning and wandering around Oliver Queen's penthouse wearing only his shirt.
- Several girls end up wearing Clark's football jersey.
A very brief version happens in Eureka after Carter and Allison first sleep together — she gets out of bed wearing the top half of his sheriff's uniform.
Jeannie wears Tony's shirt in the pilot episode of I Dream of Jeannie.
An early M*A*S*H episode has Margaret, after a sneaky get-together with Frank, discover she's wearing Frank's shirt.
Due South: Victoria tries on Fraser's uniform jacket.
The Professionals: In "Old Dog with New Tricks," Doyle stops by Bodie's flat and the door is answered by ~~Betty~~ Claire, who is wearing Bodie's shirt and nothing else.
Used in White Collar, in the Season 3 episode "Scott Free." Although viewers know that Neal and Sara were already sleeping together, nobody's complaining - especially since Neal's shirt shows off Sara's legs.
Fairly Legal has Kate walking out to the kitchen with Justin's shirt on, and he asks her for it so he can wear it to work. So she takes it off
Game of Thrones has a scene where Shae, the prostitute Tyrion hires, can be seen wearing his over-shirt over her dress. Since he is a dwarf, it isn't too large on her and actually fits her pretty well.
In the first episode of Haven, Duke rescues an unconscious Audrey from the water. He removes her wet clothes so he can launder them and puts her to bed. When she wakes up, the only clothing available is a shirt, obviously for his perverted enjoyment. She angrily pulls a gun on him.
In Gossip Girl, Serena wears Nate's shirt during a scene where she enters his kitchen after clearly spending the night. They then have an unambiguous love scene right there in the kitchen, after which, she is still wearing the shirt and he is still fully clothed.

Music

Keith Urban's song "You Look Good In My Shirt". ...Yeah.
Timbaland also invokes this in his duet with Nelly Furtado, "Promiscuous Girl," where he says, "I can see you with my t-shirt on..."
Aaron Lines' "You Can't Hide Beautiful": "Then she falls asleep with just my T-shirt on / But even when her hair's messed up and her makeup's gone / You can't hide beautiful…"

Theater

The final scene of the musical The Pajama Game combines this with a Shirtless Scene, as Babe and the superintendent enter sharing a single set of pajamas:
Married life is twice the fun
Two can sleep as cheap as one
In Miss Saigon during the song "I Still Believe", Chris's wife Ellen is sometimes dressed in his shirt as she watches him sleep.
In the Heights shows Benny standing on his fire escape in the middle of the night. Nina comes out to join him, wearing his T-shirt. At the realization of what's happened between them, the audience often applauds loudly and for a very long time—at the performance I saw, the actors even had to start their dialogue over.
In Spring Awakening, Ilse's last scene with Moritz has her wearing nothing but a huge shirt.

Video Games

One of Colette's alternate outfits in the PS2 version of Tales Of Symphonia is Lloyd's usual red getup, obtained after an event where she falls into the stream near Lloyd's house.
In Catherine the titular character is always wearing an oversized t-shirt the morning after Vincent's nightmare adventures. This serves to further confuse him as to whether or not they actually had sex the night before.
Xenosaga episode 3 gives us Shion in Kevin's shirt in a flashback. It's also an unlockable outfit.

Webcomics

Explained (and then taken in a horribly wrong direction) in the Casey & Andy webcomic. ("They're usually nearby, they're roomy and comfortable, and there's something feral about the smell of your man.") Then Casey walks in and shows why this doesn't work the other way around.
- It's Walky! has another explanation. (and the same in color)
Subverted in an early Megatokyo, where Piro and Ping clearly didn't sleep together, but when Ping answers the door in a slightly-oversized men's shirt, Kimiko jumps to the wrong conclusion.
- Later, Kimiko comes home wearing Piro's shirt because Largo threw up over hers, which she uses to shock Erika.
Used in El Goonish Shive: Tedd and Grace leave to get some towels. They come back slightly later than they should have, wearing each other's shirts. Interestingly enough, they either don't seem to notice this or pretend they did not. Later, when Nanase receives a clothing-swapping spell (useful for disguise) her girlfriend Ellen immediately proposes that they use it for this trope, much to Nanase's embarrassment.
- To Grace's defense, the shirt was Tedd's in the first place and might not have been an exact fit for her (as Tedd is very scrawny and has no breasts... most of the time).
A more gender-appropriate inversion appears in Questionable Content, when Faye is convinced Marten and Dora have had sex because he's wearing her pants. Except that their implausible excuse turns out to be literally true.
A more subtle, male version happened in Shortpacked! here, Ethan wearing Mike's old shirt from another webcomic.
Variation in College Roomies from Hell!!!, where Dave and Blue are interrupted whilst having sex, and get dressed so hastily they end up wearing each others' clothes for Rule of Funny.
Happens in this Ménage à 3. Though one wonders how Zii's shirt can still fit.
In Narbonic, Helen is wearing Dave's signature flannel in this strip, right after they have sex for the first time.

Western Animation

Andrea Beaumont in Batman: Mask of the Phantasm.
Deputy Director Bullock in American Dad as an example of the male variant on this trope after he gets it on with Haley. Yeah, creepy.
- Even worse, he was wearing her panties.
- In another episode, after Stan has spent a wild night in Vegas with Roger the alien, Roger wakes up wearing Stan's shirt.
In Drawn Together, Captain Hero wears the top of his pajamas, and Xandir is seen wearing the trousers.
Young Justice has Artemis wearing nothing but a red shirt for Wally on Valentine's Day, post-Time Skip.

Real Life

Apparently, this trope was the reason a famous Argentine actor broke up with his actress/singer girlfriend, after another famous singer showed a picture on TV of her wearing his shirt.
On Russell Brand's old BBC radio show, Matt Morgan once joked that if Russell ever had sex with Noel Fielding and they got dressed in a hurry afterwards and wore each other's clothes, no one would even notice.

Added Alliterative Appeal

Sexy Silhouette