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"Clothes make the man" is this guy's motto. Impeccably groomed but never a slave to fashion, the Sharp Dressed Man is quite simply a guy dressed to the nines, over whom the ladies in the audience will undoubtedly swoon.
A three-piece-suit (that is, one including a Waistcoat of Style) is the usual embodiment of this trope, but more imaginative outfits can qualify as well. Awesome Anachronistic Apparel will often overlap.
A more subtle Sister Trope of The Fashionista, The Dandy, and Costume Porn.
Super Trope to:
Compare Hot Chick in a Badass Suit (the female version), Bifauxnen.
Examples
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Anime and Manga
- The Big O: Roger Smith. Jason Beck actually manages to look good in gold suits, but his oft ridiculous hairdos and Laughably Evil antics tend to kill the effects of this trope. Alex Rosewater actually doesn't look too bad in a white business suit, though he himself doesn't really look as good as his own outfit.
- El-Hazard's would-be ruler, Katsuhiko Jinnai, is never seen without his suit and tie.
 ◊ Bonus points for stylin' by usually keeping one hand in his pocket, leaving the other free to straighten his necktie.
- Well, that's his school uniform, but it still counts - especially considering how his sworn rival, Makoto, wears his uniform with slack.
- Lupin III: Lupin and Jigen Daisuke. Oddly enough, while both of these men dress well, Lupin is too much of a Handsome Lech to pull it off and Jigen's fangirls are all in the audience as opposed to the Lupin-verse. Either that or they want to kill him. Or they die. The Gunslinger's got no luck with women...
- Baccano: Being set in 1930's Gangsterland, what were the chances that the show wouldn't use this◊ trope◊ like a horribly addictive drug?
- Pokémon: Giovanni. And Cilan. Don't forget Riley and Steven Stone!
- Also, Maxie, albeit with a specially-made uniform. Archie also has a nice suit.
- "Looker" or "Handsome" in the japanese version, isn't exactly some random nickname.
- Shota example: Makube Rokuro from Tezuka's Vampires. He keeps the look as he gets older. He appears as an expy in works like Black Jack.
- Black Jack: Dr. Black Jack.
- Sailor Moon: Mamoru Chiba/Tuxedo Mask has four different girls and several men after him, and even when not in Tuxedo Mask form he wears well-tailored jackets.
- Alucard from Hellsing, whose outfit is like the awesome love child of Vash the Stampede (lampshaded by the author himself in his end-of-tankobon notes) and Carmen Sandiego.
- Mahou Sensei Negima!: Any of the suits worn by Takemichi or his teacher Gateau.
- Chrono Crusade is a show set in the Roaring Twenties, so of course most of its men are dressed in classy suits.
- The tenth movie of One Piece didn't really need to put everyone in classy suits. Was it amazingly awesome? Yes.
- Well, about the tenth movie, there was a dresscode.
- Sanji in general. Observe.◊
- Also, high ranking Marines tend to wear pretty badass suits. The admirals and Garp in particular.
- Death Note: Light Yagami pulls this off pretty well,
when he feels like it for work. He tends towards smart casual otherwise.
- Monster: The most casual thing you ever see Johan Liebert wear is a grey sweater, which he wears after getting out of the hospital following a massive Villainous BSOD.
- There was also that cute clubbing dress with the magic make-you-shorter heels. And the wig, obviously. Despite the heels, it was a pretty casual outfit.
- Darker than Black: November 11 is always either impeccably dressed or naked as a jaybird.
- In Durarara!!, Shizuo's inexplicable inability to wear anything other than impeccably tailored bartender suits is something of a running gag.
- He was given several dozen copies of the outfit by his rich younger brother who hoped that it would encourage him to keep his current job for longer than few weeks. It didn't work, but Shizuo keeps wearing the suits out of respect for him.
- Soul Eater gives us Death The Kid, son of the Grim Reaper, who is a teenager in a perfectly symmetrical suit.
- Michio Yuki and Detective Meguro from MW.
- Code Geass has a slightly more intricately sharp dressed man in Lelouch vi Britannia's alter-ego, Zero. Fashioned with gold trimmings, his purple tailed suit and cravat are impeccably sharp. That's good, because it draws attention away from the fact that his pants and his shoes are sown together.
- Bleach: Ryuuken Ishida is the Director of Karakura General Hospital and is never seen wearing anything other than smart suits. In a flashback arc to his teenage years, the most casual he ever gets even then is "casual smart". He'll fight in his suits and, being a quincy, usually wears white suits making him a Badass in a Nice Suit and a Man in White as well. Basically, he's got all non-evil angles covered.
Comic Books
- Batman: Being a celebrity and the CEO of a huge, wealthy company, Bruce Wayne tends to wear suits a lot in his "day" persona. So do Tim Drake and Dick Grayson on occasion, and my word do they look good in them!
- Averted with The Joker in Death Of The Family. He's dressed up in a plain old repairman jumpsuit, and is not even close to looking sharply dressed this time around.
- Sharp Dressed Man might as well be Tony Stark's theme song.
Fan Fiction
- In the Harry/Draco slash fanfiction, Big Dick, Come Quick, both Harry and Draco are quite partial to wearing designer suits. Be it Boateng, Hugo Boss, or Armani, they practically have it all since they're rich, famous, and ridiculously handsome.
- The title character of The Harmon Verse, Jack Harmon, lives and breaths this trope.
- The Homestuck fanfic Dont Name It gives us a perfect example with the smug businesstroll Jade Equius, also known as "Suitquius".
Film
- Peter Guillam from the 2011 version of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. Most of the important characters really, since they're all government spies, but Guillam's Waistcoat of Style Fanservice tendencies and randomly brightly coloured ties single him out.
- The Godfather: Michael Corleone.
- Bond. James Bond.
- Everyone in Inception, especially (and spectacularly) Joseph Gordon-Levitt's character, Arthur, who wore his three-piece suits sharp enough to kill. Yes, even Ariadne and Mal. Meow.
- The Nightmare Before Christmas: Jack Skellington, proving the immediate sex appeal of this trope. Seriously, how many skeletons do you know who are freaking Memetic Sex Gods?
- The Italian Job, The first thing Charlie Croker does upon getting released from jail? Visiting his tailor and his shirtmaker.
- The Adjustment Bureau: All the members of the eponymous organisation wear fifties-style suits, complete with Nice Hats.
- Jimmy gets a nice red suit, presumably with his severance pay, towards the end of Quadrophenia.
- Thanks to a Limited Wardrobe, the titular Blues Brothers wear the same two suits and pairs of sunglasses for the entire movie.
- Presumably, a standard dress-code Marsellus Wallace requires of his henchmen, given that he, Jules, Vince and the Wolf are all Badass in a Nice Suit.
- In Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children both Turks and Rufus, oh, God, Rufus.
- In the '60s Doctor Who film (starring Peter Cushing) Dalek Invasion A.D. 2165, the collaborator (played by Philip Madoc) wears a great-looking off-white trenchcoat, in contrast with the run-down appearance of all the other humans.
- Any character played by Fred Astaire, such as Jerry from Top Hat.
- Loki likes to dress in nice suits whenever he visits Earth in both Thor and The Avengers movie. Oddly enough, these suits served no real purpose as the first time he made himself invisible to the humans and the second time he needed to get to an old scientist in the middle of the fancy party in Stuttgart. Perhaps he just likes Midgardian fashion, or perhaps the filmmakers just like putting Tom Hiddleston in nice suits for the ladies to enjoy!
- Not quite as fanservicey, but Agent Coulson's suits get progressively nicer and sharper with each movie he appears in. When he first shows up in Iron Man, his suit fits poorly to exaggerate his unimpressive comic relief status. By The Avengers, he's proved he's really a Badass Normal / Unfazed Everyman and is decked out in Dolce & Gabanna.
Literature
- Arsène Lupin: Perhaps Lupin picked up his dress sense from his grandad; before his name is given in Arsène Lupin vs. Sherlock Holmes, he's referred to as 'the well-dressed young gentleman'.
- Circle of Magic: Niklaren Goldeye. He's a male character in a work by Tamora Pierce, so natural Author Appeal, and a bit of a dandy. Briar might count too, simply because his foster-sister Sandry, an avid seamstress, wouldn't allow him to leave the house in any other mode of dress.
- Howl in Howl's Moving Castle, even before one of his suits gets (accidentally) enchanted by Sophie.
- Book 2 of "The King Killer Chronicle" gives us this gem from Count Threpe: "know a lady by her manner, a man by his cloth." when advising Kvothe to stay fashionable abroad.
- The Great Gatsby.
- In Time Scout It turns out Malcolm's quietly a clothes horse. His favorite persona for Victorian London is as an eccentric globe-trotting gentleman and he has to keep up with changing styles. Contrast Ancient Rome, where he's usually a collared slave, which is how he was dressed in the opening.
- Sherlock Holmes was always considered this and, contrary to the stereotype, would never commit such an embarrassing fashion faux pas as to wear an outfit for the countryside, a deerstalker and an inverness cape, in the city.
- In the Aunt Dimity series, Bill and his father are noted to dress this way, with Willis Sr. retaining his sartorial habits into his retirement.
Live-Action TV
Music
- ZZ Top's "Sharp Dressed Man" is the trope namer.
- Robert Palmer was almost always seen in a suit on stage or in music videos. He even got voted best dressed man of the 80s and is known as the "Gentleman of Rock & Roll" or "The James Bond of Rock" because of his penchant for Armani.
- This is more or less Franz Ferdinand's M.O. when it comes to costumes. Of course, these get into various states of disarray as a show goes on.
- Nick Cave: Is rarely seen not wearing a suit.
- Most of the members of The World/Inferno Friendship Society could qualify as this, but none more so than Jack Terricloth.
- British Blackened Death Metal band Akercocke are rarely seen without their snazzy, turn-of-the-century style suits, sometimes with sharp facial hair to match. Check this out for size, rookies◊
- David Bowie's stage wardrobe has invoked this more than once:
- The Thin White Duke, the persona he created for Station to Station (1976), dressed this way; this was partially inspired by the elegant suits he wore in several scenes of the film The Man Who Fell to Earth.
- 1983's Serious Moonlight Tour had him dress in natty pastel suits.
- 1990's Sound+Vision Tour featured black-and-white suits.
- Alexander Rybak is, at his most informal, wearing a vest and slacks. Helps that he's Adorkable as all hell.
- Enforced for The Beatles in their early days—they all dressed alike, and they all looked impeccable, with matching haircuts, suits and shoes. Left to their own devices, things were a little different; Paul kept it up, but Ringo and George leaned heavily on the dandy side, while John, more often than not, was a raging slob.
- Green Day during the American Idiot era.
- Steam Powered Giraffe. They were voted "Best Costume - Group" in the 2013 Steampunk Gazette Reader's Choice Awards.
Professional Wrestling
- Ur-Example is Ric Flair, especially during his title reigns in the 80's and as leader of the Four Horsemen. He still manages to look every bit as put-together and "Slick Ric" now, though. And the rest of the Horsemen aren't too shabby themselves, especially during their WCW reformation, walking around in tuxedos.
- Evolution, as befits an Expy of the Four Horsemen (even including Ric Flair).
- Chris Jericho has been rather fond of these since his most recent Heel Face Turn. Of course he fully realizes (and plays up) that they do in fact make him look like a super villain. The extraneous use of unnecessarily complicated words certainly doesn't help. Jericho is basically using the same gimmick that Nick Bockwinkel did for many years in the AWA.
Tabletop Games
- GURPS 4th Edition has the Fashion Sense Advantage, which grants a +1 on reaction rolls thanks to knowing just what to wear (or how to wear it).
- Aberrant includes the Style skill to represent a character's fashion sense. Empathic clothing grants a bonus.
Theatre
- In The Golden Apple, Ulysses and the boys have a song about how smart they look dressed up in store-bought suits.
Video Games
- Backyard Sports: Jorge Garcia.
- Art Of Fighting has a few of these; most notably: italian stallion Robert Garcia, who's always dressed to the nines. There's also series antagonist, Mr. Big, who comes complete with A Lady on Each Arm.
- Metal Gear: A recurring bonus feature in the series: Solid Snake or Big Boss, in a tuxedo.
- Ace Attorney: Everyone's favorite cravat wearing prosecutor, Miles Edgeworth. Who cares if he wears wine red.
- Castlevania: The other Alucard, who is edging in on The Dandy. In the 18th century he wears period-appropriate finery in black with white and gold trimmings, topped with a red-lined black cloak; in the near future, his Paper-Thin Disguise consists of a perfectly tailored double-breasted suit, still black, with a blood-red pocket square.
- All of the Resident Evil 4 ports give the option to dress Leon in a sexy 1930's mobster suit.
- Persona 3 Portable allows the purchase of tuxedo armor for all the guys (including Ken but, oddly, not the male main character), allowing either lead to exterminate Shadows (and various other evil) with a team full of Badasses In Nice Suits.
- Heavy Rain has Norman Jayden.
- In Team Fortress 2, the Spy is this, despite his work being on a battlefield. He sometimes sarcastically laments his victims getting blood on his suit, and even has a knife in his sleeve named "The Sharp Dresser" (it's a promotional weapon from the Assassin's Creed series).
- In PAYDAY The Heist, Dallas, Hoxton, Wolf and Chains wear suits in most Heists, except Counterfeit, where they wear repairman uniforms, Diamond Heist, where they wear bullet proof vests with suit on top, and No Mercy, where they wear Scrubs. In Green Bridge they wear yellow rain ponchos over their suits.
Webcomics
Web Original
Western Animation
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