Significant Wardrobe Shift

Jesse Pinkman in Season 1 (left) and Season 5 (right). Apparently, two years of Character Development and psychological trauma can leave a mark on a person's taste in clothing.

In visual media, it's common to give important characters some kind of a cool Iconic Outfit, Limited Wardrobe, or Consistent Clothing Style that lets the audience identify them immediately. Sometimes it's just there to look cool, or sometimes it can speak volumes about said character's personality.

If it's particularly well-entrenched, though, a gradual change in the character's wardrobe can be a convenient way of showing the audience how they're gradually evolving as a character. It doesn't have to be quite as overt as an Evil Costume Switch or a Good Costume Switch, and it may not even involve a character who wears a costume.

Maybe an extroverted teenage character gradually goes from wearing flamboyant, brightly-colored clothing to more conservative dress with muted colors as he starts to mature and calm down. Maybe The Hero gradually starts to wear darker clothing as he goes from optimistic to cynical, or starts to get more in touch with the harsh realities of life as a world-saving badass.

No matter what form it takes, it's a quick, easy way to show the audience that Nothing Is the Same Anymore and it can add some visual variety to a show that might not otherwise have it.

A Sub-Trope of Costume Evolution.

Super-Trope to the following:

• Adrenaline Makeover
• Evil Costume Switch
• Expository Hairstyle Change
• Good Costume Switch
• Important Haircut
• Plot Pants: A costume change, to default or new, indicates the plot is moving on.

Compare Iconic Outfit and Limited Wardrobe. This trope is one way that a Fanservice Pack may manifest.

---

Examples:

Anime & Manga

• In Assassination Classroom, Irina Jelavic goes from wearing form-hugging outfits that help in her Honey Pot tactics to a more conservative sweater and Proper Tights with a Skirt combo after her Heel–Face Revolving Door stops on Face and as a way to attract her Love Interest Karasuma who as a somewhat traditional Japanese man, prefers conservative outfits over outgoing ones.
• After befriending Mimosa and Klaus, having been friendless among his squad because of his peasant background, Yuno in Black Clover switches from wearing his outfit from the clothes he wore when living in Hage to the Golden Dawn uniform.
• In Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba, At the beginning of the story, Zenitsu was a meek, whining, and reluctant demon slayer who only became a warrior to show gratitude towards his master Jigoro. He wore a bright yellow haori given to him by Jigoro, which is themed after his own haori. In the very end of the series Zenitsu takes up his master's haori, who died before Zenitsu could show how much stronger and courageous he grew to be, but personally congratulated him from the afterlife, thus showing that Zenitsu has successfully inherited his master's will after helping to kill the source of all demons.
• Fruits Basket:
  • For much of the story, Yuki Sohma tends to wear tight-fitting, formal clothing outside of school, typically in a distinctly Chinese style. After meeting Kakeru and becoming the Student Council President, he gradually stops wearing Chinese-style outfits and leans more towards looser, more casual clothing, showing how he's opening up more to people other than Tohru.
  • Machi Kuragi initially only ever wears her school uniform, but she gradually starts to wear other outfits outside of school as she opens up to Yuki.
• In HeartCatch Pretty Cure!, when Itsuki first appeared, she's constantly wearing the school's male uniform. Once she becomes Cure Sunshine and ends up joining the Fashion Club, she still wears the uniform but now adds a cute sunflower-patterned shirt and jeans, signifying her really loosening up in her ideal that she needs to act like a boy. At the end of the series, finally free of those responsibilities, she's shown wearing the female school uniform and her boyish short hair is grown out to her shoulders.
• JoJo's Bizarre Adventure:
  • Golden Wind: In the epilogue, as Giorno becomes the new leader of Passione to turn it into a more benevolent organization, he dons on a new pitch black and dark green suit with floral decorations to replace his previous pink suit.
  • Stone Ocean: For most of the time, Jolyne wears a prison jacket during her stay at Green Dolphin Prison. After escaping to pursue Pucci, she tosses her prison jacket aside as it's carried away by the wind.
• In the second season of Love Live!, Rin accepting that she can be a Tomboy and feminine is marked with her getting an entirely new training outfit, the most notable change being a switch from parachute pants to a skirt.
• In the first half of Magic Knight Rayearth, Ferio is dressed in a casual adventuring outfit with no frills and a single pauldron. In the second, he's white-clad, with more extensive and ornamented armor pieces and a huge billowing cape to reflect that he's taken up his responsibilities as Prince in the wake of his sister Emeraude's death.
• In the original Mobile Suit Gundam, Kai Shiden is a one-note Jerkass who provides comic relief, hardly ever shows any concern for anyone else, and even briefly deserts the crew of White Base before getting cold feet and coming back. When we meet him again in the Sequel Series Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam—as a far more mature investigative reporter with the courage to match — his snazzy white suit and black trench coat instantly tell us that he's grown up since his time on the White Base.
• Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury has a rather interesting case with the Gundam Aerial, the main character's Mobile Suit and a character in her own right. At the beginning of the series, Aerial is brightly-colored, lightly-armed, and has a very rounded design, which matches with her intended use for duels within the Asticassia School of Technology. Later, when she becomes the Aerial Rebuild, her design is noticeably more rugged and has a muted color palette, signifying the darker turn that the series undergoes as well as how her purpose has changed from being a unit meant for dueling to a unit designed for war.
• Todoroki from My Hero Academia undergoes a wardrobe change / goes from wearing a Boring, but Practical hero costume that obscured his fiery left side (and scar) which he loathed because of its association to his Abusive Dad and refused to fight with it to wearing a chicer costume that accommodates both of his Quirks after he learns to accept his fire Quirk.
• Hinata Hyuga from Naruto wore a baggy hoodie or coat throughout the series to signify her insecurity and shy nature. By the time of The Last: Naruto the Movie she wears a sleeveless sweater, short shorts, and even Zettai Ryouiki as her shinobi attire, which signifies that she has outgrown her shyness and is even more self-confident than she already became in Shippuden. Back when he was a villain, Gaara's clothing looked like this.◊ But after he reforms, his clothing changes to this◊.
• Pokémon: The Series:
  • In the sixtieth episode of the X & Y series, not only does Serena cuts her hair short, but she also begins to wear a different outfit to signal Character Development after losing in her first Showcase.
  • This is subverted with Lillie. In the games, Lillie undergoes this and an Expository Hairstyle Change to signify her separation from her mother Lusamine. However, due to changes in Lusamine's personality and relationship with Lillie, this element of Lillie's character doesn't exist in the anime. Lillie does put her hair in a ponytail when confronting Lusamine, but she goes back to her original hairstyle the next episode. Lillie's "Z-powered form" only appears when she's being really serious. It isn't a permanent change like in the games or with Serena.
  • Chloe from Pokemon Journeys plays this straight. After becoming an official trainer, Chloe starts wearing a pink blouse with a yellow sweater around her waist, light blue jeans, and pink sneakers instead of a uniform that has two prominent anchors (which symbolize how stagnant she is).
• In episode 95 of Tamagotchi, Lovelitchi and Melodytchi summon one of many Tama-Hearts that they collect throughout that particular story arc by singing the song "Happy Heart", signifying their friendship. This is followed by Lovemamalitchi, Lovelitchi's mother, giving them new outfits to replace the ones they had been wearing; Lovelitchi's blue shirt and ribbons are swapped for a pink dress with a blue ribbon where her neck would be, while Melodychi's pink-red dress, necklace, and music note-shaped hat decoration are set aside for a pair of overalls and a heart decoration in place of the music note.
• In Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V, we have the members of the Resistance pre and post-Heartland invasion. Before, Yuto and Kurosaki were wearing casual jacket - T-shirt combos, Ruri was wearing a long nice dress, and Kaito was wearing a dress shirt with slacks. Afterwards, Yuto switches to a dark dress shirt with a Black Cloak, Kurosaki wears a Purple Badass Longcoat with a Scarf of Asskicking, Ruri wears a dress she tore on purpose for ease of movement with pants, heavy boots, and a jacket, and Kaito also wears a black Badass Longcoat (the same he had in Yu-Gi-Oh! ZEXAL). In addition, all of them wear Red scarves of asskicking to signify their alliance, and have notable Clothing Damage; for example, Kurosaki's coat is torn at the edges.
• Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple has a few examples:
  • Kenichi's initial martial arts outfit is a simple dougi with a white belt that he dons only during training. Later, recognizing his growth, the Masters at Ryozanpaku give him a composite outfit that invokes their specialties (a sleeveless gi jacket for Akisame's Jujitsu and Sakaki's Karate, chainmail underneat for Shigure's weapon arts, Chinese pants and shoes for Ma Kensei's Chinese Kempo, muay kaad chuek for Apachai's Muay Thai, and handguards similar to the Elder's for the Furinji style), outfit he wears far more often.
  • Nijima initially only wears a simple school uniform, but for the founding of the Shinpaku Alliance, he exchanges it for a faux military outfit as his ego inflates. When his ego is popped he returns to the school uniform, only with a cape to identify him as the Shinpaku Alliance leader. The cape he wore for the D of D turned out to be a new Shinpaku Alliance flag to replace the old one.
  • Diego Carlo is a Masked Luchador that never shows his face, even when taking a shower (he gets a shower scene and is still masked), so what masks he's wearing at any moment is extremely important: he's normally seen wearing a dark red mask and smiling to signify his happy-go-lucky attitude, when he fights seriously he removes the red mask and reveals his "angry mask" underneath while he stops smiling, and when he's defeated he removes the angry mask and reveals his simplistic "naked mask", as he refuses to let himself seen without a mask.

Comic Books

• The 2006 incarnation of X-Force has the characters in the eponymous team (most of whom do double duty as X-Men and members of X-Force) donning black and grey versions of their regular X-threads, symbolizing their new roles as Darker and Edgier enforcers in the wake of M-Day. This is probably most obvious with Wolverine, who normally wears bright yellow and blue.
• Grant Morrison's New X-Men has the X-Men swapping out their traditional bright blue spandex for black and yellow leather and grey turtlenecks that could easily pass for civilian dress, just as the team moves in a new direction as a highly visible peacekeeping force that fights for mutant rights worldwide.
• A few times when The Incredible Hulk changed personality, his outfit changed too.
  • In the 280s, when he has Banner's brain, he goes from shredded purple Magic Pants to purple trunks made of unstable Molecules, which shift in size when he does.
  • Around 350, when he becomes the gray Joe Fixit (a mob enforcer in Las Vegas), he wears three-piece suits tailored to his frame.
  • In issue #377, when he becomes "Professor Hulk", he eschews purple altogether, going for black or dark blue slacks and white or black tank tops.
• Everything about Harley Quinn's alternate Suicide Squad costume seems carefully crafted to emphasize her newfound independence from the Joker. Her original duds stuck closely to the court jester gimmick (matching the Joker's clown gimmick), and they were red and black to emphasize her evil allegiance and to match the Joker's playing card theme. Her alternate costume◊ ditches the jester hat, and it has a much more colorful red and blue color scheme that's all her own; it's also noticeably more revealing (with a tight corset and hot pants in place of the original's full-body suit), emphasizing her newfound sexual independence.
• 100 Bullets:
  • Through most of the series, Lono — an infamously sadistic thug and torturer without a scrap of empathy — stands out for his love of loud Hawaiian shirts in bold colors; though partly a mark of Lono's Hawaiian heritage, they also hint at his staunch individualism, which is appropriate for a criminal who joined the Minutemen for thrills. Later on, after he accepts the position of Warlord of the Trust in the wake of Mr. Shepherd's death, he immediately begins wearing a brown trench coat on top of his Hawaiian shirts, hinting at his willingness to take on greater responsibilities that require a modicum of cleverness.
  • When we first meet Louis "Loop" Hughes, he dresses exactly like you'd expect of an impoverished kid from the inner city of Philadelphia, typically wearing low-hanging jeans and baggy basketball jerseys. Later on, when he agrees to join Lono's faction after Mr. Shepherd arranges his release from prison, his wardrobe gets noticeably swankier (tailored jackets, gold jewelry, color-coordinated outfits, etc.), showing us that he's slowly being seduced by the Trust's massive wealth and power.
  • Much like Loop, Isabel "Dizzy" Cordova starts off as an impoverished ex-gangbanger from the barrios of South Chicago, with the clothing to match (sweatpants, sneakers, tank tops, baggy jackets, etc.). After Mr. Shepherd takes her under his wing to prepare her for joining the Minutemen, her clothing gets noticeably more expensive (turtleneck sweaters, button-up shirts, leather purses, slacks, etc.), likely because Shepherd starts buying her clothes.^note  Since her introductory story ends with Shepherd picking her up in a car and taking her away from Chicago, it's unlikely that she wasted any time grabbing clothes to take with her.
  • Everyone in the series gets a black suit and tie when they join (or rejoin) the Minutemen, making it all the more noticeable that Milo Garrett initially wears a light tan suit, which almost makes him look like a photographic negative of his younger self. Fittingly, Milo's post-Minutemen life is the polar opposite of the life of a Minuteman; while Minutemen are highly disciplined professional killers who answer to the Trust and follow a strict code of proportionate revenge, Milo is introduced as a thrill-seeking private detective who only cares about himself. Fittingly, he is the only former Minuteman who refuses to join either side in the war against the Trust, instead choosing to let Lono kill him.
• In Sin City: A Dame to Kill For, resident everyman Dwight McCarthy is introduced as a respectable (by Basin City standards) teetotaler who wears white button-up shirts tucked into simple slacks. After he comes back from a brush with death following a reunion with his old flame Ava Lord, he manages to completely revamp his appearance with the help of a plastic surgeon, and he lets his hair grow back. He also gets a new wardrobe to match his new attitude, swapping his old threads for tight black t-shirts and a black leather trench coat with Army-style epaulets.
• New Warriors:
  • Issue #51 one of the original series has the Thinker and the New Warriors discussing how much they've grown and evolved since they started out. This is accompanied by panels showing the various costume changes the New Warriors have undergone.
  • Marvel's Civil War (2006) event is kicked off by a tragic explosion caused by a villain that kills several heroes and dozens of schoolchildren. Speedball, the only hero to escape alive, becomes so guilt-ridden that he changes his name to "Penance" and switches from his traditional colorful threads◊ to a drastically different costume lined with metal spikes◊, intentionally injuring himself to make up for his "failure".
• In the very early days of X-Men, Professor Xavier's five original students ^note Cyclops, Jean Grey, Beast, Angel, and Iceman initially wore identical black and yellow uniforms◊ meant to show their shared allegiance to Xavier's School. Around 1968, as the kids gradually grew up and became more independent, Xavier eventually decided to give them all their own unique costumes◊ to acknowledge how far they had come since beginning their training ^note Cyclops got a full-body blue costume, Jean got a green Minidress of Power, Beast got a blue and red costume, and Angel got a yellow costume with red suspenders. The individual costumes would come to be a mainstay of the X-books as time wore on, showing Xavier's movement away from the rigidity of boarding school life.
• In DC: The New Frontier, Batman changes from his Terror Hero Golden Age costume to a Lighter and Softer Silver Age style after his outfit terrifies a child he's trying to rescue from cultists, noting to Superman " I set out to scare criminals, not children."
• DC You changed the outfits of several iconic superheroes, in keeping with its Darker and Edgier atmosphere.
  • Superman's suit is changed to a T-shirt and a pair of jeans, which goes to show his transition from idealistic superhero to dour vagrant.
  • Batman used a Powered Armor with police insignias, showing his closer allegiance to the police instead of being an independent vigilante. Justified because that's James Gordon under the armor, not Bruce Wayne.
  • Wonder Woman puts on a magical armor worn by Hephaestus, accepting her responsibilities as the new Goddess of War.
• In Knightfall, Jean-Paul Valley's descending sanity level is also tied to how his Batman uniform looks. When he first takes up the Mantle of the Bat, he's in the regular Batsuit. By the time the story ends, he's donned a suit of armor that looks more like Azrael than it does Batman.
• Ultimate Marvel: Iron Man, Captain America, and Thor are the core members of The Ultimates. Captain America died in Cataclysm: The Ultimates' Last Stand, and Thor got lost in the Negative Zone. Stark disbanded the team, unable to continue with it without them. He keeps working as Iron Man in Ultimate FF, but with completely new armor.
• In 1991, Wolverine dumped the brown and tan uniform he wore since after The Dark Phoenix Saga and returned to his classic yellow and blue tiger-stripe costume, though two comics gave different reasoning — his appearance in Spider-Man had his costume torn up after a tussle with the Wendigo and he switched to the old costume afterwards because of it, though in his own title seems to suggest that a bunch of problems related to his past caused him to somewhat regress.

Fan Works

• I Will Survive: In the final entry, Never Say Goodbye, Judy's wife Shay is introduced in a pink suit and cap identical to Jackie Kennedy's famous outfit. On top of showing how she's come into the life of being married to the mayor, it also foreshadows the events at the end of the comic.
• Infinity Train: Blossoming Trail:
  • Shortly after boarding, Chloe swaps her school uniform with blue anchors for a white beach dress with blue sealife to signify that she's no longer staying in her comfort zone or bound by everyone's expectations of her and is ready to explore the other cars on the Infinity Train. Late in Act 2, following an Important Haircut, she changes her appearance again, donning a yellow dress and striped stockings (stating that she's dressed up as Fran Bow) and adding blue streaks to her hair to signal how she is heading off to her destiny in the Fog Car and ready to take on all challenges to get home.
  • Lexi dresses up as a expy of Specter, symbolizing how he's the dark ghost of Chloe's dreams and relating to her horrors of darkness and nightmares. At the same time, Chloe gets her new wardrobe, she changes him into a kyorinrin, which shows her trying something new. In Infinity Train: Voyage of Wisteria, he decides to make his own outfit based on a crane, getting rid of the spite and anger associated with Chloe and hoping to turn into something new and hopeful.
• Infinity Train: Knight of the Orange Lily:
  • Circumstances force Gladion to change into an all-white outfit before leaving the Pearl Gates Car, reminding him of how he wished to become like the White Knight... and symbolizing how he still wishes to become a valiant defender, despite looking down upon the White Knight for being ignorant and naïve (and refusing to acknowledge his own oversights). Near the end of Act 1, he gains a Zoroark-esque jacket with denim jeans, as a Call-Forward to how he'll be getting his father's Zoroark later on and signaling a darker turn for his quest as per Word of God.
  • Specter usually wears a white suit but he swaps it for a black leather jacket in the same chapter Gladion gets his outfit. Again, it symbolizes darker times ahead.
• Wolf in the Streets, Sardine in the Sheets: To help promote a sense of unity and camaraderie among his young charges, Valvatorez orders them Custom Uniforms in the form of penguin-themed caps and jackets. In the DLC Prequel chapters, some of the kids he takes in refuse to wear these clothes at first; for Usalia and Seraphina, the moment where they don them for the first time underscores a key turning point in their Character Development.
• Guardian shows Lulu's in-game outfit in Final Fantasy X as an example of this—she tailors and resews her more comfortable (but still dark) dress into the corset-and-belts ensemble in order to symbolize the bonds of her vow to protect Yuna and determination to keep her own doubts locked inside.
• Impenetrable Walls has Wei Wuxian being stripped from his tattered black and red robes after being given as a concubine to the Imperial Brother, and being dressed in very high-quality, pristine garments from the kind his new husband wears and enjoys.
• Burning Bridges, Building Confidence sees Ladybug change her suit, using her flair as a fashion designer to add more support, padding, and personality to the simple spotted leotard. This symbolizes her coming into her own as Ladybug, as well as her breaking away from Alya and Chat Noir, both of whom immediately criticize the new look in ways that show how self-absorbed they are.
  Alya: And you've changed your suit! I made my blog around that suit! How dare you!
  Chat Noir: (pouting) I have to agree, M'Lady. That does nothing for your figure. And you didn't even ask me for my opinion on it.
  Ladybug: I don't owe either of you any stock in how my suit looks. My suit is mine and mine alone. I made the decision I felt was in my best interests.
• Feralnette AU: Marinette gives up on trying to stay friends with her classmates and maintain her cheerful persona, as she decides to focus primarily on her duties as Ladybug and the new Guardian of the Miracle Box. To this end, she trades her fashionable style for oversized hoodies and unkempt hair.
• Invoked by Marinette in A Lady's Scout (and the Salt within her Soul); after her friends and classmates believe Lila over her, she channels her frustration into making special clothes for each of the temporary heroes referencing their alter egos... and giving them to them around the time that their replacements debut. Thus, each new outfit signifies that each hero has lost Ladybug's favor. This culminates in her making a new outfit for herself after she's exposed as Multimouse, further driving home the symbolism to her classmates.
• Leave for Mendeleiev: After the events of Syren, Ladybug starts upgrading her appearance, trading the familiar spotted onesie for a more practical outfit that includes armor and padding for extra protection.
• The One to Make It Stay: Following the ritual held in All The Laughs We Had In The Past, Ladybug receives an upgraded look the first time she unleashes Miraculous Ladybug.
• Recommencer:
  • Chloé starts braiding her hair up into a crown-like hairstyle and tones back her makeup, switching her bright blue eyeshadow for a subtler, smoky brown. She also adopts a more muted color palette.
  • Adrien starts picking out his own wardrobe more, letting it reflect his own personal tastes rather than wearing whatever his father prefers.
• Unchained (Umei no Mai): To go with his Expository Hairstyle Change after he was taken into the Uchiha Clan as a concubine, Senju Tobirama starts wearing elegant kimonos that give him a sexually ambiguous allure but restrain his range of movement — symbolizing how his new status both profits and imprisons him.
• What You Knead:
  • After his retirement from active duty, Kakashi starts wearing simple, comfortable clothing as he settles into his new career as a baker, including triangle patterning in the vein of traditional Hatake markings. When he becomes Team Seven's jounin instructor, his updated attire includes a clan sleeve with the Hatake markings as well.
  • While Naruto retains his Iconic Outfit for wearing around Konoha, on missions, he trades it out for clothes with a darker palette. He's still wearing orange, but a much rustier shade, accented with blues and blacks.
  • Sasuke switches out his white shorts for dusty brown ones after learning the hard way that the white ones are see-through when wet.
  • Following their first C-Rank, Sakura follows Naruto's lead by picking up a Palette Swap of her own Iconic Outfit that's a darker shade of red, with black markings instead of white. She also adds a lacy half-cover to her hairbun and later dons a couple of senbon disguised as hairpins.
• Doing It Right This Time: Rei moving away from wearing her school uniform at all times in favour of more casual clothes is a major step in her pathway to recovering from the emotional abuse she'd been subjected to for most of her life and in the development of her relationship with her fellow Pilots. The same is true of Shinji, albeit to a lesser extent, as letting himself be talked into varying up his own Limited Wardrobe kicked off a sort of mini-arc that forced him to come out of his shell a bit.
• In We Are All Pokémon Trainers:
  • Following his name change from Every during the aftermath of the Orre arc, Ever dyes his hair and starts wearing all blue.
  • Psyche starts wearing Gardevoir skirts in lieu of her normal Gothitelle skirts in an attempt to distance herself from her Dark and Troubled Past. Once she discovers that some of that past was Fake Memories, however, she starts flipping between the two as she reconciles her past and present.

Film — Animation

• Batman: The Dark Knight Returns: News anchor Lola Chong is always seen wearing the same pink dress until after the nuclear bomb causes a prolonged winter with fewer heating utilities, at which point she starts wearing a long-sleeved shirt and vest.
• Beauty and the Beast:
  • The titular Beast is introduced wearing a rough pair of pants and an imposing cape◊, with no shirt underneath. After Character Development, as he gradually warms up to Belle and rediscovers his humanity, he changes to a more relaxed white ruffled shirt, dress jacket, and formal blue trousers◊.
  • Belle herself changes out of her simple blue dress and starts wearing some grander, more warmly-colored gowns after she starts warming to the Beast too. The "Something There" number, where this first starts happening, is the first time she wears a different outfit.
• Frozen (2013): In the middle of her song "Let It Go", Elsa magically changes her clothes from stately royal robes to a slinky gown, symbolizing her decision to stop hiding her powers and letting others determine how she will live her life.
• The Hunchback of Notre Dame shows Frollo losing his distinctive hat whenever he's having a vulnerable moment. He doesn't wear it for his Villainous Breakdown in the song "Hellfire" and loses it completely in the climax.
• Inside Out: Riley starts out wearing bright colorful clothes while her family's still in Minnesota. After they move to San Francisco, however, her wardrobe starts getting darker and darker as her mood deteriorates.
• Ralph Breaks the Internet sees the Disney Princesses swap out their iconic dresses and gowns for more comfortable and modern casual wear, symbolizing how Vanellope's helping them to grow into stronger and more independent role models.
• Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse: Miles Morales spends most of the movie wearing a cheap Spider-Man suit that he bought at a costume shop. Once he's ready to embrace his role of being Spider-Man, he swaps it out for his iconic black and red outfit.
• Tangled: Rapunzel swaps her lavender dress for a pink one when she is reunited with her parents, presumably to reflect a famous trope.
• Turning Red: In the first act, Meilin Lee dresses relatively plainly, with a red cardigan, pink shirt, and dark blue skirt. Her only jewelry is a couple of plastic or fabric bracelets. After she starts embracing her red panda form, she takes off the cardigan, puts on star-shaped stick-on earrings, and starts wearing a black choker around her neck—except at home, where she removes the jewelry and reverts to being "perfect little Mei-Mei". In the epilogue, she's wearing the choker and the stick-on earrings at home, meaning she has gotten confident enough to wear them around her mother, strongly implying the change is permanent and her mother has grown to accept that look.

Film — Live-Action

• In 13 Going on 30 Jenna's adult clothes start off very high-fashion and kicky. As the film goes on and she reconnects with her childhood friend, she wears more pink. The costume designer explicitly points this out on the DVD's special features.
• Abigail (2024): Once the titular little girl is outed as a vampire, she ditches her fur coat and hairbun for a ballerina tutu and loose hair. Though the most jarring is that she stops cleaning up the blood from her kills, leaving her chin and neck stained with blood for the rest of the film. Along with her less childish expressions, all of it shows that she's no longer pretending to be anything but a bloodthirsty monster who's far older than she appears.
• Big Bird in Japan: Kaguya-hime's elegant jūnihitoe appears once she is found and surrounded by her entourage. This not only reveals her as the Bamboo Princess, but given that her return to her native land means having her memories wiped, it symbolizes what she's about to lose.
• Small example in The Blob (1958). Lt Dave's tie disappears and his shirt opens by a couple of buttons around the same time he starts believing Steve about the monster.
• The protagonist of Blue Beetle (2023) and his family go through an overnight wardrobe change, even losing their house to a fire the previous night and they were busy on the antagonist's Island Base since then. They sport their new clothes while actively grieving the loss of their property.
• The Bourne Identity: When Bourne first sets out to find his identity, he is given ill-fitting, ratty clothes by fishermen, and sticks out in his surroundings not simply due to his ignorance of his identity, but visibly by his outfit. Over the course of the movie, as he investigates his past and comes to better understand his skills, his behavior changes. By the time he duels The Professor, his awkward demeanor has transformed into a more heroic self-confidence, symbolized by his new upgraded clothing, complete with a Badass Longcoat.
• In Bram Stoker's Dracula Mina's corset is loosened and she shows more cleavage as a sign that the vampire in her is taking over.
• Casino Royale (2006): As a newly-assigned double-0 agent, James Bond starts off wearing off-the-rack business casual outfits. By the end of the movie, Bond becomes a Badass in a Nice Suit with tailored tuxedos and business suits.
• The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
  • Jadis' dress. Tilda Swinton describes it as a "mood thermometer" that changes to reflect Jadis' current state. When we first see her, at the height of her reign in Narnia, it's a grand and elaborate gown with a crown of icicles. As her power weakens, the dress becomes less elaborate and the crown shrinks.
  • The Pevensies change out of their regular clothes and into Narnian ones around the time they accept their destiny.
• In Cursed Ellie starts out wearing business suits with her hair tied back. Jimmy meanwhile wears baggy and nerdy clothes. After getting bitten by the werewolf and gaining a "natural sexual aura" Ellie wears more skirts and lets her hair down, while Jimmy wears more form-fitting clothes and styles his hair too.
• Rex in The Devil Rides Out begins the film as a skeptic fully suited up. As he comes to have feelings for Tanith and believes in the cult they're up against, the tie and jacket come off and his shirt opens by a couple of buttons.
• Dirty Dancing. Baby's clothes become visibly sexier from the very second time she visits the staff quarters — a sleeveless shirt as opposed to being covered up with a sweater — and get even moreso as her dance lessons continue, coinciding with her developing sexuality. They revert to plain and frumpy when her Dad finds out about her forbidden relationship with her dance instructor.
• Enchanted:
  • Giselle arrives in New York in a big Pimped-Out Dress to reflect her fairy tale roots. She then crafts herself a blue dress that is more casual but still quite fairy tale-like. Her next one is a more flowery pink sundress. She then appears at the ball wearing a more typical evening gown - showing how she has found some ground.
  • It's the reverse with Robert. We see him less in suits and ties, and he ends the third act wearing a Prince Charming costume to reflect Giselle tweaking his idealism.
• Stokeley of The Faculty dresses all in black for the majority of the film. In the epilogue when she's made a love connection with Stan, she's now wearing a bright purple cardigan.
• In The Fly (1986), Seth initially has a nice but very Limited Wardrobe of five identical suits (and matching pairs of shoes!) because he doesn't like expending mental energy on choosing what to wear. Keep in mind he's a recluse and it wouldn't matter what he wore most of the time. His lover Veronica decides to change that after learning this and goes out to buy him some new wardrobe pieces — a plaid shirt, a brown leather jacket, etc. The next time he's seen he's wearing said shirt and coordinating pants, suggesting he adopted the new look immediately; the suits are never seen again. It's a sign of how his relationship with Veronica is transforming his entire life; in fact, in the same scene he finally successfully transports a living being through his telepods, which he couldn't have done had his relationship with her not led to a "Eureka!" Moment. But later that night he teleports himself and unknowingly undergoes a Teleporter Accident that leaves him fused on a genetic-molecular level with a fly. The early stages of the Slow Transformation that results have him become more virile, sensual, and aggressive, and that's when the audience starts seeing him in the leather jacket — first with the shirt, but later without it.
• At the end of The Getting of Wisdom, Laura throws away her hat and gloves to express her relief at finally being free from the stuffy, confining environment of the boarding school.
• Rhett in Gone with the Wind loses his suit jacket and his shirt becomes looser after he's rescued Scarlett from Atlanta - and decides to join the army.
• At the end of Grease, Sandy gives up her bobby-sox outfits to dress in leather, to show her love for Danny. Some modern critics feel this has the Unfortunate Implications of implying that she gave up her identity for him. On the flip side, Danny trades his greaser duds for a more wholesome jock outfit to make himself more appealing to Sandy, but he quickly switches back after seeing her new persona (also contributing to the Unfortunate Implications).
• Sarah in Hitch begins the film wearing sharp pantsuits. As she falls for Hitch, we see her in dresses a lot more.
• When retired from his job as a Mafiya hitman, John Wick wears simple but neat casual clothes; jeans, T-shirts, leather jackets, and the like. After he's beaten, robbed, and has his puppy killed by his old boss's thuggish son, Wick starts thinking he's back, and switches over to very stylish and expensive suits from then on.
• Kinjite: Forbidden Subjects leans heavily on this trope to symbolize the developments of Fumiko's life. Starting out in a Japanese schoolgirl uniform to represent her innocence and ethnic identity, once she is kidnapped and pimped out she is dressed in Western attire, and when she is rescued and kills herself from shame she changes into a traditional Japanese robe, signalling her return to her culture.
• In Legally Blonde after Elle resolves to become more serious, she wears black suits all the time in contrast to her previously colourful outfits. The change isn't apparent until after Callaghan makes a pass at her - and she walks into the courtroom wearing a bright pink suit (showing she's back to her old self).
• Marvel Cinematic Universe: In Thor and The Avengers, Clint "Hawkeye" Barton exclusively wears black tactical military clothes that fall squarely under Movie Superheroes Wear Black. In the sequel, Avengers: Age of Ultron, he wears a more personalized trench coat with purple notes. There's a reason for this: Clint spends most of the first Avengers movie as a garden-variety S.H.I.E.L.D. operative, while the Avengers start out as a glorified S.H.I.E.L.D. task force; by the end of the movie, Clint has been wholeheartedly accepted as an Avenger, and the Avengers themselves have grown into True Companions. Clint's individualized dress is a sign that he's officially become part of the family.
• Mean Girls:
  • The 2004 original has Cady start off wearing t-shirts and jeans. As she's corrupted into 'girl world', she gets a makeover to wear the same clothes as the Plastics. In the end, when she has undergone a Heel–Face Turn, she's at a balance - casual clothes but femininely styled hair.
  • The 2024 remake not only has the same makeover Cady went through, but the Plastics, save for Regina, are wearing blue instead of their usual pink, a sign that the Plastics have a new Queen Bee in power.
• My Cousin Vinny: Vinny starts out wearing casual clothing as an attorney, and is promptly criticized over it by Judge Haller, who tells him that he has to wear a proper suit and tie in court, showing how he's in over his head as an attorney newly admitted to the bar. In one scene, he accidentally drops his new suit into mud, forcing him to resort to donning a tacky mauve tuxedo to court. However, despite this hiccup, he takes the situation more seriously and successfully exonerates Bill and Stan in the end.
• In Pitch Perfect, the Trebles change from maroon hoodies to blazers under Jesse's leadership, suggesting that they have matured (which they certainly have).
• In The Sandlot, the nerdy Scotty Smalls starts out wearing khakis and tucked-in polo shirts, with a dorky long-brimmed baseball cap with a fish on it (since it's the only baseball cap that he owns). After the ultra-cool Benny Rodriguez takes him under his wing, though, his clothing gradually gets more relaxed as the movie goes on. First, he trades the fish hat for a Chicago Cubs cap, then he stops tucking in his shirt, then he starts wearing simple shorts, and eventually t-shirts.
• In Scooby-Doo (2002), Fred and Velma's switch from their standard outfits to beach party gear is a sign they've been possessed. Averted with Daphne, as she's still wearing the same dress (but has been possessed for a shorter amount of time).
• A Simple Favor: Both of the leading ladies indulge in this.
  • Stephanie starts out wearing brightly-colored, conservative outfits that make her look like a kindergarten teacher. As the film goes on, and she becomes increasingly broken, she starts wearing darker colors and showing more skin.
  • Emily mostly wears black and dresses in a very sexy, elegant manner. She also almost always wears suits. When screwing with Sean and Stephanie at the end, she comes out wearing a bright blue 1950s Housewife-style dress. It's somewhat similar to what Stephanie was wearing earlier, except way more elegant.
• Star Wars:
  • Luke Skywalker's clothes gradually become darker over the course of the original Star Wars trilogy as he grows into his role as the savior of the Jedi and takes on heavier burdens. In A New Hope, when he's a wide-eyed farm boy dreaming of adventure, he dresses completely in white. In The Empire Strikes Back, he wears a grey military uniform. In Return of the Jedi, when the revelation about Darth Vader's identity has fully set in, he wears black with white underneath.
  • Anakin Skywalker's clothes do the same in the prequel trilogy, climaxing with a full-on Evil Costume Switch when he becomes Darth Vader. In The Phantom Menace, he wears light tan. In Attack of the Clones, when his anger and arrogance start to become obvious, he wears a brown tunic with a black leather tabard on top. In Revenge of the Sith, he begins wearing a dark brown and black tunic, also with the black leather tabard on top. After his Face–Heel Turn mid-film, he begins to wear his hooded cloak full time. After he's maimed and burned on Mustafar, he's encased in his trademark black Darth Vader armor.
  • Leia in A New Hope wore regal white outfits, being the resident princess to rescue. She spends most of The Empire Strikes Back in arctic-themed military attire and Return of the Jedi has her joining a commando raid against the shield generator wearing camouflage gear, which reflects her more hands-on involvement with the action.
  • Padmé in The Phantom Menace wore very elaborate clothing and complex make-up and hairstyles, which changed from scene to scene. This was done as part of the story because she was using Body Doubles and this helped keep her identity a secret. Attack of the Clones gave her just as many costume changes but her outfits and make-up were slightly more subdued, and she spends the second half of the film largely wearing the same form-fitting white outfit as she had to engage in more action sequences. Revenge of the Sith sees her return to slightly more elegant clothing because she was hiding her pregnancy.
  • Rey in the sequel trilogy. She starts out with a tan outfit in The Force Awakens befitting of her desert home and has a more grey costume at the end as she seeks out Luke. For most of The Last Jedi, she dresses in a darker grey and black as she demonstrates darker tendencies. In The Rise of Skywalker, she's dressed in white (and has a hood), signifying her progress in her Jedi training.
• The Stepford Wives of course uses this as code for when someone's been replaced with a robot: the woman in question will suddenly be wearing a traditional 1950s housewife dress with elaborately styled hair and a lot more make-up.
• In Theodora Goes Wild, Theodora's outfits are extravagant and stylish, showing her newfound personality. Compare this to her modest suits from the beginning before her transition into "wild" Theodora.
• X-Men: Apocalypse: Xavier's attire before and after his encounter with Apocalypse is quite different, and it illustrates a major change in his worldview. He begins with laid-back, '80s-influenced apparel, and he then switches to a conservative, Simple, yet Opulent suit. Charles is naïve at first, but his optimism is later tempered by realism.

Literature

• Among the Kesh people from Always Coming Home, a person starts wearing proper clothing (instead of just covering the essentials) at puberty, and dyed clothing upon taking on a sexual partner.
• In Daughter of Fortune, which takes place during the California Gold Rush, Tao Chi'en is attacked in the street and has his queue forcibly cut off. He takes that as a sign to change from his traditional Chinese apparel to a more Westernized look of suit and tie. It shows others that he has access to areas that other Chinese do not and that he is willing to cut ties with his homeland. Eliza has trouble recognizing him at first when he shows up at Joe's establishment looking like this.
• From the Deryni works by Katherine Kurtz:
  • The relative security of Deryni in Gwynedd (as well as his status as a badass) is reflected in Alaric Morgan's clothing. During his twenties and early thirties as reactionary forces hold sway in the Church and government, he generally wears "sable" (black) riding leathers, with a chain mail shirt that "gleamed openly at wrists and throat, boldly belligerent and just a little too ready for trouble". By the time Kelson had ruled for several years (in The Bishop's Heir), he's described as having transitioned through muted grey with a deep burgundy cloak, followed by deep blues, then greens and golds and particolours — "the rich jewel tones rather than bright shades". For Kelson's accolade in The Quest for Saint Camber, Morgan was "[c]lad in forest green velvet... ducally crowned with gold and with Kelson's sword in his hands, he looked like some elemental godling—sunlight on forest leaves and pine boughs, puissant and vital". Secure at last?
  • Duncan's tenuous position within the Church is reflected in his swapping between secular and sacred garb. Aside from the need for discretion, Duncan reverts to mostly secular dress when his vocation is in doubt or when it's prudent to emphasize his secular role. Even then, there are usually subtle clues to his priesthood: he left to lead the northern army on the Mearan campaign with the sword and crozier crossed en saltire behind the embroidered crest on his clothing and the cross-shaped nose piece on his helm, and he entered Laas with Kelson in ducal coronet and armor with a scarlet bishop's cope.
• In the Known Space novel Juggler of Worlds, there is a cultural association with wearing brighter colors and being interested in finding romance. At the end of the book, Sigmund, who had always before worn black, changes his clothes to lighter colors to signal that he is interested in his love interest, who in turn shows up to his house wearing the brightest, hottest pink available.
• Several characters go through this in The Lord of the Rings:
  • When the hobbits first meet Aragorn, he's wearing a travel-stained cloak and clothes fit for rough travel. When the Fellowship leaves Rivendell, Aragorn has swapped the Ranger's clothes for a warrior's arms and armor.
  • In The Return of the King, Aragorn exchanges his warrior's garb for that of a King.
  • Merry and Pippin change from ordinary hobbit-clothes into armor as they become soldiers of Rohan and Gondor
  • After Gandalf returns from the dead, he is wearing robes of shining white instead of his old grey, befitting his change from Gandalf the Gray to Gandalf the White. He even exploits the trope by concealing his white robes under his old gray cloak when he first appears before King Theoden of Rohan. He drops the cloak and reveals his greater power when he drives off Wormtongue's influence and heals King Theoden.
  • Saruman's fall into Darkness is illustrated by his changing wardrobe, from the brilliant white robes of Saruman the White to the no-longer-pure-white cloak of "Saruman of Many Colours", and finally to a beggar in gray rags.
• Hester of The Scarlet Letter has spiritual ups and downs over the course of several years which are accompanied by various degrees of subdued wardrobe and effort put into her appearance.
• Skate receives one of these midway through Skate the Thief after working for the wizard she once tried to rob, indicating that she's considering leaving her old life behind in favor of all the benefits of the new one.
• In This Other World, younger people dress in dark, somber colors, while people who've gone through Ha-Ran wear bright, patterned outfits to signify the complexity of communal living.
• Mentioned in Worm as part of Taylor's backstory. Prior to high school, she wore well-fitting jeans and t-shirts in bright colors. Due to constant bullying and her self-esteem nose-diving, Taylor's wardrobe veered into drab and bulky jeans and hoodies as she tried to hide. After joining the Undersiders and gradually regaining her sense of worth, Taylor started to wear dresses, tight jeans, and stomach-baring t-shirts.

Live-Action TV

• Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: In the first two seasons, Agent Coulson wears the standard suit and tie of S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, but in season 3 he starts wearing colored shirts without a tie partially because he hasn't figured out how to tie one with his artificial hand.
• The costume changes have been symbolic in the Arrowverse as the characters in the shows have evolved.
  • Arrow: Oliver started out wearing grease-paint makeup and a relatively simple green leather outfit (befitting someone assembling a costume on their own in a quasi-realistic setting) as the killer Vigilante/Hood, then as he gains more allies and changes his attitude to be the less-lethal Arrow the costume acquires a slightly more sophisticated look, culminating in trading in the makeup for the standard superhero domino mask. When he finally becomes the Green Arrow in Season 4, and the show's setting having firmly moved out of the "realistic" area with superpowered humans, superscience, magic, and time travel, the costume looks much more like one befitting a superhero.
  • The Flash (2014): Barry's Season One costume was more muted with some differences from the standard comics version of the Flash costume. Come Season 2, when he's firmly established as a respected and beloved superhero, Barry dons the white and gold emblem used in the comics. In Season 4, Cisco Ramon creates a brighter and more streamlined suit upon Barry’s return from the Speed Force. A redesigned suit is used for Season 5, created sometime in the future by an unseen Ryan Choi.
• Babylon 5:
  • Londo Mollari, who started off as a loud, boisterous almost comic character, often wore a purple longcoat. In later seasons, after his deals with Morden and pretty much starting a war, he starts wearing a black one.
  • After seceding from the Earth Alliance, the human main characters all trade in their Earthforce uniforms◊ for a spiffy black ensemble◊.
• The Big Bang Theory
  • Penny wears low-cut tops, booty shorts, and loud colors to reflect the fact that she's a very young woman optimistically dressing like what she thinks a hot young woman in LA would wear. In season four, after she's done a little growing up and become a bit more of a cynic, she begins dressing a bit more conservatively and less like a teenager. By the later seasons, she would sometimes be seen wearing slacks and a flannel shirt to reflect her Nebraska background.
  • Howard's typical ensemble involved jeans, a button-up shirt, an extravagant belt buckle, and a turtleneck dickie, all in very garish and loud colors. He doesn't grow out of it completely but in later seasons as he married Bernadette and had a family, his color choices become more fashionable, typically by wearing more complementary colors like darker jeans or turtleneck with a red or purple shirt.
• Breaking Bad:
  • When Jesse Pinkman first appears, he's almost invariably seen wearing loud, eye-catching clothes, including a bright yellow hoodie that he wears in almost every scene. After Season 2, when he goes through a succession of traumatic events including quitting heroin and coping with his girlfriend's death, his personality mellows out considerably, and he begins dressing in a noticeably darker, more muted color palette.
  • The first real outward sign that Walt is beginning to change from Mr. Chips into Scarface is when he shaves his head and dons his trademark Heisenberg hat. After his empire falls apart in Season 5, Walt’s clothes become filthy and disheveled during his self-imposed exile, but he’s back in his normal duds for the finale.
• Buffy the Vampire Slayer:
  • Buffy in early seasons was made to look more like a Valley Girl - with shoulder-length bleached hair, bubble gum-coloured nails, and lots of short skirts. As she went through college and matured, her clothing became much more sensible for slaying.
  • Willow began as a nerd who wore clothes her mother picked out for her. As she comes out of her shell, she wears more colourful outfits and lots of fuzzy sweaters. By the final season where she's a very powerful witch, she wears lots of long skirts and clothing reminiscent of Tara.
  • Giles started off the series predominantly wearing tweed suits, giving the impression of him as a relatively buttoned-up and stuffy mentor figure that contrasted with the younger Buffy, Xander, and Willow. After he gets fired by the Watchers Council in Season 3, he starts to loosen up a bit by wearing non-tweed clothing. It's played up further in Season 4 following the loss of his other job as school librarian due to Sunnydale High blowing up in the Season 3 finale, where he's even shown dressing in casual wear
• In Charmed Phoebe's outfits become much vampier after her job as the advice columnist kicks off. It also coincides with her divorce being finalized. Perhaps her way of letting the men know she's back on the market?
• Community: Overlapping with Early-Installment Weirdness, Annie is initially characterized as a rather prim and brittle bookworm with a dowdy fashion sense. Over the course of the first season, she quickly shifts into an adorably sweet romantic and starts wearing more modern, fashionable outfits.
• Doctor Who:
  • The Fourth Doctor's outfit gets progressively more Victorian and better coordinated as his character matures while sticking to the same "coat, fedora, and unreasonably long scarf" theme. He starts out a Rummage Sale Reject wearing a tacky argyle cardigan with a pocket watch, a clashing green neckerchief, and a red safari jacket; switches to waistcoats, frock coats, and a plain red neckerchief when he becomes a Reasonable Authority Figure; and shifts fully into Byronic Hero with an all-red outfit based on Victorian military formal wear. He also spends most of "The Deadly Assassin" without his trademark scarf, indicating the darker tone his character is treated with in the serial.
  • The Seventh Doctor wore a light blazer in his first two seasons when he was mostly a goofy guy who clowned his way out of stuff as much as planned his way. In his third season, he wore a darker blazer to reflect the fact that he was now a stone-cold planner who would do whatever it took, no matter how dark.
  • When the Eighth Doctor returns to the screen seventeen real-life years after his debut for his regeneration story, he is wearing a much different outfit than he started with. His new ensemble uses darker colors and is overall less formal. The darker colors reflect the darker turn his life took due to the beginning of the Time War, crushing the optimistic tone that his tenure started with, and the less formal nature of the getup shows just how well-settled into his role as an adventurer he was by that point.
  • The Eleventh Doctor spends the majority of his tenure in a short brown tweed coat with shoulder patches, but after he loses his companions halfway through Series 7, he switches it out for a more Victorian look with a long purple frock coat and a grey or black waistcoat.
  • The Twelfth Doctor changes his shirts a lot from the start, but his costume and hair significantly evolve over his tenure.
    • In Series 8, the contrast between Eleven's whimsical, youthful nature and his old, grouchy, dour one is reflected in his "serious" wardrobe. His curly silver hair is close-cropped and his Crombie coat and coordinating pants are always in crisp condition.
    • In "Last Christmas" and the first three-quarters of Series 9, he has moved past his post-regeneration identity crisis and is more relaxed, traveling with a companion he has known and loved for a long time. He's often seen in a coat, hoodie, and T-shirt, sometimes with plaid trousers ala the Second Doctor. His hair has grown into obvious, fluffy curls.
    • He returns to his pressed-suit look, but with a cozier red velvet Crombie coat, in the Season Finale three-parter as he struggles with Clara Oswald's death and a wrenching imprisonment/torture. He makes an Evil Costume Switch late in the game to a black trenchcoat, having become a Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds, but after he redeems himself he gives it up in favor of a new Crombie coat.
    • In the follow-up Christmas Episodes and Series 10, he usually has the formal suits of Series 8, but they are not as severe. The hoodie occasionally shows up in his more casual moods. His hair is fluffier than ever.
• In The Dropout, designer Ana Arriola suggests to Elizabeth that she should dress more like a CEO, but Elizabeth is not interested in spending energy on her appearance. By the end of the "Green Juice" episode, after convincing Sunny to join the company and invest $12 million, Elizabeth has gone from untucked button-down shirts and sweaters to a female version of Steve Jobs in black turtlenecks and slacks, complemented by red lipstick.
• Elementary: Joan's on-the-job clothes changed dramatically from season 1 to season 5. She originally dressed casually but has since begun dressing formally (and somewhat more masculinely) in suit jackets and ties. This shift goes with her Character Development; Joan becomes a better detective and begins becoming more independent from Sherlock.
• In Farscape John Crichton spends much of the first season wearing parts of his IASA flight suit but shifts over to darker-colored native clothing similar to Aeryn Sun's as he gets used to being part of Moya's crew and loses some of his innocence.
• Game of Thrones
  • Sansa Stark starts off with a braided hairstyle wearing dresses that are simple and practical, like everything else in the North, but her clothes are somewhat fancier than Catelyn's or Arya's since she longs to be a Princess Classic in King's Landing. Once she becomes a hostage in King's Landing, she wears sumptuous dresses and an elaborate hairstyle like Cersei, reflecting her status as Joffrey's betrothed and a member of the royal court. However, these dresses are also made of more fragile pastel-colored fabric, reflecting her helplessness. She shifts back to a much more somber style in Season 3 wearing mournful, monochrome colors and loose hair since she has fallen from her status as the King's betrothed and cast aside. It gets worse when, not only has her father been executed, her mother and oldest brother are slaughtered with her two younger brothers believed to have been murdered as well. While in Season 4, she keeps a somber look reflecting her refugee situation, the more she loses her innocence, the darker her wardrobe becomes, until she ends Season 4 wearing a pitch-black feathered gown, along with the dark hair she uses to disguise herself, meaning she's becoming a dangerous player in the game. After finally breaking free from Ramsay and reuniting with her brother, Jon, the first family member she has seen again in a long time, Sansa fully embraces her Stark identity. She reverses to Northern clothing style with the blue gowns and braided hair, but, since she is no longer a little girl like in Season 1, her clothes are very reminiscent of Catelyn's, meaning she has now taken over her mother's role as Lady of Winterfell along with a very much Ned-looking Jon.
  • At the beginning of Season 1, Daenerys wears dresses so sheer and delicate that you practically see through them, reflecting her frailty. Then she switches to more sturdy Dothraki garb as she grows more assertive. She wears elegant blue and white gowns from Season 3 onwards, as she grows into her queenship. Her clothes in season 5 are a drastic change from the blues she'd been wearing for the past two seasons, as she starts exclusively wearing white and light grays. This is meant to make her seem pure and remote to show her over-idealism by thinking she could just end slavery without causing any problems. Both she and her goals are beginning to seem impossible and hollow as the city is consumed by strife between the former slaves and masters. She starts wearing more black and red, her House colors, beginning at the end of Season 6, in contrast to her usual white and blue dresses in previous seasons, signifying the reaffirmation of her status as a Targaryen and conqueror as she begins her invasion of Westeros.
  • Jon Snow also has a significant wardrobe change in Season 6 after leaving the Night's Watch where he switches his black cloak for a sturdy, blue and brown armor, resembling a Stark armor previously worn by his father Ned and brother Robb, signifying him claiming back his roots and foreshadowing his ascension as King in the North in the season finale. In addition, Sansa enforces it by making him a wolf pelt coat explicitly based on Ned's, as we saw in his very first scene in Season 1.
  • At the beginning of the show, Cersei often wore light blues and golds to appear gentler. As time passes and she becomes more paranoid, she begins to wear the Lannister colors, red and gold, more often as well as incorporating metal into her dresses. After Joffrey dies, she starts wearing black clothes with a dagger pattern. After Tommen dies and she claims the Iron Throne, she starts wearing gowns with high necklines and metal adornments.
  • Jaime's casual outfit during his command of the Second Siege of Riverrun in Season 6 is a curious composite of Tyrion and Tywin's outfits (the color scheme mostly harkening Tyrion's suit as Acting Hand of the King, while the design of the upper garment is more Tywin's). Quite appropriate, considering his turn into the capable commander and politician Tywin and Tyrion probably wanted him to be.
  • Margaery Tyrell tends to wear more revealing clothing than the noblewomen of Westeros to reflect the more progressive attitude of the Reach. When she is arrested and imprisoned by the High Sparrow, she begins to wear more modest, plain gowns to symbolise her newfound faith.
• Gilmore Girls: The 2016 reboot sees Emily Gilmore move away from her Consistent Clothing Style of high-end twinsets with matching skirt to more casual clothing following the death of her husband and the need to rediscover who she is as a person. This happens dramatically at the start of the series, when she decides to go Marie Kondo on her house and decides nothing she usually wears "sparks joy," necessitating a raid of Lorelai's teenage closet—Lorelai walks in on her mother wearing a t-shirt and jeans and declares this "terrifying." Near the end of the revival, there's a scene of Emily speaking on the phone, confirming her employment as a docent at a Nantucket whaling museum, and she purposefully bypasses her high heels for white tennis shoes, symbolically leaving her MRS Degree life behind and starting anew.
• Grey's Anatomy: Meredith retires the ferryboat scrub cap, which was originally Derek's, at the end of Season 14 as she begins to move past his death.
• Rikki Chadwick in H₂O: Just Add Water is at first presented as a tomboy who wears mainly jeans and baggy pants. As her relationship with Zane blossoms, she'll be shown in short shorts and skirts a bit more.
• In one episode of Happy Days Fonzie decides to give up his tough-guy biker attitude to become a calm person. He switches from his trademark white t-shirt and brown leather jacket to a light blue t-shirt and no jacket.
• Homicide: Life on the Street: Felton shifts from wearing a suit to dressing in casual clothes as he descends into alcoholism and his behavior becomes increasingly erratic and unreliable.
• Kamen Rider sometimes has the characters go through a wardrobe shift as the show progresses:
  • Kamen Rider OOO is infected with a set of artifacts that start turning him into a monster, not unlike the show's villains halfway through the show, and like them, he starts wearing a lot of his new Medal color.
  • Kamen Rider Gaim has Kouta switch from his Team Gaim blazer to a black leather jacket as the rivalry between the dance teams stops being relevant and he's forced to face more serious antagonists. He also grows out his hair considerably over the course of the show as the city he lives in begins breaking down.
  • Kamen Rider Drive has a subtle one: at the start of the show, the Brilliant, but Lazy main character leaves his tie loose, only tightening it properly when he becomes fully motivated to solve the case at hand. As the series progresses and he recovers the zeal for the life he'd lost, he eventually starts wearing the tie properly at all times.
• In The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, Halbrand enters the story wearing tattered clothes, symbolizing his status as a Prince In Rags. Then he shifts his clothing into wearing Numenorian blacksmith clothes as he wants to build a life in Numenor and live there forever. After Galadriel finally convinces him to accept his rightful place as king in the Southlands, he is clad in a golden shining armour looking every inch as the "returning lost king" as Aragorn does.
• In The Mandalorian, the titular character has spent the past three episodes in dingy, worn armor as he works to get a full suit of beskar, a high-quality Mandalorian metal. After a highly lucrative bounty is turned in, he walks out of the enclave where he got it with a fully-kitted out and shiny suit of armor...right before he storms a bunker owned by the Empire to rescue the bounty he'd just turned in.
• Merlin:
  • Done with Gwen; in the first season, they intentionally dressed Angel Coubly down, only to gradually give her appearance more care and attention as the romance with Arthur progressed.
  • While Morgana is at court, she has the expected elaborate finery of a royally-connected lady. After she's outed as a traitor and retreats to the woods, she only wears black dresses - and they are more simple.
• In season 1 of Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers, Billy Cranston wore often overalls as a sign of his nerdiness (and to hide David Yost's gymnast physique). In season 2, the overalls were gone, replaced by polos or plaid unbuttoned dress shirts over t-shirts and jeans. By the movie and season 3, the glasses were gone and Zeo had him switch from blue to black after his retirement as a Ranger.
• Mister Rogers' Neighborhood is an interesting example in that it occurred at the beginning of every episode. Mr. Rogers entered the house and immediately changed from his businesslike suit coat and dress shoes into a more casual cardigan and sneakers.
• In Once Upon a Time:
  • Regina's outfits in the flashbacks are a good indicator of what point in her Face–Heel Turn she's at: If it's before she's evil, she has simple hairstyles and riding clothes. If she's learning magic from Rumpelstiltskin, she's wearing some finery but her hair is simple. If it's before Leopold's death, her clothes are bright and elaborate. If she's the Evil Queen, she wears lots of black with cleavage and her hair is in elaborate updos.
  • Ruby is shown mainly in her Stripperiffic waitress outfit or otherwise revealing clothes. After her Aesop in the episode "Red Handed", she's shown dressing more modestly and is shown less in her uniform.
  • Cora's change from flowing gowns to sharp pantsuits are half symbolic and half justified - she changes around the time she reveals herself to Regina, so the clothes symbolise how mother and daughter are working together. And also how she no longer has to remain undercover in Storybrooke.
• In Scrubs, Dr. Bob Kelso begins wearing Hawaiian shirts shortly after retiring from his post as Sacred Heart's Chief of Medicine—appropriately conveying his new laid-back personality after years as a hot-tempered hard-ass.
• In Smallville, Clark Kent initially had no costume at all as a high-school student in Smallville. Later after he becomes "the Blur" in Metropolis, he adopts a black Badass Longcoat with the House of El insignia in white on a black T-shirt. Early in season 10, he shifts to a red and blue jacket and trousers as the Blur gradually morphs into Superman, and he finally receives the classic Superman outfit in the Grand Finale.
• Implied in Sons of Anarchy. At some point before the events of the show, the titular motorcycle club went from wearing light-colored denim cutoff vests to black leather ones, signifying their shift from a brotherhood of freedom-loving outlaws to a violent criminal syndicate who are Only in It for the Money. Notably, the aging co-founder Piermont "Piney" Winston (who founded the gang with Jax Teller's father John shortly after the Vietnam War) is the sole member who still wears the old denim uniform, signifying his opposition to the club's new direction.
• Star Trek:
  • When Worf Transplants from Star Trek: The Next Generation to Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, his Color-Coded for Your Convenience uniform shifts from gold ("Red Shirt") to red ("You Are in Command Now"). This is actually not the first time characters have changed jobs — Worf himself went from The Navigator wearing red, in TNG Season 1, to The Big Guy wearing gold in Season 2, as did Geordi La Forge when he was transferred from Ace Pilot to Mr. Fixit — but it's the first time the story actually draws attention to it.
  • The season 3 finale of Star Trek: Discovery, has the crew of the titular ship finally dispense with their blue-with-piping uniforms and don the gray uniforms of their contemporaries, signifying their acceptance of this new world and their role in it. Likewise, Burnham — having been promoted from Number Two to The Captain — goes from Scientist blue to Command red.
• Succession:
  • At the start of the series, Kendall is the heir apparent to Logan and dresses like a typical uber-wealthy finance bro. Once he's ousted from the company and forced to abandon his ambitions, he ditches the bland businessman look and the austere color palette and starts wearing a lot of browns instead.
  • In Season 1, Shiv wears slouchy sweaters and pants in soft colors, because she wants to be seen as an individual outside her family's influence. In Season 2, where she starts vying for leadership of Waystar, her wardrobe is monochromatic and comprised of turtlenecks and button-downs — she wants to be seen as powerful and business-savvy.
  • Doofy, middle-class Cousin Greg eventually starts wearing suits that actually fit him, showing that he's slowly becoming more comfortable in the world of the rich.
• The Umbrella Academy: Allison went from wearing modern haute couture in season 1 to wearing more traditional 1960s style clothing in season 2, something most of her siblings notably did not do. Justified since she was both trapped in and had a fully-fledged life in the '60s by the time season 2 started.
• In Wolf Hall, Thomas Cromwell is never dressed in shabby clothing^note it's not dwelt on in the series but in the book, his experience as a cloth merchant is frequently mentioned but as he ascends in Henry's esteem his clothing becomes finer to match. It's still always dark, but starting partway through the third episode fur and velvet become constants rather than occasional.
• Castiel on Supernatural has several of these despite his Iconic Outfit of the suit with a blue tie and a trench coat, usually signifying either a change in his mental state or his power level. The first time we see Cas without the outfit, for instance, he's an amnesiac going by Emmanuel and wearing a blue sweater and casual pants. When he gets his memory back but goes into the mental hospital, having taken on Sam's Hell-induced trauma, the trench coat is back, but instead of the suit, he's wearing hospital-issue white scrubs. Upon his return from purgatory, literally the first thing he does after greeting the boys is to go into a bathroom and freshen up, coming back in the Iconic Outfit, showing he's back to normal. In season 9 after losing his powers and becoming human (meaning he can't keep his clothes neat and clean with his powers) he starts wearing casual clothes, including hoodies, t-shirts, and jeans or a simple white shirt and jeans with his work vest for his job at the Gas 'N Sip. Once he gets his powers back, the suit makes a reappearance as he tries to work with his fellow angels against Metatron, but his tie is still conspicuously absent, a signifier that he's not all there - considering his returned powers are actually the result of stealing someone else's, and, subsequently he's also dying. (And that's without bringing in the instances where absence of bits of the outfit mean Cas isn't present in or in control of the body we typically see him in at all- like the trench coat's absence on Jimmy when he temporarily leaves Jimmy's body and possesses Claire Novak, or the absence of the trench coat when Lucifer's in control of Cas's vessel. It Makes Sense in Context, really.)

Music

• Eminem started out with a garishly bleached blond caesar cut, a white t-shirt, baggy jeans, silver hoop earrings, and a dog tag necklace - sort of a hip-hopped-out parody of an All American Boy. In 2000, he swapped the white t-shirt for a white wifebeater to play up his white-trash machismo and distinguish him from the million others dressing like him, with the dog tags now taking on a militant tone. By 2002, he felt comfortable enough as part of hip-hop culture to spend most of his time in baggy hip-hop clothing, sagged pants, and dorags, but reinforced his Psychopathic Manchild persona by sticking to cartoonish colours like bright reds, emerald greens, and baby blues; he also stopped wearing his earrings and changed his hair colour to a more golden shade of blond, signifying his increasing emotional maturity. For his Career Resurrection in 2009, he came back at first in baggy, bold-coloured t-shirts and baseball caps similar to what he'd been wearing before, but signalled his recovery from drug addiction with a buzz cut in his natural dark brown colour, and the addition of a crucifix necklace. After a Creator Backlash to the music he made in that era, he drastically overhauled his wardrobe to a black leather jacket and grey and black t-shirts - the kind of thing a rock star might wear instead of a rapper, to show off his more rock-influenced new sound and his new role as a mature Recovered Addict Paragon. In 2013, for The Marshall Mathers LP 2, he merged this with elements of his 2000 look, going blond again (this time a silvery blond to play up his increasing age) and returning to his white t-shirt and dog tags, but with his AA sobriety coin chip embedded in the dog tag and with boom-bap-era influences like Timbs and luxury padded coats to match the old-school vibe of the album. When making a comeback in 2017, he returned in an all-black tracksuit, t-shirt, and Kangol cap, now wearing a gold rope chain (a gift from his childhood hero LL Cool J) and matching Rolex, with dark hair and a beard to signal his advancing age and insecurity; he also started wearing t-shirts with the covers of his childhood favourite hip-hop albums on them, as a means of exposing his influences and spreading his love for the culture. In his 2020 song "These Demons" he acknowledges the Kangol and rope chains as the fulfillment of a childhood dream he'd had watching Soul Train, saying that his current look proves to everyone that he's made it.

Professional Wrestling

• In general a wrestler changing their style of gear around usually is accompanied by a tweak to their gimmick.
• Gorgeous George, a basic boots and Underwear of Power wrestler who wrestled good and clean. But really took off as a cheater, and more importantly, when he put on a dress.
• Konnan initially wore eye-searingly bright, multi-colored jackets with equally bright gloves and bandanas in accordance with him working for television shows for children when not working for LLI/UWA or CMLL but in AAA when he joined Los Gringos Locos, he began wearing darker colors, crusher caps, and business casual attire.
• His initial NWA\WCW run in the main event saw Sting wear many bright-colored singlets but as he began associating with the more morally dubious Lex Luger and The Four Horsemen he increasingly wore black and as the nWo began taking over and Sting was accused of being a conspirator, despite being one of their first targets, he also took to wearing a trench coat.
• Test switched from long pants to biker shorts at the wishes of his girlfriend/ business advisor Stacy Keibler - in the hopes of making his fanbase grow.
• Kane began WWE wearing a full-on bodysuit because he was supposedly scarred in a fire. As his character became less of a monster (and started speaking more) he started wearing less and less clothing. After unmasking, he went topless completely.
• Chyna in WWE was presented as a Brawn Hilda who only wore black. After making a love connection with Eddie Guerrero, she received a Girliness Upgrade and was seen in dresses with her hair styled.
• Carly the avenging company savior came to the ring in a wife-beater and sweatpants, emphasizing his lack of concern with much besides jumping right into the fight. When he left Puerto Rico and attempted a Gorgeous George gimmick he went shirtless with tights, and when that didn't work out he got pants and armbands as a "cool" Cabana boy.
• As Triple H gained the managerial services of Ric Flair, he swapped out his usual t-shirt and jeans attire for suits and sunglasses. His ring gear didn't change much, apart from occasionally wearing purple trunks.
• Bryan Danielson was given a mask in New Japan Pro-Wrestling, their way of making him a literal "American Dragon". Distaff Counterpart American Angel got a similar deal in LLF.
• The mask of Delirious seems to reflect his mood. White, angry groaning. Green, loony hyperactive unintelligible Motor Mouth. Red, Ax-Crazy, revenge obsessed. Black, bitter attack dog angry at the world easily directed by Jimmy Jacobs...the exception was Chikara due to UltraMantis Black and the eye of Tyr disrupting things.
• El Sensational Carlitos wore straw hats, bright unbuttoned shirts, jeans, and went without shoes in his initial start as a Colon family parody. When he started getting popular with the IWA PR crowds though, not only would he find footwear, but he'd advised to wear business attire pants and suit jackets over buttoned-up shirts...and straighten his afro back into a ponytail on his uncovered head. He reverted to his old look in rebellion but teaming with Hiram Tua saw him get boots, tights, and often sleeveless shirts when not shirtless entirely as he became less of a parody and more a wrestler to be taken seriously.
• When the Lovely Lacey took on Jimmy Jacobs as one of her angels, one of her first orders of business was getting rid of his fuzzy boots. And thus the end of the likable Jacobs had begun, as he would soon dedicate himself to trying to win her love.
• In Chikara Austin Aries got pink and black trunks, a fur jacket, and a cape, no longer being the bitter serious Jerkass but a brash, womanizing Jerkass, A Double, the greatest man who ever lived!
• The Bella Twins initially wore identical outfits to match their gimmick of Making Use of the Twin in matches. Along with the 2013 Heel–Face Turn, both twins started differentiating their styles and developing their own identities. Brie wore her hair back and favoured outfits with ruffles on the legs - while Nikki opted for a t-shirt, soccer socks, and a backwards baseball cap. Also as the twins started a feud with each other, Brie changed her outfits to tights with slashes on the sides - as well as tying a flannel shirt around her waist as a nod to her husband.
• Kaitlyn wore less sparkly spandex and a lot more street clothes as her feud with Eve Torres intensified.
• A.J. Lee in her 'Geek Goddess' persona favoured tights with Hello Kitty skulls or plaid prints. After her Face–Heel Turn as part of Dolph Ziggler's entourage, she adopted a now-iconic look of Girlish Pigtails, cut-off denim shorts, and a shredded t-shirt.
• As Beth Phoenix began her 'Divas of Doom' phase, she changed her usual suits for an outfit with a skirt. Out of the ring she wore lots more dresses and feminine outfits.
• A female wrestler will often make the switch from skirts or hot pants to longer tights if she wants to be taken as a serious title contender. Trish Stratus, Melina, Candice Michelle, Mickie James, and Kelly Kelly are examples.

Theater

• In Hadestown, Persephone switches outfits at the end of Act 1 from spring green to underworld black as part of going home to Hadestown, while for Act 2, Eurydice wears a worker outfit since she signed Hades' contract. Hades himself ditches his leather coat and sunglasses for a more open three-piece waistcoat as the audience starts to know him more.
• Shucked: Maizy's wardrobe changes as she's returning from Tampa during "Woman of the World". She pulls off her denim skirt to show that she's wearing a brightly-colored one underneath, and from then on, she's typically dressed in bright colors instead of the worn and patched denim worn by most of the Cob County residents.

Video Games

• Batman: Arkham Series: Harley Quinn changes her outfit in every game to show how different her job is in each outing. In Asylum she is in a Naughty Nurse Outfit to show how she was using the asylum to help Joker take it over. In City she is in a leather-clad ensemble to evoke the gang war happening in the streets of Arkham City. Later in the DLC after Joker dies, she is wearing darker colors and makeup. In Origins she looks like an ordinary psychiatrist outfit to show that she has not been corrupted by the Joker yet. In Knight she wears a combination of both her Asylum and City outfits to show how she thinks she might be reunited with Joker.
• Elizabeth from BioShock Infinite trades her original, school uniform-like clothes for a much darker blue dress with a corset (not unlike the one her late mother had worn) after killing a person for the first time. She does so ostensibly for practical reasons, but it also underlines the rapid loss of her innocence throughout the game. And then she goes for a full-on Femme Fatale outfit in the Burial at Sea expansion.
• Chicory: A Colorful Tale: In the climax, Chicory ditches her Blackberry-esque Wielder's Cloak after deciding to follow her own path and helping you fight the final boss with her own brush.
• In Code:Realize, Cardia starts out with a highly impractical frilly outfit with a Show Girl Skirt and gets a new, more action-oriented outfit after she's lived in the mansion for a while, signifying her shift in character from passive to active participant in her own fate.
• In Crusader Kings II, characters of different ranks and cultures wear different clothing in their portraits and will change clothes accordingly if these change. For example, a Celtic duke wears drab clothing and a brown leather circlet with gold studs, but a Celtic king has brightly colored clothing and a gold circlet. Game mods like Better Looking Garbs can add to this, such as making Catholic bishops shift to the famous red robes upon elevation to cardinal.
• In Dynasty Warriors 7, characters who change factions in-story have an alternate costume based on the faction's "Corporate Color". Like Guan Yu's purple Wei costume (he's from Shu) and Zhen Ji's Yellow Yuan Shao faction costume (her chronological original, she's mostly associated with Wei).
• Since all party members in Dragon Age II are basically stuck with their default (upgradeable) armor sets for the entire game, changes in their attires are usually tied to Character Development or important events in their lives instead:
  • All of the love interests, except Anders and Sebastian, change their default outfits after the Relationship Upgrade to mark their new relationship with Hawke. Merrill, who goes from tattered khaki rags of an elven hedge mage outcast to an intricate white-and-silver attire, sends a clear message to everyone not to mess with the significant other of the Champion of Kirkwall. Fenris wears a red wristband and the Hawke emblem, symbolizing that while he walked away from Hawke after their first time, it is also a fact that this is not a dalliance for him and it is his nonverbal way of Declaration of Protection towards Hawke. Meanwhile, for Isabela, it represents her conflicted feelings between getting tied (symbolized by the red wristband) and her freedom (symbolized by her corset that enhances her already sexy persona) as she develops genuine feelings for someone who will not use her for personal gain.
  • Anders, instead, trades his healer clothes for a much darker set upon completion of his Act 3 personal sidequest, foreshadowing his self-inflicted martyrdom and the sad fact that he chooses his cause more than his relationship with Hawke if he's romanced. Note that he doesn't switch his outfit after his Relationship Upgrade with Hawke during Act 2 and still retains his initial outfit. Likewise with Sebastian despite finishing his own Romance Sidequest, which also alludes to his greater loyalty towards the Chantry. If the player chooses to spare Anders after he blew up the Chantry during the endgame, Sebastian will angrily leave the party and swear vengeance upon Kirkwall.
  • Aveline's armor grows more and more ornate with every Act, signifying her rise through the ranks of the Kirkwall Guard, all the way up to Captain.
• Final Fantasy:
  • Yuna in Final Fantasy X wears a modest, traditional outfit based on a Miko's robes and shoulder-length straight brown hair. In Final Fantasy X-2, her default outfit involves a low-cut shirt and booty shorts, with a long rattail added to her now-layered hair. This reflects both how she has changed since the original game, no longer forcing herself to be an Incorruptibly Purely Pure symbol of hope martyr and instead now trying to live for herself, and also that X-2 is a much more fanservice-y Hotter and Sexier sequel.
  • In Final Fantasy XIV, most of the Scions of the Seventh Dawn gain brand new outfits to showcase their unity as a team after spending so long apart. Of note are twins Alphinaud and Alisaie, who dump their similar clothing and don outfits that lean more into their true personalities^note Alisaie wears a beige coat with red accents, while Alphinaud continues to wear blue with white. Alisaie even mentions that she's glad that it's not a matching outfit because their parents liked to put them in similar clothing and it's led to a lot of incidents where people have mistaken one for the other.
• Scaramouche/Wanderer from Genshin Impact covers the full spectrum of this trope over the course of his centuries-long existence. His original appearance as the innocent Kabukimono saw him dressed in primarily white, with touches of lavender and gold to hint at his divine origins. After his descent into madness and embracing a villainous identity, Scaramouche wears clothing that is predominantly black with red and gold accents based on Kabuki Theatre traditions. And finally, after being Promoted to Playable and undergoing a Hazy-Feel Turn, the Wanderer combines the white and black of his past identities with blue and gold.
• In Lunar: Eternal Blue, Lucia gets a change of wardrobe when she starts to become gentler. Unusually, it changes back to the old one during a tense, climactic moment.
• Shows up optionally in Mass Effect. In the first game, when Shepard divides his/her time between serving the Systems Alliance and the Citadel Council, s/he wears a fairly conservative blue crewman's uniform◊ as a default casual outfit when walking the decks of the Normandy between missions. In the sequel, after Shepard is resurrected by Cerberus, the player can choose between several different casual outfits; though some of them are official Cerberus uniforms, one option is a working-class spacer's garb◊. Donning this outfit can give the impression that Shepard is taking a more independent path after being freed from his/her duties as a soldier—which fits very well with many choices that the player can make. In Mass Effect 3, Shepard has rejoined the Alliance military, and his/her options include two variants of military-style utilities and a more formal service dress uniform.
  • Additionally in Mass Effect 2, each member of the team gains an alternate uniform once you finish their loyalty mission (featuring back and red or black and gold) which gives them a more unified appearance, symbolizing their unity and commitment to Shepard and his/her mission.
  • A special mention should be made about Jack: her initial clothing consists of low-slung pants and a harness top made of straps that barely cover her nipples, quite clearly showing she doesn't give a crap about how she looks to others. After the loyalty mission, she adds a tight black shirt, implying that she has started caring what others think. When she shows up in Mass Effect 3, she's allowed her hair to grow out and while her clothing is still revealing meant to be sexy and edgy, it still is more modest than her original harness and she's added a jacket, indicating she's chosen to fit in more with society while not conforming to all its norms.
• As the story of Melody progresses, the title character will wear formal clothes more often and less reluctantly.
• When Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty first introduces Raiden as a new protagonist, he wears a "sneaking suit"◊ that's noticeably similar—in design and color palette—to the one that Solid Snake wore◊ in the original Metal Gear Solid. This can't be a coincidence, considering the Patriots' plan to psychologically condition Raiden into Snake's replacement. After Raiden's story arc takes a divergent turn from Snake's around the time of Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, he shows up again in an enhanced cyborg body, which comes with noticeably sleeker, tighter clothes in a much lighter color palette◊, contrasting with Snake's black battle gear◊ in the same game. Even later, his spinoff game Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance has him donning a black version of the same costume◊ as he comes to embrace his new warrior status.
• No Umbrellas Allowed:
  • Wonsu, the depressed man who wants to be Fixed against his mother's wishes, removes his hoodie when he goes through with it after being arrested by AVAC. Jane then interprets this as him "coming out of his cocoon to be reborn as a Saera" and forms a cult around it as a coping mechanism.
  • Bokho, the optimistic artist, exchanges his paint-stained smock for a clean one after his friend Nari gets Fixed for setting the Bunker of Freedom on fire as revenge against the Stabilizer for scamming and attacking him. Bokho then gets serious about getting back at Mr. Gong for hurting Nari.
• Overwatch:
  • Genji's appearance is indicative of how he feels about himself and his condition. Back before he was injured he was carefree and loose, with clothing that showed his lack of attentiveness towards his actions. After first getting a cyborg body his mechanical attachments are misshapen and asymmetrical as a reflection of his hate-filled psyche. Later as he comes to terms with his condition, he is smoother and complete but not showing any personal effects as he has accepted his cyborg self but is not quite ready to be Genji Shimada again. During Overwatch 2, his appearance now includes clothes to show that he has embraced his humanity once again.
  • Really Overwatch 2 does this to the entire cast. Everyone has new uniforms to show that they have moved on from where they were after the fall of Overwatch or skulking in the shadows in Talon and now rock new looks to say that they are back in action and ready to take the stage once again.
• In Persona 5 Strikers the returning characters all have new casual clothes and swimwear to reflect the fact that it's the next summer after the original Persona 5, and while most characters have stuck with their Consistent Clothing Style, Makoto notably has traded in her conservative tunic and plain skirted bikini with an edgier cropped jacket and a sportier bikini, showing that's she's being more true to herself and not forcing herself to conform to the perfect student counsel president role she had in high school.
• In Pokémon Sun and Moon, this is combined with Expository Hairstyle Change for Lillie, after the Wham Episode that is the second visit to the Aether Foundation. Lillie puts her hair up in a ponytail and wears a more sporty getup to signify her strengthening resolve.
• Partway through Resident Evil 2, Leon and Claire's costumes undergo a change: Leon gets bandages over his uniform when Ada patches up a wound, while Claire gives her vest to Sherry and wears a black T-shirt afterwards. The remake makes some slight changes: Leon loses the long-sleeved shirt under his uniform when Ada uses it to patch him up, while Claire wears a tank top under her jacket. Also in the remake, Ada is introduced wearing shades and a raincoat. She abandons the coat to keep Leon warm after patching his wound and spends the rest of the game in her signature red dress.
• In Spec Ops: The Line, Walker, Adams, and Lugo's neat, form-fitting Delta Force uniforms become ever more mucky, grimy, and tattered as the game wears on, mirroring their increasingly fractured psyches.
• Star Wars Jedi: Survivor: The main characters have updated their outfits to show how they have changed since Fallen Order.
  • Cere has shaved her head and donned Jedi robes as she works on a new archive, showing that she has regained her belief in the Order and is working to restore what she can.
  • Cal's default outfit has also drastically changed since Fallen Order. Whereas in the first game, Cal wore his drab and utilitarian scrapper's uniform, in Survivor, he wears a more distinctive and grown-up jacket vest and cargo pants combination.
  • Merrin has ditched her Nightsister garb for a more conventional look, donning a jacket and pants and cutting her hair shorter.
  • Greez has a much more relaxed outfit, reflecting the diner Cal sees him in, and is sporting a prosthetic arm that he earned in the interquel novel Star Wars Jedi: Battle Scars.
• Street Fighter:
  • Street Fighter V: Ibuki went from having a traditional ninja outfit to wearing her school outfit with ninja accessories.
  • Street Fighter 6: Virtually every character has updated their outfits to show that the timeline has moved forward for the first time since 3.
    • Ryu has gained a new beard and has taken to wearing a brown sash, much like his master Gouken, showing that he has moved on from being a student and is forging his own way.
    • Chun-li has a new outfit with smooth bracelets and wears her hair without brocades, showing that she has made peace with the death of her father.
    • Ken, meanwhile, has since been accused of criminal activities and has since gone on the run. He now wears a brown hoodie, work boots, and black shirt, a far cry from his old fighting gi's. He still retains his red pants as a reminder that he has not lost his fighting edge.
    • Cammy updated to a blue and red outfit and keeps her hair braided into a bun. Now that Bison has fallen, she is finally wearing clothes more suited for a normal life.
    • Blanka rather simply now wears overalls and a scarf to show that he has reentered human society.
    • Ed ditched his militaristic uniform in favor of a more streetwise hoodie and jeans, shedding more of his connection to Shadaloo in the process.
• Xenoblade Chronicles 3: The heroes start out wearing the military uniforms of their respective nations. After they become fugitives and are forced to team up, they switch to new outfits that are a mix between their old uniforms and more contemporary-styled clothing from the City, reflecting how they've rejected the Forever War that's consumed their world, but they haven't completely rejected their home nations.

Web Animation

• HFIL: Raditz has switched from wearing the Saiyan armor he wears in Dragon Ball Z Abridged to simple jeans and a t-shirt, as a symbol of how being in HFIL for so long has caused him to lose his ego. His armor is now on display in his bedroom.
• RWBY
  • The Time Skip between Volumes 3 and 4 shows characters in new outfits as befits their new circumstances. Yang and Weiss are trapped at home, each wearing clothing suitable to their home lifestyles and states of mind: Yang's being a low-maintenance grunge style and Weiss wearing extremely elegant, wealthy dresses. Team RNJR have been on the road for months, so their clothes are practical, travel-worn attire; both Team RNJR and Cinder sport clothing changes that refer to the traumas they've experienced during Volume 3. Jaune, Nora, and Ren adopt elements of Pyrrha's design and weapons, while Ruby adopts elements of Penny's; Cinder adopts a long gown that covers the left side of her body, which has been badly maimed by Ruby's Traumatic Superpower Awakening.
  • From Volume 4, Ironwood is based in Atlas, and dealing with high society as part of his determination to protect Atlas from the villains. His combination of dress uniform, shaggier hair, and Perma-Stubble emphasise the political stresses he's dealing with. From Volume 7, he's back in more practical military dress and sporting a full beard, as Salem brings the fight to Atlas's doorstep and he responds by descending into military dictatorship.
  • At the end of Volume 6, Oscar gives up the farm clothing he's been wearing since he left his aunt's farm, and adopts his very first set of combat gear, developing a look that combines both his individual style and the styles of the men whose legacies he's inherited. He makes it clear to the heroes that he's determined to help them fight Salem in any way he can, and his change of clothing is part of his decision to do that.
  • In Volume 7, the heroes arrive in Atlas and join forces with Ironwood to protect the kingdom and fight the Big Bad. As a result, they refresh their wardrobes, wearing smarter, warmer clothing as befits their professional status and tundra environment. Some of the villains also update their clothing for the new environment, with Salem sporting a new dress now that she's stepped out of the shadows, Mercury and Emerald adopting warmer clothing, and Hazel, Cinder, and Neo adopting fashions that suit their fighting styles and states of mind.
  • In Volume 8, Winter's basic design is altered to include extensive strapping of her arms and torso. This is to reflect the extensive injuries she suffered at the end of Volume 7 and that Salem's arrival has given everyone no time to recuperate. The only way Winter gets out of her hospital bed is through having an exoskeleton heavily fortifying her injured body.

Web Comics

• In Beyond the End, Hal changes his outfit multiple times. The first time brought on by the rain as his hair dye washed out and his dad brought him a change of clothes. Then again later when he returns from being Put on a Bus he's changed his hair and outfit again.
• In El Goonish Shive, Pandora's descent into madness caused by her husband's untimely death is represented by her cloak's collar becoming furred at the end of the "Legacy" storyline.
• Housepets!:
  • Accomplished despite dog characters only really wearing one article of clothing. While serving the commands of the goddess Dragon, Tarot wore a collar adorned with an Eye of Horus, a motif frequently associated with Dragon (Who even had a base in Egypt). When Tarot overthrew Dragon, she traded it out for a tarot card collar, representing her newfound independence.
  • Joel's character development after meeting Bailey and his completion of the Heel–Face Turn, willing to put her happiness over his own and risk sacrificing the life he's built for himself as a dog, is made subtly manifest by the disguise he throws on while turned back into a human- A grey hoodie and blue facemask, which perfectly matches her fur color and the blue bandana she always wears.
• In The Order of the Stick, female lead Haley Starshine has undergone a number of wardrobe shifts to indicate Character Development. She moves from a stereotypical fantasy outfit to a more covered one to indicate gained maturity, and then into a more practical one to indicate gained confidence.
• Sleepless Domain: It's a known fact that magical girls' costumes generally reflect the girls who wear them and can change significantly with major life events or Character Development:
  • Heartful Punch admits she used to be so torn up about her mother Mitsuki's death that her costume, which is now fully pink and white, once had black in it.
  • Undine gains Tessa's waist ribbon after Tessa heals her, and, as of Chapter 14, Undine's costume has sleeves that match Heartful Punch's costume, indicating that she's become more comfortable with the idea of teaming up.
• In Yokoka's Quest, Yokoka switches from wearing starry pajamas to wearing a gi after she begins training in the underground village. Mao changes from one casual outfit to another after his first set is ruined fighting snake-centipedes, and more significantly changes outfit again (gaining a Scarf of Asskicking) once he starts fighting in the Darkness Clan's arena.

Web Original

• Used by Philosophy Tube (Pre-Transition) on her video on Domestic Abuse and Double Standard: Abuse, Female on Male. The video, which was done in a single take, sees Abigail Thorn starting out in a Superman T-shirt, and explaining the many pitfalls of the double standard trope, including the societal idea that men are able to 'handle it' if they find themselves stuck in an abusive relationship. Halfway through the video, after revealing how she herself had been a victim of domestic abuse and almost killed herself over it and having a breakdown on camera, the camera slowly does a pan away and does a 360-degree overview shot of the studio she films in. By the time the camera has returned to Abby, she has dressed herself up as Clark Kent, representing that she no longer accepts a Superman-type image of men in relationships. This is used even more significantly in her video "Identity", in which she comes out as transgender.
• In 2024, TCNick3 of the Party Crashers changed his profile picture from the Piplup avatar◊ he's well known for in the past five years to a picture of himself in his custom Daisy costume◊. He explains in this community post that, though the Piplup image is iconic, he wanted an original avatar that better represents him, distancing himself from some random Pokémon character.

Western Animation

• Amphibia: While Anne Boonchuy has dresses and even a tuxedo either packed in her backpack or commissioned from tailors in Wartwood, she tends to stick to her school uniform in most episodes, showing that she is still a good person at heart. She only changes her outfit in "Bessie and Microangelo", adding a chestplate to symbolize her Character Development.
• The Dragon Prince: For most of the first three seasons, Callum is seen wearing a blue jacket. By the end of Book 3, he jumps off the pinnacle to save Rayla, and his jacket is ripped off as he transforms and swoops in to catch her. After this. Callum is only seen in a red sleeveless shirt.
  • In Season 4 Callum begins wearing a formal High Mage coat with his signature scarf, showcasing his evolving skills as a mage.
• Harley Quinn (2019): While Harley Quinn was with the Joker, he made her wear a clown-themed, form-fitting catsuit to show her off as his property. When she severs her ties to him and starts making a name for herself in the underworld; she changes to a short black and red crop top with a black choker around her neck, black and red fingerless leather gloves, black and red tight spandex booty shorts and black and red sneakers. This outfit reflects her sexual liberation from the Joker since she's no longer his property, it's designed in-universe as an affront to her original costume since the original costume covered her entire body and presented her as an object for the Joker, and it shows off her eagerness to fight.
• In the fourth season of The Legend of Korra, Korra goes from the traditional Water Tribe look to an anonymous Earth Kingdom one, and cuts her hair — symbolically cutting her ties to her friends and family.
• The Owl House: At the start of the third season, Luz Noceda starts wearing Eda's grudgby jacket with sweatpants and a beanie, gaining a significantly duller color scheme as well. This reflects her Heroic BSoD over being indirectly responsible for helping Belos and her drive to find a way back to the Demon Realm where some of her loved ones are.
• Reboot: In season 3 both the heroes and Hexadecimal got new looks to reflect the new Darker and Edgier status quo as Megabyte forced Bob into the Web and began an all-out war with Mainframe. The heroes got new tactical gear and Hexadecimal was put into a new outfit that looked like bondage gear to show how she was forced to do Megabyte's bidding. Later on, they got new looks again, as Enzo is forced to ride the games after losing one. He and AndrAIa have new adult wardrobes that speak "Renegades without a home", Bob is found with warped clothing he merges with Glitch to become a shining light in their darkest hour and Dot is even more armored to show how much more hope she lost. This is given a minor deconstruction in the next season, as they had become so different that turning back towards peace was difficult with so many reminders physically on them, Bob in particular.
• Ashi undergoes a massive transformation in Samurai Jack when she signifies her Heel–Face Turn by destroying her clingy assassin's shroud of utter darkness and donning a dress made of leaves. Jack himself went through this between seasons 4 and 5, trading his white robes for heavy armor to signify his Despair Event Horizon. He regains his white robes after he gets over it.
• Angel Dynamite does this in Season 2 of Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated, along with losing her distinctive afro. In Season 1, when the team still just knows her as a sassy jive-talking radio DJ, she wears a skimpy bright green crop top with matching bellbottoms. In Season 2, when she resolves to help the team take down Professor Pericles after The Reveal that she's actually Cassidy Williams, the Token Good Teammate of the original Mystery Incorporated, she wears a much more practical black turtleneck sweater with a maroon trench coat◊.
• Anakin Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and Ahsoka Tano get this in Season 3 of Star Wars: The Clone Wars. Albeit, Anakin and Obi-Wan's wardrobes start to resemble what they wore in Revenge of the Sith, while Ahsoka adopts a more modest outfit.
• Steven Universe: Steven Quartz Universe normally wears a pink shirt with a star, which was left over from his dad's music days and also signifies he is a Crystal Gem. After the fifth season, he wears a pink jacket over a black-colored shirt.
• Jonathan Rook on Stretch Armstrong and the Flex Fighters is more prone to wearing dark clothing in season 2. Given that the season 1 finale revealed that he's Stretch Monster, the main villain for the series, it's definitely symbolic.
• The Venture Brothers:
  • Dr Mrs The Monarch goes through quite a few outfits as her relationships and professional status change. At first as Dr Girlfriend she wears an all-pink ensemble with a pillbox cap, which makes her stand out next to The Monarch's yellow, black, and orange aesthetics. As the Phantom Limb's girlfriend, Queen Etheria has a see-through lingerie outfit to show that he considers her arm candy at most. After marrying The Monarch and becoming Dr Mrs The Monarch she has an outfit to match his with yellow, black, and orange to show their commitment to each other. After becoming a part of the Council of Thirteen she takes on a black and red version of her first outfit, showing how she has moved up in the world beyond The Monarch.
  • Dean and Hank take new outfits in the later seasons. As the clones they used and depended on to cheat death have been destroyed, this shows that they have changed and aged since the old days.

---