Are you thinking Tara Reid's left strap is about to fall right off?note You're right.
Clothing Damage is when clothes get torn off during combat. This type of Fanservice is more generally when clothing rips or falls off in non-combat related situations.
The Theiss Titillation Theory says that outfits which "merely suggest the imminence of revelation" are teasingly sexy. If it looks like Victoria is one stiff breeze away from having all of her secrets revealed, it will certainly get your attention, if only out of morbid curiosity. But the allure is all in the teasing: it looks like we'll see something, but we never do. When the hinted-at revelation accidentally comes to pass (universally to the embarrassment of the victim and the amusement of everyone else), the tease is over. And you get this trope.
When caused by some machine or magic designed to achieve that effect, see The Nudifier.
A Super Trope to Popping Buttons and Slippery Swimsuit. Compare Defeat by Modesty. Contrast Sexy Coat Flashing.
Touma accidentally disrobes Index at the beginning by touching her magically-generated clothes with his Imagine Breaker.
Happens again later in the second season to free a nun from magic-restricting clothing. Which then leads to a flashback (from another character) of Touma's hand being used to free other nuns while Touma was unconscious. He still gets in trouble.
When Nel in Bleachgoes back to being her adult self, the outfit she was wearing as a child doesn't fit as well anymore.
Mysterious Girlfriend X: Identical Stranger Mokona, posing as Urabe and wearing her clothes, accidentally gives Tsubaki a free show when she bends down because her breasts are two to three sizes too small for Urabe's bra. When she realises this after he asked her to do it again... boot to the head.
Ghost Talkers Daydream: Kadotake trips and grabs Misaki's dress while falling down, causing it to rip off and reveal her sexy lingerie underwear.
Miria experiences a Wardrobe Malfunction in Baccano when Jacuzzi falls and tries to grab something to hold onto — which turns out to be the front of Miria's strapless dress. And Miria doesn't even care.
Keroro Gunsou: Whenever Natsumi gets hit with the age ray in the manga, she always gets a wardrobe malfunction. Whether reverting back her regular age, and suddenly finding herself topless in front of a crowd of nerdy guys, or losing her ski suit to an explosion, it's pretty much a given.
The DVD versions of Queen's Blade allows any nipple flashes that would naturally happen from those outfits to take place. Most noticeable with Menace's version of the second season ending, where she exposes her breasts with every step she takes.
At the prefectural swimming tournament in episode 8 of Kenko Zenrakei Suieibu Umisho, Momoko gets coerced into making a bet with Nanjou, the other team's captain, that the loser of the 100-meter freestyle has to have a "nip slip" in front of the crowd. Momoko wins, and while she's rubbing it in, the crotch of her swimsuit snaps. Nanjou then pulls her own swimsuit down to show off, Amuro offers to strip as well, and Captain Ikariya apparently already has, again. In the next chapter/episode, Momoko confiscates the pictures that Takeda took that day... and gives them to the school newspaper.
In the first chapter of the manga Idol Pretender, an idol contest is interrupted by some Knife Nut, angry that his Gonk daughter hasn't made it past the pre-audition screening. When the creep takes Love Interest Yuika hostage, Gender Bender Chinami snaps and sends him flying with a mighty kick. Unfortunately, they were at the swimsuit competition phase, and Chinami's string-bikini bottom unties and flutters away as a result. He/She still wins a special prize nonetheless.
The central character of the highly obscure manga Buraburabanban (loosely cognate with "brass brass band band" via use of shortened loanwords) suffers one of these when, while conducting a performance of the school band, her motions become so vigorous that her shirt flies up, revealing to the audience that she forgot to wear a bra that day. Much later, in the final pages of the last chapter, a Call Back strikes during an even bigger and more public concert: her baton catches on the strap of her dress, which completely falls off. And this time she isn't wearing panties either.
Ryoko invokes this towards Ayeka in the fourth episode of Tenchi Muyo!. The princess had just realized Tenchi was now in the girls bath (again, thanks to Ryoko), and is caught in something of a daze by being in the baths with him. Realizing how prim, proper and utterly boring she's being, Ryoko livens things up by undoing the tie on Ayeka's towel, exposing her in front of Tenchi.
Comic Books
A story in Veronica volume 201 had the girls discover a collection of old-style bathing suits and try them out in the water. The boys didn't really appreciate the cover-everything styles... until it became clear that the old fabric couldn't stand up to water anymore and disintegrated, leaving Betty, Veronica and the rest naked in the ocean. Heck, this even happened to Mrs. Lodge who tried out one of the suits at a pool party.
A very similar incident happened with Lynn in the Alf comic, when Alf, in order to stop Willie and Kate from going down the girl's throat about her new bikini being too revealing, sews a new, stylish and more modest swimsuit for her out of the seat-covers from his spaceship. Crisis averted — until Lynn and her classmates go to the seaside and it turns out that the Melmacian fabric can take fresh water without any problems, but dissolves completely in salt water.
In Batman #401, Robin attempts to grab the villainess Magpie. In doing so he accidentally rips down the top of her costume. With a blush, he hurriedly averts his eyes.
In the second Lady Rawhide mini-series, Lady Rawhide's breast does actually pop out of her costume for a panel. There had been jokes ever since the character debuted about how she managed to stay in her Stripperific outfit.
Barbara Windsor was made famous by one of these in Carry On Camping, as a girl scout doing aerobics. Her bra not only fell off but flew across the field into the face of the (male) aerobics instructor.
In the 1983 film Class a college boy has a disastrous date with a girl who he meets in an official meeting the next day. In front of various officials she shoves him over backwards, he grabs on to the nearest handhold which is her shirt.
The musical biopicWith a Song in My Heart had an overhead shot in which Susan Hayward's dress accidentally slipped off her left breast.
Wild Wild West. The rear flap of Rita Escobar's (Salma Hayek's) pajamas falls open. Will Smith and Kevin Kline are apparently quite... cheered at the sight of her bare ass.
During the final musical number for The Rocky Horror Picture Show, near the end Columbia's breasts slip out of her top. Little Nel did this on purpose and you can play a drinking game out of how many times she gets her nips on screen.
An in-universe variant: In Repo! The Genetic Opera, Amber Sweet's face falls off while she's performing on stage.
Part of Torrance's Catapult Nightmare at the beginning of Bring It On is that she somehow loses the top of her cheerleading outfit during the pep rally in which she is introduced as squad captain.
Happens repeatedly to Baya, the lead female character of The Names of Love, but she's so absent-minded that she barely even notices when her breasts spill out of her clothes in public. On one occasion, she suffers an extreme case of Wardrobe Malfunction, by forgetting altogether to put any clothes on when going out of her flat.
In the movie Devil Fish, we're treated to an upwards shot as a male character descends a ladder, giving us a look right up the leg of his shorts. The MST crew censored it with their logo, but the "Greatest Hits" montage that the staff used to screw with Mike, Bill and Kevin while filming Diabolik had it uncut.
And to Carrie Fisher's golden bikini during the filming.
Happens to both Cary Grant and Katherine Hepburn in a early scene in Bringing Up Baby.
The even more obscure film adaptation of the obscure manga Buraburabanban features a variation upon the example mentioned above. She loses her dress during the band's first performance (with no help from the baton this time), and gets through the climactic major performance without incident... only to have her skirt pop open and fall off during a rehearsal later.
Kenny Everett's character Cupid Stunt was always telling Michael Parkinson (or rather a cardboard cutout of him) about intentional wardrobe malfunctions in her films. "It's all done in the best possible taste."
Sigourney: Do you think men are gonna masturbate to this? Do you think women will?
One of the most notable moments is during a 1977 episode of The Price Is Right. When the contestant, Yolanda Bowersley, comes on down, her tube top slipped exposing her breasts.
A regular event at the Eurovision Song Contest. Often leads to speculation as to whether they are done deliberately to try and win more points.
A splendid example, and arguably a Trope Maker, is Lill Lindfors, the host in 1985. She lost her skirt when it snagged on some scenery. This was quickly revealed as intentional when she unfastened part of her top to make a dress.
During the filming of one Wheel of Fortune episode, the zipper in Vanna's dress split and the whole thing peeled off her like a banana. She grabbed it just in time and ran off stage. She returned in a new dress to a standing ovation.
A staple of The Benny Hill Show. However contrived, you can bet that every sort of freak accidents possible will happen to the clothes of any sexy woman in most sketches (usually with a very exaggerated ripping sound) and leave her in her underwear. Though the males of the cast aren't entirely spared either, but there it's purely for humor and never fanservice.
In episode 2 of the ABC series GCB, headcheerleader Alexandra gets a boob job and ignores her mother's advice that "you can't wear last year's uniform with this year's breasts". She then plays a prank on some less popular girls just before a pep rally, and justice inevitably strikes when her top pops open◊ (warning: contains excessive pixellation) in front of the whole school. Clip available here.
One Monty Python's Flying Circus sketch has the female lead of a movie being filmed run from a monster and get various articles of clothing caught and ripped off by the cacti she passed while fleeing. This is made absurd by the fact that the cacti are so far apart that she has to obviously go out of her way to get her clothing caught on them.
In "Snip" from Modern Family, a pregnant Gloria has insisted on her usual clothes despite an increasing baby bump and body fat. Near the end of the episode, after Manny has told her she can't deny that she looks pregnant, her sweater suddenly pops open and her tight pants rip. This leads her to finally start wearing maternity clothes.
Pro Wrestling
At the 10-diva tag match at Survivor Series 2007 Michelle McCool has an unfortunate Nip Slip and actually wrestles for a whole minute with her nipple exposed. The DVD doesn't actually edit it out.
While a Diva losing her clothes is often planned, at Judgment Day 2004 it certainly wasn't as Dawn Marie's tights literally ripped right open, though she was wearing a thong.
During an in-ring promo between Eve Torres and Beth Phoenix, Eve shoved Beth down and she ended up flashing her panties to the back row of the audience while trying her hardest not to flash her top area to the front row.
The very first ladder match at WrestleMania X had Shawn Michaels getting the top of his tights pulled down, flashing the crowd a full moon. He then delivered an elbow drop off the ladder with his cheeks exposed.
Awesome Kong suffered this in TNA during a over-the-top Battle Royale included on the Bonus Disc for the Video Game.
In a Triple Threat match between CM Punk, Kane and Daniel Bryan, Bryan was up on the turnbuckle set up for a Superplex and Kane and Punk were pulling each other down... until Kane grabs Punk's trunks and pulls them down, exposing his ass to half the arena in the process.
At ECW Holiday Hell 96, the heel team of "The Franchise" Shane Douglas and "The Head Cheerleader" Francine d. "The Innovator of Violence" Tommy Dreamer and Beulah McGillicutty. At one point, Dreamer had Francine set up for a piledriver and was turning around to each side of the ring so everyone could get a glimpse of what was about to happen, which was Dreamer hitting the piledriver and Francine's breasts falling out. Raised to Hilarious in Hindsight because, right when Dreamer grabbed Francine's hair to set her up for the move, announcer Joey Styles said, "And Dreamer has seen enough of the Head Cheerleader."
The October 6, 1997 episode of WCW Monday Nitro opened with a graphic memorializing the wrestler Brian Pillman, who had died the day before. The show then went into the arena, the Target Center in Minneapolis, MN, to start the show off with a Nitro Girls dance number. During the routine, Chae's left breast briefly bounced out of her top. This event became known as the "Nitro Nipple."
On the 20th Anniversary of Monday Night Raw, John Cena is fighting Dolph Ziggler in a Steel Cage match. Cena tries to stop Ziggler from going over the top, but accidently pulls down Ziggler's trunks, exposing his ass to everyone watching at home.
In her autobiography The Fabulous Moolah, Lillian "Moolah" Ellison (who was one of the first, or at least second, generation of female professional wrestlers in America) recounts one night in Oklahoma City in the early 1950s when a man lurking in the crowd tried to stab Ellison for kissing another wrestler who was clearly non-white. He succeeded only in ripping off her bikini top with the knife, leaving her topless, before he was tackled by arena security. To calm down the crowd, Ellison immediately remarked: "Well, he saw what he wanted to see, didn't he?"
Puppet Shows
The incident with Sophie Marceau's dress at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival was repeatedly mocked on Les Guignols de l'info, each time implying it to be less and less accidental.
Sports
Competition swimsuits, particularly the Jaked brand, have been infamous for ripping in the posterior area.
At the 2009 European Figure Skating Championships, during the compulsory dances, where each ice dance couple does the exact same routine, Russian ice dancer Ekaterina Rubleva's dress strap snapped, causing her breast to be exposed on international TV. She and partner Ivan Shefer were then obliged to finish the dance that way to avoid losing points, which they did.
Something very similar happened to the East German figure skater Katarina Witt at an exhibition in Paris in 1988, when her costume slipped during a long spin. Apparently she hadn't had a chance to test the new costume before the performance. note In her memoir, Only With Passion, she recounts the incident:
"It helps to be thin in figure skating. You know that. You can rotate faster in the air, you're lighter, you can jump higher, and in a subjectively judged sport like ours, let's face it, appearance matters. Looks matter. That will help a beautiful girl like you, Jasmine. It wasn't like I had big, heavy... well, you know. But there they were, and they needed to be supported, and we couldn't find the right materials to work in those days. Plus, there are certain tricks to constructing a costume that we hadn't yet learned. The worst was when I came out of my costume during an exhibition number in Paris in 1987." "You're kidding." "I'd wanted to wear a costume that looked like a bustier, but it took months to be made, and when it finally arrive I didn't have time to try it out in practice. The first time I skated with it was during the Paris exhibition. Big mistake. The top of the costume was made of elastic, and in the middle of a spin I could feel it sliding down, down, down." "The costume?" "Yes. The bustier with the very stretchy straps. It was stretching. Suddenly I felt a draft. When I finished the spin I had to pull the top back up, and the rest of the program I skated with my arms pressed up against my sides. I was afraid to move my arms. I knew one of my boobs had popped out of my costume, but I didn't think anyone had a picture of it." "Oh, no." "Yes. Whoever took the picture didn't do anything with it for three months, until February, just before the Calgary Olympics. Then they published it. It's still out there on the Internet, and it's just terrible. The Canadian coach made a big deal out of it, saying I was trying to win the judges by wearing sexy costumes, which was pretty stupid because I was so embarrassed by the incident."
Italian Olympic swimmer Flavia Zoccari was disqualified from an event at the 2009 Mediterranean Games when her full-body swimsuit split open just before the race and exposed her rear.
Something similar apparently happened to Ricky Berens at the 2009 World Swimming Championships, although he was not disqualified.
Bobsledder Gillian Cooke had the back of her suit split open at the 2010 championship race... with a live camera directly behind her... while wearing a G-string. She completed the race anyway, and the video was briefly very popular on YouTube.
Women were not allowed to watch the ancient Greek Olympics, and tradition holds that this ban was defied only once, when Pherenice of Rhodes disguised herself as a man in order to watch her son compete. When her son won, she rushed to congratulate him and her disguise slipped off. The authorities decided not to punish her out of respect for her family's Olympic achievements.
Theater
In the last scene of The Women, a recent victim of this makes a bit-part appearance, desperately seeking a safety pin to mend the broken shoulder strap of her dress.
A rather petty piece of divine intervention in Misfile results in one of these.
The title character of Bridgette's Belly. Basically any time her belly grows larger (whether from pregnancy, overeating, or both) and she isn't wearing stretchy pants. Her formal dress pretty much explodedwhile pregnant with twins.
Cecania in Sore Thumbs was given a dress called the "Nip Slip 2" which was actually designed to bare a breast in the presence of cameras.
There are entire softcore porn websites dedicated to the phenomena, including an entire subgenre for "Nip Slips", which is when an actress's dress slips just enough out of the way that some of her nipple can be seen, but it doesn't shift so significantly that she feels it happen. And Vapor Wear upskirts. Another common occurrence is when thin dresses unexpectedly become revealing when under the blaze of lights and flash photography.
Western Animation
Family Guy has David Hyde Pierce's scrotum falling out during the Emmys, in a thinly disguised parody of the Trope Namer.
In the South Park episode "Good Times with Weapons", Cartman walks onto a stage stark naked, believing in his (imaginary) power to turn invisible. When put on the spot about this "scandalous" display, he replies, "I told you, it was a wardrobe malfunction!"
Happens to Homer Simpson's salamander costume at the end of the episode where he tries to run for Mayor of Springfield.
Homer also fell victim to this trope in 1992 during a Halloween party:
Homer: Hail Caesar, in all his glory! (the hem of his toga snags on a loose nail as he's coming down the basement stairs) Cloth of toga:''' RRRIIIIIPPP!
SpongeBob SquarePants: SpongeBob rips his pants accidentally while trying to lift weights; he then does this intentionally because it makes people laugh.
In the Futurama episode "A Clockwork Origin", Fry, Professor Farnsworth, Hermes, Leela, and Amy's clothes get shredded by Farnsworth's nanobots.
The Trope Namer and Trope Codifier is the famous incident when Justin Timberlake "inadvertently"note they later confessed to planning the whole thing exposed Janet Jackson's breast at the 2004 Super BowlHalftime Show. A touch of Values Dissonance — Janet Jackson was accused of corrupting youth with a half second of her bare breast, but very few (if any) people complained that Justin Timberlake was, effectively, pantomiming a form of sexual assault. Part of the reason for Janet getting more blame than Justin was the rumor that although it was planned, all that was supposed to be bared was Janet's bra (which she neglected to wear). Ironically, the offending segment transpired so quickly on TV that many people didn't notice it until the news media replayed it over and over to show their disapproval.
A strap of Sophie Marceau's dress slipped off at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival, baring her breast.
Not just at the party, but on the red carpet while posing for the paparazzi. And she didn't notice it until her publicist ran over and put her dress back on.
Judy Finnegan's dress fell open at the National TV Awards during her acceptance speech. On-screen presenting partner/off-screen husband Richard Madeley, standing next to her on stage, did not notice and appeared to believe that the crowd were clamouring for his Ali G impression. Fellow TV presenter John Leslie ran out from the audience and covered her up. Judy took the incident in reasonably good graces, and joked later that "thank goodness [she] was wearing an expensive bra."
In 2001, the snap on Carla Sanchez's top broke while she and her New York University dance team were performing in a national competition. She continued to dance, topless, believing her team would be penalized if she broke ranks to cover up. (The judges later said they would not have deducted points.) The NYU team won its division. The incident was referenced in a 2002 USA Today article on cheerleading as a sport and industry.
At the 1999 Academy Awards, Gweneth Paltrow's dress had a slip. But her father stood between her and the cameras while she fixed it.
On her video blog, Julianne Hough once described an incident in which her strapless dress fall down backstage. Even worse, she said, she wasn't wearing pasties at the time like she was supposed to.
While performing in Central Park in August 2011, Nicki Minaj's dancing was a little too energetic for her costume to handle. As it happened, the show was being aired live on Good Morning America, and despite a five-second broadcast delay, the censors failed to notice until it was too late. ABC issued an apology for the oversight.
During the Rio de Janeiro Carnival Angela Bismarchi's "tapa-sexo" (tiny piece of material covering the genital area) fell off, leaving her fully nude.
The "daring" Dominique Auxilly dress that Adrienne Bailon wore to a March 2012 concert is a perfect example of how the Theiss Titillation Theory can backfire spectacularly to cause one of these. She was posing for photographers on the red carpet when a gust of wind suddenly revealed that she wasn't wearing anything underneath.
Ryu Hwayoung of the South Korean girl groupT-ara suffered a malfunction during a live performance of the single "Lovey Dovey" on a music show when the non-seethrough portion of her costume slipped down just as the camera zoomed in for her solo.
Cosplayers sometimes have these. Most commonly these happen when their costumes fall apart, although there have been some more classic examples.
