History Main / CultureEqualsCostume

** In the comic and its animated adaptation Yan Lin commonly wears the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanfu hanfu]]. {{Justified}} because she's an old lady (in her fifties in the animated adaptation, unspecified but older in the comic books) and noted to be quite eccentric, and she likely does it to stand out among the other inhabitants of Heatherfield's Chinatown (who wear western clothing).

* The Miss France pageant has an obligatory section where every regional Miss has to wear a traditional costume from the ''[[UsefulNotes/DepartementalIssues région]] she's from.

* A lot of Russians really do wear ushankas. [[JustifiedTrope Their climate leaves few other choices]].

* ''WesternAnimation/MiraculousLadybug'': Both times she gets akumatized, Kagami ends up with a form that references her Japanese heritage -- as Riposte, she's dressed in samurai armor and a kabuto helmet, and as Oni-Chan, she's dressed up as...well, an {{Oni}}.

This trope is an important part in the portrayal of most countries featured in the HollywoodAtlas. Compare OverlyStereotypicalDisguise.

[[folder:General]]
Specific flavors, for the sake of example:
* Most Japanese women don't actually wear a kimono all the time, but that doesn't stop the occasional author from having their Japanese character treat them as casual day-wear: they're mainly for special occasions nowadays. The few women who still wear kimonos every day are mostly very old women.
** These days, a lot of younger Japanese women don't even know how to tie the obi on a yukata. Clip-ons have become increasingly common.
* Similarly, most Chinese women don't actually wear the ''{{qipao}}'' (AKA ''cheongsam'' in [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qipao Hong Kong and often therefore the West]]) at all, let alone on a regular basis, but for some authors, that's just what Chinese women wear. This is acceptable in ''some'' settings though such as 1920s-1940s Shanghai or 1950s-1960s Hong Kong where the qipao was the daily wear for Chinese women. There are also Chinese restaurants and more than a few girls' schools in UsefulNotes/HongKong that have qipao as uniforms.
** Some authors probably [[AuthorAppeal find the qipao to be sexy]].
** There is also the male equivalent of [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Changshan Changshan]]-- THE look of all Elderly Kung Fu Teacher Archetypes.
** Ironically, the qipao is actually based on Manchurian dress. A lot of the clothes thought of as stereotypically Chinese were forced on the Han on pain of death by the Manchu when they founded the Qing dynasty, including the long braid and shaved scalp, or queue, that men wore. Qing-dynasty clothing has been so heavily influential in molding the perception of "how Chinese people dress" that pre-Qing Chinese clothing is largely unfamiliar outside and even sorta inside China (though in recent years there's been a drive to re-popularize it). In stories, you only ever see it in pre-Qing settings, and sometimes not even then.
* There was a time not so long ago when some authors put all their [[{{Oktoberfest}} German stereotypes]] (and maybe their [[YodelLand Swiss ones too]]) in lederhosen or dirndls on a regular basis in the honest belief that it was plausible. The pickelhaube also seems to be more common as an everyday clothing item than as military gear.
* Similarly for the [[TorosYFlamenco Spanish stereotypes]], and so on.
** SouthOfTheBorder, everyone wears a sombrero and sarape and has a moustache. Due to the popular conception of {{Spexico}}, these two areas are often mixed. In reality, Mexicans don't wear sombreros or sarapes in everyday life. Some never wear them at all.
* Every adult man from England from the 1860s through the 1960s, must wear a three-piece suit, including waistcoat (with pocket watch) and dome-top/derby/bowler hat, according to Hollywood. They all also carry large black umbrellas.
* Hollywood also likes depicting French people wearing berets, even though few ever actually wear them. They also wear striped shirts about as frequently as anyone else does. However, the stereotypical French tourist (to the French) is the beauf: an obese man in sandals and shorts, a wifebeater, and one of those fishing hats with Ricard on it. Also a cigarette dangling from their mouth.
* According to Hollywood, every Italian-American man either wears a fancy tailored suit, or a tank top and jeans (leather jacket if it's a winter scene). Even people who aren't "greasers" or "mobsters" will often be seen sporting one of these two looks. Mobsters will often trade the wife-beater for a wispy, loudly-colored tracksuit. There's the dark shirt/white tie combo worn by all 1940s era gangsters, as well.
* To denote "Jew" in general, have them wear a yarmulke, or go all out and depict them in Chasidic or Ultra-Orthodox dress wearing all black, long beards, and long curling sideburns. While everyday dress for a small segment of Jews, the vast majority rarely even wear yarmulkes except in services, depending on how observant one is. Alternatively, Hollywood insists Jewish Americans in particular are partial to the argyle sweater vest with long sleeve button-down dress shirt and thick-rimmed glasses, which tends to overlap with HollywoodNerd.
** The origins of this are ''weird''. Those huge black coats, fedoras/fur hats, and curling sidelocks actually originate in 17th-century Poland rather than the ancient Middle East. And the nerdy look? Nerd stereotypes partly originated from nasty stereotypes of Jews and East Asians. In other words: Jews and Asians are nerds ''by definition''.
* Russians always wear the stereotypical ''ushanka'' fur hat and a huge wool coat.
** In real life, ushankas ''are'' part of military and police winter uniform. Civilians wear them too (though not everyone, as Hollywood may lead you to believe). "Ears" are almost always tied up, getting down only when it's ''very'' cold.
** A Russian ''babushka'' ("grandmother") must wear a headscarf. In English, the headscarf will also be called a babushka (the actual Russian word for it is ''platok'').
* Hindus will invariably wear a Sikh turban no matter whether or not they are actually Sikhs. Weird, since Hinduism and Sikhism are ''entirely different'' religions and about the only thing they have in common is that they originated in India. Even though certain Hindus do wear turbans (E.g: Mahatma Gandhi in his early years) they are different from Sikh turbans, both in their make and method of wearing. Also, all Indian women wear saris all the time (which logically means anything vaguely traditional-looking worn by an Indian woman is a sari).
* Go into any Arab country, from Africa to the Persian Gulf, and the men will wear headdresses no matter where they are, and expect women in ''hijab'' and figure-concealing dresses all over the place, if not burqas (although some authors will refer to whatever they wear as a burqa, even when it's clearly not). While TruthInTelevision to a certain extent, like the "Jewish" example above, Muslim men and women can dress in varied ways depending on how observant they are, where they live, and what branch of Islam they hail from. Not to mention that religious minorities like Christians and others exist among Arabs, which is rarely mentioned-they may have similar or different clothing styles.
** In Ottoman times the fez was the choice headgear for fictional depictions of Muslims, especially Turks. Sometimes they're still shown, even though the fez fell out of favor in Turkey after World War I (though it is still worn in some other Muslim countries).
* Canadians can't go anywhere without their toques and Mountie uniforms, [[CanadaEh eh?]]
** Every Canuck goes to work in that MightyLumberjack style.
** Ohmigod don't forget your nine sweaters and parka! It's freezing up there, right?
** You mustn't forget that staple of light summer wear, the ''hockey'' jersey worn over jeans. A CFL jersey may substitute if your hockey jersey's in the wash or something.
* Americans in general are less prone to this (partly because so much media is made by Americans), but the closest thing to a traditional American costume seems to be a [[AmericansAreCowboys cowboy outfit]]. The reasoning seems to be that most early American entertainment exports were [[TheWestern Westerns]], so other countries sensibly assumed that they were supposed to be representations of the contemporary US. Different ''regions'' of the US, however, often get this:
** UsefulNotes/{{California}}ns are usually dressed like [[SurferDude surfers]], [[NewAgeRetroHippie hippies]], or {{valley girl}}s.
** Westerners and [[EverythingIsBigInTexas Texans]] get the cowboy hat, plaid jacket, blue jeans, and boots. Texan businessmen in media can wear suits, but even they they still need to wear it with a cowboy hat.
** For Midwesterners, it's dusty denim overalls. Preferably with a plow or pitchfork in one hand to complete the look.
** [[DeepSouth Southerners]]? For the women, it's super-short "[[Series/TheDukesOfHazzard Daisy Duke]]" denim shorts and a button-up shirt that's been tied instead of buttoned, [[BareYourMidriff baring her midriff]]. The men wear mostly the same clothes as the Midwesterners, only with even more of a "country bumpkin" look. Expect more wife-beaters and shirtlessness, though. The men wear caps or shirts with Confederate flags on them.
** [[EagleLand Obnoxious Americans abroad]] are portrayed as obese middle-aged men wearing Bermuda shorts, sandals with socks, and either [[HawaiianShirtedTourist Hawaiian shirts]] or touristy T-shirts/sweatshirts with loud writing on them. Sunglasses, stupid hat, camera and/or cell phone, and fanny pack complete the look.
** In general, you can tell an American in fiction by their casual yet tasteful clothes: baseball cap, T-shirt, blue jeans (worn form-fitting, unless the character is a hoodlum), and sneakers. In reality, this tends to be truer of Los Angeles and cities and towns in the Midwest; people in other cities (New York, San Francisco, et. al.) often dress more stylishly, such as wearing three-piece suits or skirts and blouses even when not working.
* Most Dutch people go through their daily life without ever wearing wooden clogs and/or mirrors in their hair.
* Scots wear kilts on special occasions (weddings, funerals, football matches, [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking barfights]], etc, etc) and that's it. Despite this, it is a common belief that all Scottish men wear them all the time.
* Indigenous North Americans are almost ''always'' shown with the BraidsBeadsAndBuckskins despite those aspects only applying to a couple out of literally hundreds of cultures across Canada, USA, and Mexico. If it's a modern setting and the buckskin look is too much, elements of cowboy clothes may be substituted. In truth, most native people now just wear clothes no different from the majority.
* Brazilians only wear fancy costumes (particularly the Carmen Miranda-like) during Carnival. And they do not wear tutti-frutti hats at all -- that was a get-up of Carmen Miranda.
* Apparently, AllAsiansWearConicalStrawHats.
[[/folder]]

* In ''VideoGame/SaintsRowIV'', one of the Boss' new allies is Asha Odekar, a snarky MI6 agent of Indian descent. As part of the game, you can carry out a loyalty mission for Asha, which, if completed, sees you unlock superpowers for her in the computer simulation that most of the game takes place in. Once Asha gains superpowers, she also replaces her MI6 jumpsuit with a nice purple [[BareYourMidriff midriff-baring]] sari.

* The Pakistani physicist Abdus Salam almost always wore Western suits, but when receiving his Nobel Prize wore a traditional achkan, shalwar, and turban -- especially significant as he was the first Pakistani and the first Muslim laureate (although most mainstream Muslims view Ahmadiyyas (of which Salam was one) as heretics).

* [[MemeticMutation We're a Culture Not a Costume.]] The purpose of the poster-ad campaign was to discourage people from wearing culturally insensitive Halloween costumes. [[{{Parody}} The internet]] has had [[http://knowyourmeme.com/photos/190776-were-a-culture-not-a-costume a bit of]] [[http://knowyourmeme.com/photos/190777-were-a-culture-not-a-costume fun with]] [[http://knowyourmeme.com/photos/191080-were-a-culture-not-a-costume this.]]
** Other people found it to be [[http://www.racialicious.com/2011/10/31/missed-representations-part-one-%E2%80%9Ci%E2%80%99m-a-culture-not-a-costume%E2%80%9D-campaign/ not as much "fun".]]. They were in turn mocked for this.

* Each one of China's 55 officially recognized minority has its own official costume, and they are so well characterized that they are not so much costumes and more uniforms (it is common for a member of a minority to show up to state functions in their ethnic costume, like how a Scotsman generally goes to Buckingham Palace in a kilt).

* A token Islamic member of the ComicBook/XMen, Sooraya Qadir, code name Dust, wore a full-body black abaya. Her "burqa" (as it was often incorrectly referred to) was often drawn as ''very'' form-fitting, which is not how it's supposed to be worn, and unfortunately her characterization under most writers starts and ends with her religion, though some at least had the sense to have her say that she wore it by choice and not because anyone was forcing her.
** On a similar note, in ''Comicbook/MsMarvel2014'', Kamala's friend Nakia chooses to observe hijab of her own free will, despite her Turkish family being relatively liberal with regards to customs. Similarly, Kamala's brother Aamir almost always dresses in traditional apparel due to being very devout of his faith - the only time he wears something else is for a job interview when he puts on a three-piece suit. Kamala herself is more liberal with her choice of clothing, such as keeping her head uncovered most of the time (she does wear headscarves when required, such as at the mosque) and wearing urban styles, but she does observe hijab in that she dresses modestly, even as a superheroine. Of course, one of the ideas of the comic is that there are all kinds of walks of life within Islam, and some are more observant than others, in such a way that the point isn't as on-the-nose as one would expect.

* In ''ComicBook/{{WITCH}}'' and its animated adaptation Yan Lin commonly wears the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanfu hanfu]]. {{Justified}} because she's an old lady (in her fifties in the animated adaptation, unspecified but older in the comic books) and noted to be quite eccentric, and she likely does it to stand out among the other inhabitants of Heatherfield's Chinatown (who wear western clothing).

* Go into any Arab country, from Africa to the Persian Gulf, and the men will wear headdresses no matter where they are, and expect women in ''hijab'' and figure-concealing dresses all over the place, if not burqas (although some authors will refer to whatever they wear as a burqa, even when it's clearly not). While TruthInTelevision to a certain extent, like the "Jewish" example above, Muslim men and women can dress in varied ways depending on how observant they are, where they live, and what branch of Islam they hail from.

* Indigenous North Americans are almost ''always'' shown with the BraidsBeadsAndBuckskins despite those aspects only applying to a couple out of literally hundreds of cultures across Canada, USA, and Mexico. If it's a modern setting and the buckskin look is too much, elements of cowboy clothes may be substituted.

* Each one of China's 55 officially recognized minority has its own official costume, and they are so well characterized that they are fewer costumes and more uniforms (it is common for a member of a minority to show up to state functions in their ethnic costume, like how a Scotsman generally goes to Buckingham Palace in a kilt).

* In ''Webcomic/AxisPowersHetalia'', most of the countries wear a standard military uniform that reflects their background, such as America wearing a bomber jacket, Russia with a long tan overcoat (based off an Imperial Army overcoat) or Japan in a Japanese Navy uniform.

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* ''Manga/RanmaOneHalf'' shows that it crops up in Japan as well. The assorted Chinese characters are normally seen wearing some variation of stereotypically Chinese clothing. Ranma [[GenderBender him/herself]], despite being Japanese, also wears nothing but Chinese clothing (as well as a thin, tightly-braided pigtail) to emphasize the parallel to traditional {{Wuxia}} heroes.
** Also does a variant with Japanese characters as well. Soun and Genma ([[BalefulPolymorph when he's human anyway]]) are normally seen wearing martial arts ''gi'' and Nodoka is normally seen wearing a kimono to show how traditional she is.

* ''Manga/DragonBall'''s setting doesn't exactly correspond to any real-world country or culture, but with so many elements lifted from the Chinese story ''Literature/JourneyToTheWest'', many of the mainstay characters ''dress'' with a decidedly Chinese "feel": Tien, Gohan, Goten, Mercenary Tao, King Kai, Krillin, and Yamcha all sport different variations of ''changshan'' (in Tao and Kai's case, all the time), Mai and Oolong don Mao suits, and Chi Chi has an entire assortment of ''qipao''. Prior to ''Z'', most background characters also dressed in similar fashion.

This trope is an important part in the portrayal of most countries featured in the HollywoodAtlas.

* ''WesternAnimation/MiraculousLadybug'': Both times she gets akumatized, Kagami ends up with a form that references her Japanese heritage -- as Riposte, she's dressed in samurai armor and a kabuto helmet, and as Oni-Chan, she's dressed up as...well, an {{Oni}}.

** Westerners and [[EverythingIsBigInTexas Texans]] get the cowboy hat, plaid jacket, blue jeans, and boots.

* Indigenous North Americans are almost ''always'' shown with the BraidsBeadsAndBuckskins despite those aspects only applying to a couple out of literally hundreds of cultures across Canada, USA, and Mexico.

* Similarly, most Chinese women don't actually wear the ''{{qipao}}'' (AKA ''cheongsam'' in [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qipao Hong Kong and often therefore the West]]) at all, let alone on a regular basis, but for some authors, that's just what Chinese women wear. This is acceptable in ''some'' settings though such as 1920s-1940s Shanghai or 1950s-1960s Hong Kong where the qipao was the daily wear for Chinese women.
** However, there are Chinese restaurants where the waitresses wear ''qipao'' as their work uniform.

** For a side note, more than a few girls' schools in UsefulNotes/HongKong have cheongsam as ''uniform''.
** Ironically, the qipao is actually based on Manchurian dress. A lot of the clothes thought of as stereotypically Chinese were forced on the Han on pain of death by the Manchu when they founded the Qing dynasty. Including the long ponytail and shaved scalp men wore. Qing-dynasty clothing has been so heavily influential in molding the perception of "how Chinese people dress" that pre-Qing Chinese clothing is largely unfamiliar outside and even sorta inside China (though in recent years there's been a drive to re-popularize it). In stories, you only ever see it in pre-Qing settings, and sometimes not even then.

** Other people found it to be [[http://www.racialicious.com/2011/10/31/missed-representations-part-one-%E2%80%9Ci%E2%80%99m-a-culture-not-a-costume%E2%80%9D-campaign/ not as much "fun".]]

* Similarly, most Chinese women don't actually wear the ''{{qipao}}'' (AKA ''cheongsam'' in [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qipao Hong Kong and often therefore the West]]) at all, let alone on a regular basis, but for some authors, that's just what Chinese women wear. This is acceptable in ''some'' settings though such as 1930s-1940s Shanghai or 1950s-1960s Hong Kong where the qipao was the daily wear of Chinese women.

* Similarly, most Chinese women don't actually wear the ''{{qipao}}'' (AKA ''cheongsam'' in [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qipao Hong Kong and often therefore the West]]) at all, let alone on a regular basis, but for some authors, that's just what Chinese women wear.

* Every adult man from England from the 1860s through the 1960s, must wear a three-piece suit, including waistcoat (with pocketwatch) and dome-top/derby/bowler hat, according to Hollywood. They all also carry large black umbrellas.
* Hollywood also likes depicting French people wearing berets, even though few ever actually wear them. They also wear striped shirts about as frequently as anyone else does. However, the stereotypical French tourist (to the French) is the beauf: an obese man in sandals and shorts, a wifebeater and one of those fishing hats with Ricard on it. Also a cigarette dangling from their mouth.

* To denote "Jew" in general, have them wear a yarmulke, or go all out and depict them in Chasidic or Ultra-Orthadox dress wearing all black, long beards, and long curling sideburns. While everyday dress for a small segment of Jews, the vast majority rarely even wear yarmulkes except in services, depending on how observant one is. Alternatively, Hollywood insists Jewish Americans in particular are partial to the argyle sweater vest with long sleeve button down dress shirt and thick rimmed glasses, which tends to overlap with HollywoodNerd.
** The origins of this are ''weird''. Those huge black coats, fedoras/fur hats and curling sidelocks actually originate in 17th-century Poland rather than the ancient Middle East. And the nerdy look? Nerd stereotypes partly originated from nasty stereotypes of Jews and East Asians. In other words: Jews and Asians are nerds ''by definition''.

** Westerners and [[EverythingIsBigInTexas Texans]] get the cowboy hat, plaid jacket, blue jeans and boots.

* Scots are wear kilts on special occasions (weddings, funerals, football matches, [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking barfights]] etc etc) and that's it. Despite this, it is a common belief that all Scottish men wear them all the time.

** Also does a variant with Japanese character as well. Soun and Genma ([[BalefulPolymorph when he's human anyway]]) are normally seen wearing martial arts ''gi'' and Nodoka is normally seen wearing a kimono to show how traditional she is.

* In ''Manga/HayateTheCombatButler'', Isumi wears a kimono, even disdaining the school uniform to do so, depicting her use of 'hand soap'. In one chapter, she even tells another character she needs to go home and change (into another kimono) before meeting the new kitten. The depiction tosses a lampshade on such event.

** On a similar note, in ''Comicbook/MsMarvel2014'', Kamala's friend Nakia chooses to observe hijab of her own free willl, despite her Turkish family being relatively liberal with regards to customs. Similarly, Kamala's brother Aamir almost always dresses in traditional apparel due to being very devout of his faith - the only time he wears something else is for a job interview, when he puts on a three-piece suit. Kamala herself is more liberal with her choice of clothing, such as keeping her head uncovered most of the time (she does wear headscarfs when required, such as at the mosque) and wearing urban styles, but she does observes hijab in that she dresses modestly, even as a superheroine. Of course, one of the ideas of the comic is that there are all kinds of walks of life within Islam, and some are more observant than others, in such a way that the point isn't as on-the-nose as one would expect.

* ''Film/{{Armageddon}}'' had the Russian astronaut wear a ushanka hat and ''Born in USSR'' t-shirt. On a space station. To be honest, he ''was'' called a little weird.

** Kingsley Shacklebolt, who wears robes patterns after the traditional West African Dashiki, which makes him stands out considerably from the other adult characters dressed in Victorian-esque fashion.

* In the Czech movie ''Film/AdeleHasntHadHerDinnerYet'', a loving parody of early 20th century pulp detective fiction, American detective Nick Carter is called to solve a case in Prague in the first decade of the 20th century. For this he puts on a traditional Bohemian peasant's costume patterned after the color plate in an encyclopedia. This of course makes him look comically out of place in what was a very modern European metropolis at the time.

[[folder:Live Action TV]]

* The Singaporean talkshow ''It's A Small World'', done entirely in Mandarin, involves several foreigners now living in Singapore, going from honing their Mandarin in the first season to discussing their culture after that. All the 'students' dress in outfits unique to their culture in order to distinguish them (the season 3 finale has the Israeli Amit Gilboa complain that he's been mistaken for the ''Romanian'' Adrian Rusu), which works out okay in some cases (the Japanese Yasui Akemi in a ''kimono'' and both Korean ladies in ''hanboks''), but some overly stereotypical ones include the American Michael Blanding as a cowboy, even though he's actually [[BigApplesauce a New Yorker]], and PrettyFlyForAWhiteGuy.

* Alex Koslov dons a ushanka before performing a Cossack dance(kick you in the head, double stomp to the face, now you dead).

* Averted by most Mexican wrestlers in non-Latin American promotions nowadays, but in ages past they ''did'' appear wearing sombreros and sarapes. More recently, Super Crazy did wear costumes with Mexican national colors and symbols on them.

* Played with in a ''WesternAnimation/KingOfTheHill'' where Hank has to entertain a prospective propane client from Boston. The client expects Hank to look more like a stereotypical cowboy and has it in his head that all "real" Texans dress like that all the time, so Hank has to wear cowboy boots and a hat, much to his chagrin and extreme discomfort, as he has chubby toes that make wearing boots rather painful. In the end Hank had enough, since the client doesn't even care about the deal.

* As noted, there are countries and cultures in which traditional clothes are still commonly worn. The best known example would have to be the Japanese, where the ''kimono'' and all those other variants mistaken for ''kimonos'' have been pretty much integrated into contemporary culture.

* The Pakistani physicist Abdus Salam almost always wore Western suits, but when receiving his Nobel Prize wore a traditional achkan, shalwar and turban -- especially significant as he was the first Pakistani and the first Muslim laureate (although most mainstream Muslims view Ahmadiyyas (of which Salam was one) as heretics).

* Iranian former President Mohammad Khatami, who, as a Muslim cleric, usually wore a mullah's uniform (black robe and black turban) during public appearances, when interviewed by Italian TV station donned a ''completely'' black Western style suit including the shirt, necktie, and shoes... plus turban.
* [[{{UsefulNotes/ImperialJapan}} Imperial Japan]] switched quickly away from Western style uniforms and trappings during the pre-war buildup, as it can be seen in the portraits of Admiral Yamamoto in [[http://hirasaki.net/Family_Stories/Kishi_Colony/Pictures/Yamamoto5.gif 1919]] and [[https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c5/Yamamoto_h63430.jpg 1941]].

* Each one of China's 55 officially recognized minority has its own official costume, and they are so well characterized that they are less costumes and more uniforms (it is common for a member of a minority to show up to state functions in their ethnic costume, like how a Scotsman generally goes to Buckingham Palace in a kilt).

* Parodied in the Literature/{{Discworld}} book ''Discworld/{{Jingo}}'', where a group of ambassadors to Ankh-Morpork are described thusly:
-->They wore their national costumes, but since by and large their national costumes were what the peasants wore they looked slightly out of place in them. Their bodies wore feathers and silks, but their minds persistently wore suits.
** Parodied ''even harder'' in ''Discworld/{{Pyramids}}'', where a group of diplomats from Tsort attempt to wear "traditional" Djelibeybian attire. The problem is that Djelibeybian tradition goes back ''millennia'':
-->if a foreign ambassador to the Court of St. James wore (out of a genuine desire to flatter) a bowler hat, a claymore, a civil war breastplate, Saxon trousers and a Jacobean haircut, he'd create pretty much the same impression.

* A token Islamic [[ComicBook/XMen X-Man]] Sooraya Qadir, code name Dust, wore a full-body black abaya. Her "burqa" (as it was often incorrectly referred to) was often drawn as ''very'' form-fitting, which is CompletelyMissingThePoint, and unfortunately her characterization under most writers starts and ends with her religion, though some at least had the sense to have her say that she wore it by choice and not because anyone was forcing her.

** Ironically, the qipao is actually based on Manchurian dress. A lot of the clothes thought of as stereotypically Chinese were forced on the Han on pain of death by the Manchu when they founded the Qing dynasty. Including the long ponytail and shaved scalp men wore.