History Main / WidowsWeeds

* Jackie Kennedy Onassis at JFK's funeral, where she wore a black veil per Catholic tradtion. Her widowhood which lasted until her marriage to tycoon Aristotle Onassis 5 years later, and she wore a black leather jacket and sunglasses at Aristotle's funeral.

* Jackie Kennedy Onassis at JFK's funeral, which lasted until her marriage to tycoon Aristotle Onassis 5 years later.

* In ''Theatre/TheAddingMachine'', Mrs. Zero wears a black dress ("I always look good in black," she says) and a heavy veil while visiting her husband on the eve of his execution. He scolds her about the cost ($64.20): "You'll be scrubbin' floors in about a year if you go blowin' your coin like that."
* In ''Theatre/{{Hamlet}}'', the title character traditionally spends the whole play wearing black in mourning for his father.
* In ''Theatre/TheImportanceOfBeingEarnest'', Jack wears full mourning dress when he announces the [[spoiler:imaginary]] death [[spoiler:of his imaginary brother Ernest. Almost immediately, Algernon turns up pretending to be Ernest, and comments on what ugly clothes Jack has on]].
* In ''Theatre/StreetScene'', Rose changes into a black dress after her mother dies. Her father notices.
* In ''Theatre/TwelfthNight'', Olivia wears a black dress and veil due to the recent loss of her brother.

* Ashe from ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXII'' is shown this very early in the game, crying over the murder of her father and the death in the battle of her husband.

* ''ComicBook/JosieAndThePussycats'': In a "what if" FantasySequence, Melody is persuading Alan M to let Josie help out more, instead of playing macho and doing it all himself. She describes a future in which [[StayInTheKitchen Alan M and Josie are married, and Alan M works himself into an early grave trying to support her]]. "Before long, Josie is buying a dress she hadn't planned for." Josie is pictured in a black veil, shopping for the dress to wear to his funeral, while a sales clerk observes, "Basic black? We've been selling a lot of those lately." Seen [[http://www.armagideon-time.com/?p=151 here]]

* Done for RuleOfSymbolism in ''[[https://archiveofourown.org/works/27401197/chapters/66970015 HBBIC (Head Bitches & Bastard In Charge).]]'' On the day that Inspector Riera comes to confront Principal Damocles on how he's running the school, the Primaries wear nearly all-black clothing (complete with Marinette wearing a black veil) to mark the death of his educational career.

* In Disney's ''WesternAnimation/{{Encanto}}'', Abuela Alma wears a black shawl most of the time, which represents her mourning for her husband Pedro, and the fact that her grief for him and fear of losing the rest of her family is the cause of the harmful pressure she puts on them all to protect the miracle. She finally stops wearing it in the end, when she finds healing through her reconciliation with Mirabel.

* In ''Film/{{Jaws}}'', a grieving mother angrily confronts Chief Brody because he didn't close the beach, and now her son is dead. She is wearing a black hat with a veil.

* Subverted in ''Film/{{Thunderball}}''. While Film/JamesBond is watching the funeral of SPECTRE agent Colonel Jacques Bouvar, he sees that Bouvar's widow is wearing a black dress, hat, and veil. Then he realizes that the widow isn't a woman at all... but a man, Bouvar himself, who was FakingTheDead.
* Scarlett O'Hara buries two husbands and a child in ''Film/GoneWithTheWind'' and wears mourning on all three occasions. By the sequel ''Literature/{{Scarlett}}'', she wears it for her sister-in-law Melanie and later ''fakes'' being a widow to avoid any scandal about her technically out-of-wedlock pregnancy.
* Sonia is wearing the standard black dress and veil at the beginning of ''[[Film/TheMerryWidow1934 The Merry Widow]]''. This doesn't stop Captain Danilo from wooing her, but it does stop him from recognizing her when they meet again in Paris.
* In ''Film/FleshAndTheDevil'', Felicitas is shown primping in front of a mirror. Then she puts on a veil, which is how the film lets the viewer know who won the duel between Leo and von Rhaden.
* In ''Film/StageFright1950'', Charlotte's insincerity and lack of remorse over the death of her husband is shown when she is primping and preening while putting on widow's weeds.

* Mrs. Dashwood, Elinor, and Marianne's mother wear these in ''Film/SenseAndSensibility''. The progress from all-black back towards lighter colors marks the progress of months. Her daughters also wear black accents initially.
* At one point in ''Film/{{The Assassination Bureau}}'', Miss Winter and a female antagonist have a montage showing them dressing in competitively glamourous mourning - both are rather too fashionable by the end of it for the intended sentiment to apply, but it's a very ironic movie overall.
* In ''Film/TheyDiedWithTheirBootsOn'', Libby is wearing the black dress and veil when she makes her dramatic appearance in the last scene, her husband George having been killed at the Little Bighorn.

* In ''Film/Cinderella2015'', after the death of Ella's mother, little Ella and her father are shown wearing black as they walk across the field just before the AgeCut which brings us to the film's main timeline. After her father's death, a deleted scene shows the stepmother and stepsisters wearing lavish black gowns, but the [[CinderellaPlot increasingly abused]] Ella is only given a black ribbon for her hair.

* ''Film/{{Romeo and Juliet|1968}}'' (1968):
** Juliet's mother wears a black veil during Juliet's [[spoiler: staged]] funeral.
** In the final scene, all the Capulets and Montagues alike wear black during [[spoiler: the real joint funeral of the two lovers]].
* ''Film/WilliamShakespearesRomeoAndJuliet'': Juliet's mother wears a black dress and veil during Juliet's [[spoiler: staged]] funeral.

* The title character in ''Film/EnolaHolmes'' briefly dons a set as a disguise.

* Creator/LFrankBaum's [[Literature/LandOfOz Oz series]]
** In ''Literature/TheWonderfulWizardOfOz'', Dorothy thinks she has to go back because they can't afford mourning, among other reasons. ''"My greatest wish now,"'' she added, ''"is to get back to Kansas, for Aunt Em will surely think something dreadful has happened to me, and that will make her put on mourning; and unless the crops are better this year than they were last, I am sure Uncle Henry cannot afford it."''
** In ''[[http://www.gutenberg.org/files/420/420-h/420-h.htm Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz]]'', Dorothy sees, in the magic mirror, Uncle Henry and Auntie Em in mourning, thinking she had been killed in the earthquake.

* ''Literature/LittleWomen'' by Louisa May Alcott:
** At a visit to Aunt March's, Amy is shown her jewelry, including "the jet mourning rings and pins." (Jet is black, the only color of jewelry allowed to be worn during mourning.)
** When Laurie and Amy meet again in Europe, it is shortly after Beth's death. Laurie notes how poignant Amy looks, partly because of her mourning and "the black ribbon that tied up her hair."
* In Creator/AndreNorton's ''Literature/IceCrown'', the heroine dreams of the court after the king's death. Another character realizes it was a true vision because she described the (heavily purple) formal mourning, which she has never seen.
* In Creator/DorothyLSayers's Literature/LordPeterWimsey novel ''Unnatural Death'', a lawyer definitely realizes that a woman who asked him a question -- for a friend -- had actually asked for herself, when he sees her again, and she tells him that the woman she had asked about, purported a friend's great-aunt, had died, and she herself is wearing mourning.
* In the Literature/{{Deryni}} novels by Creator/KatherineKurtz, the widowed Queen Jehana wears all white (suitable to royal widows) for several years after her husband's death. Her quasi-nunlike apparel is also a form of protest against her son's open use of magic and his close relationships with other mages.
* In the ''Literature/CircleOfMagic'' universe, Traders (Family-based merchant caravans that travel on land or sea) wear red when loved ones die. Daja eventually adopts a red armband in memory of her family, instead of wearing the all-red clothes all the time. Sandry wishes she could do the same, but because she is a noblewoman, social expectations require her to wear full mourning for far longer than she likes; she thinks that her parents, who were fun-loving pleasure-seekers, would find it silly for her to be wearing all black for years after they died.

-->'''Phoeby''': (sarcastically) What shade of black is that?
-->'''Janie''': The same shade you've got on!
* White mourning appears in ''[[Literature/AnneOfGreenGables Anne of Avonlea]]''; Anne wears white dresses during the two years the book takes place, it is specifically mentioned that the green dress she wears toward the end is the first color she has worn since Matthew's death.
* In ''Literature/PlayingBeatieBow'', one of Abigail's fleeting visions of the Bow family upon returning to the twentieth century is of a slightly older Beatie in black. She assumes it's for [[spoiler: Beatie's sickly brother Gibbie, but it turns out to be for either her brother Judah who died at sea, or her cousin, niece, and grandmother, who died in an epidemic]].
* The undertakers' custom in ''Literature/ATreeGrowsInBrooklyn'' is to charge eighty percent of the insurance payout for the funeral, allowing the rest for mourning clothes. For Johnny's funeral, Katie gets herself a black hat and three-foot veil, according to Williamsburg custom, and Neely a black suit with long pants, as befitting his position as the man of the house. Francie just gets the shoes she has been needing anyway and has a black armband sewn on her old coat. Francine is relieved rather than jealous since she hates black and was afraid Katie might put her in deep mourning.
* In ''Mary Cary, Frequently Martha'', Mary tells of a widow who wore a veil that reached the hem of her skirt after her husband's death, then cut in half after everyone had seen it enough, then discarded it for good shortly thereafter, and was ''gay as a girl."
* In the "Little Sister" spinoffs of ''Literature/TheBabysittersClub'', the old woman who lives next door to Karen's father, Mrs. Porter, dresses like this. Karen thinks it means she's a witch.
* In ''Literature/TheSecretGarden'', Mary Lennox usually wears white. She is officially in mourning for her parents, but her guardian insists an all-black wardrobe is too much for a child.
* In the ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' spin-off ''Nanny Ogg's Cookbook'', Nanny describes the various stages of mourning (from all black to adding grey and lavender, to being allowed to wear white with black trim, a process that takes three years). Nanny's view is that it's fine to just wear black underwear, and if she'd waited around for three years after her husbands died, she'd never have got anywhere.
* The male version occurs in ''Literature/{{Persuasion}}'' with Mr Elliot. Enough time had passed that he wasn't in full mourning, but he maintained a black crepe around his hat. The conversations about his ([[RomanticFalseLead inevitable]]) marriage to Anne tend to involve the phrase "after a decent interval," even though it's also well-known that he and his late wife were unhappy together.

* ''Literature/AChristmasCarol'':
** Belle is described as wearing a mourning dress when she breaks off her engagement to young Scrooge. Who she's in mourning for is never specified (in an earlier draft, and in [[WesternAnimation/AChristmasCarol2009 the 2009 film]], she describes herself as an orphan, so presumably it's for one or both of her parents), but it suits her romantic heartbreak as well.
** Subtly alluded to when the Cratchits are mourning Tiny Tim's death in the BadFuture sequence. Mrs. Cratchit and the girls are sewing and Tim's death is revealed when Mrs. Cratchit [[SandInMyEyes tries to hide her tears]] by saying "The colour hurts my eyes," at which the narrator comments "The colour? Ah, poor Tiny Tim!" The implication is that they're sewing their black mourning clothes.

* ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'': There is a male example in Aegon III Targaryen, who always wore black since he was a kid. Having outlived all but one of his brothers, his father, and his mother (who was burned alive and fed to a dragon before his eyes) during the Dance of the Dragons, [[ExcessiveMourning he was constantly in a state of mourning throughout his life]].
* In ''Literature/PeterPan'', when Wendy and her brothers resolve to leave Neverland and go home, Wendy thinks to herself “Perhaps Mother is in half mourning by this time.” In Victorian culture, half mourning was the later phase of mourning dress, when people would gradually start to wear colors other than black again; what Wendy means is that maybe their mother is missing them less and less, and will forget about them if they stay away much longer.
* ''Literature/TheLegendOfAnneBonny:'' After Calico Jack Rackham is hanged, his mother shows up at UsefulNotes/AnneBonny and Mary Read's trial dressed in black.

* In ''Series/OnceUponATime'', Regina starts wearing black after the death of her husband and "kept it" as she went public with being "the Evil Queen," saying [[EvilWearsBlack it suited her.]]
* In ''Series/TheGoldenGirls'' when Dorothy's cross-dressing brother dies, several heavily-veiled, black-wearing women appear at the funeral. They were [[WholesomeCrossdresser the guys from his]] poker night.
** Blanche subverts this by wearing ''red'', though this isn't in disrespect--she wears it specifically because she sincerely (and probably correctly) believes, "Phil would have liked this dress." And she modifies it with several touches of black anyway--hat, gloves, purse, etc.
* Parodied in a ''Series/TheKidsInTheHall'' musical segment, "Terriers." During the instrumental break, Bruce [=McCulloch=] comes across two veiled women in black bikinis, dancing beside a grave. He asks them politely to leave because "You're scantily clad and have nothing to do with the narrative; therefore, it's sexist... Wow. That hurt."
* The ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise'' episode "Night in Sickbay" had Archer having a DreamSequence where he and T'Pol were all dressed up in traditional earth mourning clothes for [[ItMakesJustAsMuchSenseInContext Porthos's funeral]].
* ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer''.

** In "Villains", Buffy changes into a black shirt [[spoiler: after finding Tara's body.]] Willow has already done a black makeover, [[EvilCostumeSwitch albeit for entirely different reasons]].

* ''Series/MurdochMysteries'' is set in Victorian-Edwardian era (late 19th and early 20th century) Toronto, Canada, so many characters who have deaths in their families observe this, and many widows keep their mourning black for years after the deaths that prompted the clothing change. Just after her husband Dr. Garland is murdered in "Crime and Punishment", Dr. Ogden doesn't immediately adopt black clothing, and during his interrogation of her, Giles calls her out on it: "How very modern." Julia does wear widow's weeds after this, particularly when she's planning to meet Darcy's parents at the train station and in court during her murder trial.
* AI Natasha of ''Series/OtherSpace'' dons these to mourn the passing of [[spoiler:Art the robot]].

* ''Series/BlakesSeven''. The actress playing [[BigBad Servalan]] decided to invert EvilWearsBlack by always dressing in white. However, she changes to black after "Children of Auron" where she tries to have clone children created, only to lose them during the events of that episode.

* ''Series/Daredevil2015'': Karen wears a black dress when she goes with Matt and Foggy to Grotto's funeral. She does change into a brighter print dress later in the day, prior to having [[RelationshipUpgrade her first kiss with Matt]] [[RomanticRain in the rain]].

** "Come Wander With Me." As Mary Rachel narrates the events via the lyrics of a folk song, it becomes apparent to Floyd that he is stuck in a GroundhogDayLoop. She begs him to stay with her this time. He leaves, but he turns to look at her one last time. She is draped in a black shawl. He knows he's [[OhCrap screwed.]]

* ''Series/GameOfThrones'':
** Ellaria Sand switches to all-black outfits and [[ImportantHaircut cuts her hair short]] after her lover Oberyn Martell is killed. Technically, they were never married, due to Ellaria being a bastard while Oberyn is a high prince, but they clearly considered themselves married in all but name.
** The trope is conspicuously averted during the first season when Cersei Lannister continues to wear her usual bright colors despite the death of her husband, King Robert Baratheon, probably because she didn't actually love him and covertly arranged for the HuntingAccident that killed him. Cersei only starts wearing black after [[OutlivingOnesOffspring Joffrey's death]] and continues to do so as more of her family die.
* ''Series/TheMusketeers'': Constance Bonacieux starts wearing black after her estranged husband is murdered. She didn't love him to begin with and had effectively left him for D'Artagnan, but she still insists on mourning him properly. After a conversation with Queen Anne about enjoying as much time as possible with loved ones, Constance decides to abandon the mourning clothes.
-->'''Queen Anne:''' Where are you going?\\
'''Constance:''' To change out of this stupid dress. Black has never been my colour.
** Queen Anne herself dons these at the end of the series after [[spoiler: King Louis and Minister Treville die]].
* ''Series/Batwoman2019''. After her sister Kate Kane is killed, supervillain Alice changes her white AliceAllusion outfit to black, even if the only thing she's mourning is that her EvilPlan to [[TheOnlyOneAllowedToDefeatYou arrange Kate's demise has just been stymied by someone else]].

* "Long Black Veil" was originally recorded by Lefty Frizzell. The woman mourning for her deceased lover, who died for a crime he did not commit rather than to expose their affair, wears the long black veil while visiting his grave.
* "Ballad of Forty Dollars" by [[Music/TomTHall Tom T. Hall]]. A man watching from a distance, but not actually attending his friend's funeral, hints at a desire to [[ComfortingTheWidow comfort the widow]] when he sees how attractive she is. He notes:

* Music/CarrieUnderwood sings "Two Black Cadillacs" about the funeral of a man who had left both a wife and a lover. One line in the refrain mentions how "the women in the two black veils didn't bother to cry." Overlaps with BlackWidow since it is suggested that the women teamed up to take revenge on him after discovering his two-timing.
* Music/TheMarsVolta: Referenced in a hypothetical context in "Cassandra Gemini."
* Music/TheBeatles recorded "Baby's in Black," about a man pining after a woman who "dresses in black" long after her lover's death.
* "Whiskey Lullaby" by Music/BradPaisley and Music/AlisonKrauss. In the video, the guilt-ridden ex-fianceé of the deceased is shrouded in a black shawl at the gravesite. Another woman, presumably his mother, is shown wearing a black veiled hat.
* {{Music/Tristania}} recorded a whole ''album'' called "Widow's Weeds" which focuses on mourning and grief for a lost love.

* In ''Theatre/TheImportanceOfBeingEarnest'', Jack wears full mourning dress when he announces the [[spoiler:imaginary]] death [[spoiler:of his imaginary brother Ernest. Almost immediately, Algernon turns up pretending to be Ernest, and comments on what ugly clothes Jack has on.]]
* In ''Theatre/StreetScene'', Rose changes into a black dress after her mother dies. Her father notices.
* In ''Theatre/TheAddingMachine'', Mrs. Zero wears a black dress ("I always look good in black," she says) and a heavy veil while visiting her husband on the eve of his execution. He scolds her about the cost ($64.20): "You'll be scrubbin' floors in about a year if you go blowin' your coin like that."

* In ''VisualNovel/AnalogueAHateStory'', *Mute describes doing this when a dear friend of hers passed away.
* In ''VideoGame/{{Persona 4}}'', the [[TarotMotifs Death]] Social Link is Hisano Kuroda, an old woman who always wears a black mourning outfit. The Social Link revolves around helping her get over her husband's death.
* Never explicitly noted, but heavily implied with Almedha in ''VideoGame/FireEmblem''. Almedha was once a [[UnholyMatrimony concubine of the Mad King Ashnard]], ''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemPathOfRadiance Path of Radiance]]'''s BigBad, and became queen dowager of Daein in the aftermath of the Mad King's War. She dresses in dark robes, is almost always seen with her veil up, and is noted to be [[BrokenBird quite fragile as an effect of all she's suffered through]], to the point of going the GodSaveUsFromTheQueen route [[KnightTemplarParent for the sake of her beloved]] [[spoiler:false]] [[KnightTemplarParent son]]. Ironic considering that Ashnard never felt anything for her or their child (especially since it was discovered that their [[HalfHumanHybrid half-Dragon Branded child]] possessed no powers Ashnard could use to further his own ends).

* In ''VideoGame/TheSims2'', [[NonPlayerCharacter Mrs. Crumplebottom]] wears this, complete with pillbox hat. She's also quite bitter and seems to be particularly upset by Sims interacting with each other romantically as if she were jealous.
* In ''VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorneySpiritOfJustice'', Beh'leeb Inmee, the widow of Case 3's victim, Tahrust Inmee, wears a black veil while carrying around a funeral photo of her husband. The game establishes that they both loved each other dearly, and she is even pregnant at the time of Tahrust's death. [[spoiler: By the time the case is over, Beh'leeb takes the veil off, having said her goodbyes to her husband and deciding not to let the rebellion happen around her anymore, with her taking an active role instead]].
* Played for laughs in ''{{VideoGame/Psychonauts}}'': if Raz holds a bouquet of flowers while in the MilkmanConspiracy level and uses Clairvoyance on a G-Man, they'll see him as [[https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/psychonauts/images/0/0d/7263d9fc.png/revision/latest?cb=20210817230337 a weeping woman wearing a black dress, hat, and veil]]. They'll also see fellow G-Men holding flowers like this, due to them thinking holding an item means they're disguised.
* In ''VisualNovel/SevenKingdomsThePrincessProblem'', ''red'' is the traditional color of mourning in Revaire, and Revairan widows are expected to wear red for a suitable period after their husband dies. When generating an Ambitious Widow character, the player may choose whether she followed this custom, gave it lip service by wearing red only in public, or ignored it altogether.

** Dr. Hutchinson's mother, the Widow Hutchinson is always seen wearing a black dress and veil. [[spoiler: Subverted when it's revealed that her husband isn't actually dead.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'': When Superman is [[ReportsOfMyDeathWereGreatlyExaggerated presumed]] dead in "Hereafter", the other Leaguers (except Batman, who [[HesJustHiding refuses to believe that he's really dead]]) wear black armbands at his wake.

* ''VideoGame/MurderInTheAlps'': Irene Hoffman from ''Unforgiven'' wears black to show she's still grieving over [[[[OutlivingOnesOffspring her son Roberto Fiore]] who died eleven years earlier.

* Music/Tristania recorded a whole ''album'' called "Widow's Weeds" which focuses on mourning and grief for a lost love.

This trope is typical of Western cultures, espcially among Christians and Jews. In Eastern cultures, the traditional color of mourning and death is white, in which case see EtherealWhiteDress.

* Following ''Comicbook/TheDeathOfSuperman'', all the attendent heroes donned black armbands with an S-shield at the funeral. Most of them were shown continuing to wear them in their own titles for that month.

* In ''WesternAnimation/AChristmasCarol2009'', in the BadFuture sequence, the Cratchit family wear black arm bands following Tiny Tim's death.

* Subverted in ''Film/{{Thunderball}}''. While Film/JamesBond is watching the funeral of SPECTRE agent Colonel Jacques Bouvar, he sees that Bouvar's widow is wearing a black dress, hat and veil. Then he realizes that the widow isn't a woman at all... but a man, Bouvar himself, who was FakingTheDead.

* Mrs. Dashwood, Elinor and Marianne's mother, wears these in ''Film/SenseAndSensibility''. The progress from all-black back towards lighter colors marks the progress of months. Her daughters also wear black accents initially.

* In ''Film/Cinderella2015'', after the death of Ella's mother, little Ella and her father are shown wearing black as they walk across the field just before the AgeCut that brings us to the film's main timeline. After her father's death, a deleted scene shows the stepmother and stepsisters wearing lavish black gowns, but the [[CinderellaPlot increasingly abused]] Ella is only given a black ribbon for her hair.

** Juliet's mother wears a black veil during Juliet's [[spoiler:staged]] funeral.
** In the final scene, all the Capulets and Montagues alike wear black during [[spoiler:the real joint funeral of the two lovers]].
* ''Film/WilliamShakespearesRomeoAndJuliet'': Juliet's mother wears a black dress and veil during Juliet's [[spoiler:staged]] funeral.

** In ''Literature/TheGatesOfSleep'', Marina Roeswood is, following the death of her parents, outfitted with a new and all-black wardrobe by her Aunt Arachne. Marina wishes at one point that her aunt didn't require her to be in dressed in the strictest possible interpretation of mourning, as normally young unmarried women could wear mauve, lavender, or violet during mourning without offending anyone. She even thinks to herself that she would end up looking like Queen Victoria or a would-be Gothic poetess before her period of mourning is over.

* White mourning appears in ''[[Literature/AnneOfGreenGables Anne of Avonlea]]''; Anne wears white dresses during the two years the book takes place, it being specifically mentioned that the green dress she wears toward the end is the first color she has worn since Matthew's death.
* In ''Literature/PlayingBeatieBow'', one of Abigail's fleeting visions of the Bow family upon returning to the twentieth century is of a slightly older Beatie in black. She assumes it's for [[spoiler:Beatie's sickly brother Gibbie, but it turns out to be for either her brother Judah who died at sea or her cousin, niece, and grandmother, who died in an epidemic]].
* The undertakers' custom in ''Literature/ATreeGrowsInBrooklyn'' is to charge eighty percent of the insurance payout for the funeral, allowing the rest for mourning clothes. For Johnny's funeral, Katie gets herself a black hat and three-foot veil, according to Williamsburg custom, and Neely a black suit with long pants, as befitting his position as man of the house. Francie just gets the shoes she has been needing anyway and has a black armband sewn on her old coat. Francine is relieved rather than jealous, since she hates black and was afraid Katie might put her in deep mourning.

** In "Villains", Buffy changes into a black shirt [[spoiler:after finding Tara's body.]] Willow has already done a black makeover, [[EvilCostumeSwitch albeit for entirely different reasons]].

* ''Series/DowntonAbbey'': Lady Mary wears them in Series 4, after Matthew dies.
* ''Series/BlakesSeven''. The actress playing [[BigBad Servalan]] decided to invert EvilWearsBlack by always dressing in white. However she changes to black after "Children of Auron" where she tries to have clone children created, only to lose them during the events of that episode.

** "The Hunt." Hyder Simpson and his dog have suffered an accident while hunting. He can't understand why nobody is answering when he speaks, until he sees his wife wearing a black dress.

** Ellaria Sand switches to all-black outfits and [[ImportantHaircut cuts her hair short]] after her lover Oberyn Martell is killed. Tehcnically they were never married, due to Ellaria being a bastard while Oberyn is a high prince, but they clearly considered themselves married in all but name.

* ''Series/TheMusketeers'': Constance Bonacieux starts wearing black after her estranged husband is murdered. She didn't love him to begin with, and had effectively left him for d'Artagnan, but still insists on mourning him properly. After a conversation with Queen Anne about enjoying as much time as possible with loved ones Constance decides to abandon the mourning clothes.

** Queen Anne herself dons these at the end of the series after [[spoiler:King Louis and Minister Treville die]].

* "Long Black Veil" originally recorded by Lefty Frizzell. The woman mourning for her deceased lover, who died for a crime he did not commit rather than to expose their affair, wears the long black veil while visiting his grave.

[[folder:Poetry]]

* In ''Theatre/TheAddingMachine'', Mrs. Zero wears a black dress ("I always look good in black," she says) and a heavy veil while visiting her husband on the eve of his execution. He scolds her about the cost ($64.20): "You'll be scrubbin' floors in about a year, if you go blowin' your coin like that."

* In ''VideoGame/{{Persona 4}}'', the [[TarotMotifs Death]] Social Link is Hisano Kuroda, an old woman who always wears black mourning outfit. The Social Link revolves around helping her get over her husband's death.

* Ashe from ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXII'' is shown in this very early in the game, crying over the murder of her father and the death in battle of her husband.

** Queen Victoria herself wore mourning for the rest of her life after the death of her husband Prince Albert. This is part of the reason it went out of fashion in the 20th century, not withstanding [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarI major]] [[UsefulNotes/TheSpanishFlu world events]] that killed of a huge number of people have shortened the mourning period, and lead to the LittleBlackDress.

* Jackie Kennedy Onassis at JFK's funeral.

** Queen Victoria herself wore mourning for the rest of her life after the death of her husband Prince Albert. This is part of the reason it went out of fashion in the 20th century.

* ''Series/TheMusketeers'': Constance Bonacieux starts wearing black after her estranged husband is murdered. She didn't love him to begin with and had effectively left him for D'Artagnan but still insists on mourning him properly. After a conversation with Queen Anne about enjoying as much time as possible with loved ones Constance decides to abandon the mourning clothes.

* In Chapter 10 of the manga adaptation of ''LightNovel/EndoAndKobayashiLiveTheLatestOnTsundereVillainessLieselotte'', Elizabeth is seen wearing a black dress, a black hat, and a lace veil during a GraveMarkingScene for her fiance August, who just died from SoapOperaDisease. The implication is that, despite not having ''officially'' married (her parents issued an ParentalMarriageVeto due to him dying), she considers herself married to August, and with good reason: [[SomeoneToRememberHimBy she has his child]].

* In ''Series/{{Deadwood}}'', DeterminedWidow Alma Garrett is often seen in black, and when she eventually wears other colors they're still subdued, like dark green.

According to Wiki/ThatOtherWiki, black clothing and veils were colloquially called "widow's weeds" during the Victorian era, from the Old English word "waed," meaning "garment."

** Queen Victoria herself wore mourning [[UpToEleven for the rest of her life]] after the death of her husband Prince Albert. This is part of the reason it went out of fashion in the 20th century.

* Ashe from ''FinalFantasyXII'' is shown in this very early in the game, crying over the murder of her father and the death in battle of her husband.

* Subverted in ''Film/{{Thunderball}}''. While Franchise/JamesBond is watching the funeral of [[spoiler:SPECTRE agent Colonel Jacques Bouvar]], he sees that [[spoiler:Bouvar's]] widow is wearing a black dress, hat and veil. Then he realizes that [[spoiler:the widow isn't a woman at all... but a man, Bouvar himself, who was FakingTheDead.]]

* In Chapter 10 of the manga adaptation of ''LightNovel/EndoAndKobayashiLiveTheLatestOnTsundereVillainessLieselotte'', Elizabeth is seen wearing a black dress, a black hat, and a lace veil during a GraveMarkingScene for her fiance Augustus, who just died from SoapOperaDisease. The implication is that, despite not having ''officially'' married (her parents issued an ParentalMarriageVeto due to him dying), she considers herself married to August, and with good reason: [[SomeoneToRememberHimBy she has his child]].

* In Chapter 10 of the manga adaptation of ''LightNovel/EndoAndKobayashiLiveTheLatestOnTsundereVillainessLieselotte'', Elizabeth is seen wearing a black dress, a black hat, and a lace veil during a GraveMarkingScene for her fiance Augustus, who just died from SoapOperaDisease. The implication is that, despite not having ''officially'' married (her parents issued an ParentalMarriageVeto due to him dying), she considers herself married to Augustus, and with good reason: [[SomeoneToRememberHimBy she has his child]].