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"I love wearing a tux when I kill guys. Makes you kinda feel like James Bond."
Brock Samson, The Venture Bros., "Fallen Arches"

A Badass or criminal character will often dress conservatively (suit and tie) to imply that he is a "professional" who knows what he is doing. Generally partakes of a toned-down version of Badass Longcoat imagery; add Cool/Sinister Shades to complete the look. The suit will usually be impeccable.

This trope can include women who wear traditionally male attire (read: suits), with the further implication that they are tough enough to make it in a man's world. If the writer doesn't want the female character to wear traditionally male attire, a pencil skirt has the same implication of professionalism especially when paired with a suit jacket. But, it isn't really a Distaff Counterpart.

One easy way of showing that a situation is getting worse or dangerous is to have the previously immaculate suit become messier somehow, generally with bloodstains or just having any unnecessary bits such as the tie or jacket taken off and the sleeves rolled up.

Of course, there's a reason why suits are THE sign of masculinity (and everything associated with it). It's because they look really nice on men. Thus male characters will sometimes be put in a suit for no particular reason other than aesthetics. That is not this trope.

Be aware that in Period Piece works, pretty much all the male characters will wear suits (unless their occupation has a uniform associated with it), so the suit won't qualify as this trope. Often some other piece of clothing will be used for the same purpose as this trope instead (bowler hats, bowties, and pocket watches are popular choices). There are a few careers in which this style of dress ranges from common to near-universal: The Men in Black, Wicked Cultured Professional Killers (especially if they are Bantering Baddie Buddies), Corrupt Corporate Executives, Corporate Samurai, Amoral Attorneys, many Battle Butlers and yakuza/mafiosi.

This trope does not cover flashy or eccentric suits worn as a fashion statement. The suits are supposed to be something you would wear at work. Therefore, Spike Spiegel's and Lupin's respective blue and red leisure suits don't quite count. Jim Carrey's shoulder-padded yellow getup in The Mask is about as far from this trope as you can possibly get.

A Sub-Trope of Stock Costume Traits and Sharp-Dressed Man.

Compare Sharp-Dressed Man, Tuxedo and Martini, Villain in a White Suit; Coat, Hat, Mask; Man of Wealth and Taste; Battle Ballgown; Kicking Ass in All Her Finery. See also: Lady in a Power Suit.


Examples:

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    Anime and Manga 
  • Valkyrie Lind of Ah! My Goddess. She's a professional badass, and she looks the part.
  • Kitano's parent in Angel Densetsu who looks like a Yakuza leg-breaker and a ghost. The shades actually help here, Kitano's father is even scarier without.
  • Baccano!: Most of the characters are, what with its being set in The Great Depression, but Ladd Russo goes the extra mile and has his entire entourage of Psychos for Hire dress in immaculate white suits for the sole purpose of staining them red during their train massacre.
  • Sebastian from Black Butler. Almost always dressed in a snappy tail coat, and able to end someone's existence in several different ways. And the shinigamis, who wear it as their uniform.
  • Black Cat's Sven wears a smooth criminal-esque suit (with a red tie instead of a matching white tie), fedora included. In the anime, it's never damaged and hardly changed, whereas in the manga, he's taken some articles off, to the point of no jacket, tie or fedora; with his sleeves rolled up which was used to badass measures in a Back To Back Bad Asses moment with Train.
    • Train even gets in on the deal when he takes on Lugart Won (also an example).
  • Mr. Chang from Black Lagoon. Rock also wears suits, but that's because he's an ex-salaryman.
    • Balalaika too, considering her normal wear is a red business top with a long skirt bottom.
    • The latest chapters also features a group of five French female mercenaries who are dressed up in all-black suits and gloves.
  • Bleach:
    • Ryuuken Ishida rarely wears anything but white suits in the manga (beige in the anime), justified in that he's the director of a major urban hospital and has to be professionally dressed. He's also a very powerful Quincy and capable of kicking much ass (including curbstomping his very talented son) without even removing his jacket or loosening his tie.
    • Shinji too fights in a suit and tie with Badass Longcoat to boot.
    • Unlike most of the military-clothed Sternritters, Robert wears a smart suit and coat. His encounter left Kyouraku quite badly injured whereas he got off with barely a scratch.
  • Pretty much every male Blood+ character, from Haji to Solomon to David and even Kai in the second half of the series.
  • The standard uniform of Public Safety in Chainsaw Man is a dress shirt, slacks, suit, and tie, though several members (including the title character) leave out the actual suit. Amusingly, most of them wear tennis shoes instead of dress shoes. The suits themselves are apparently some kind of extremely durable armor, though it only makes a difference once, and makes it somewhat strange that so many agents would go without it.
  • Darker than Black has James Bond-like British Contractor November 11 who always wears a suit and tie, even when engaging in urban battles. He is a "cool" guy.
  • Light Yagami of Death Note later falls into this after becoming a detective.
  • Campanella Freuling (female) from Dogs: Bullets & Carnage.
  • Durarara!! has Shizuo in his bartender's outfit; looking very sharp as he hurls vending machines at Izaya and beats up punks on the streets of Ikebukuro. The outfit is associated with him and his badassery so much that he's known as Ikebukuro's "God of Destruction (in a Bartender Suit)."
  • Kiritsugu, Maiya and Saber from Fate/Zero, Kuzuki from Fate/stay night and Bazett in Fate/hollow ataraxia.
  • Fullmetal Alchemist: Whenever Roy Mustang is not dressed in military uniform, he wears damn fine period suits. He even wears a dress shirt under his uniform while seemingly everyone else uses more casual t-shirts or sweaters.
    • On the evil side, once he is released from prison in the manga and new anime, Zolf Kimblee is such a smooth criminal that he always dresses in a snazzy white zoot suit and fedora.
    • Pride (aka Selim Bradley) is always (when in human form) dressed in a button-up shirt, a waistcoat and dress shoes. We even see him in a suit, on one occasion, in Father's lair.
  • Yuno and Yuki from Future Diary. In Episodes 19-20, Yuki's desperation after losing his parents leads him to finally play the survival game by killing people. He is dressed in a tighter fitted jacket and a white dress shirt under it to look more confident, while Yuno wears a fancy black dress. This is the first point in the story where Yuki begins to kill relentlessly alongside Yuno.
  • Ayame and Kiri-chan from Ga-Rei -Zero-, both are female.
  • Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex:
    • Gouda's goons are always wearing the same dark suit with the same dark grey shirt.
    • The Major sports a spiffy full-suit-and-tie combo in the episode POKER FACE while serving as a bodyguard for Prime Minister Kayabuki and Chief Aramaki.
  • Most of the Magnificent 10 and a few of the good guys from Giant Robo take part in this trope. Alberto the Shockwave is probably the most prominent example.
  • Triela in Gunslinger Girl, another female example. She's a cute looking kid with long pigtails but wears a suit partway through the manga to emulate her handler.
  • Much like Sebastian, Hayate Ayasaki of Hayate the Combat Butler is usually found dressed in a sharp butler suit. The same goes for every other butler such as Klaus, Nonahara, Himuro, and several others. All snappy dressers, all able to dish out brutal beatdowns to anything that threatens their masters/mistresses and friends. Hayate in particular even takes on a more cool, detached attitude as he casually dispatches gunmen, giant robots, and the various weirdos trying to cause him trouble.
  • Sir Integra Fairbrook Wingates Hellsing in Hellsing, who despite the "sir" title is also female. Alucard also has one under his Badass Longcoat. Luke Valentine wears a pristine white one for his assault on the Hellsing manor and gets only a single drop on him through his assault. Until the point he gets to Alucard, that is, and gets stomped.
  • Justified with Kento Nanami from Jujutsu Kaisen as he is a salaryman who wears a nice suit but he is also one of the most powerful sorcerers around, as he can inflict some damage on curses that are higher grade than him. At one point, he almost nearly kills Mahito, a high-level curse.
  • Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple: Saiga, the leader of YAMI. Very snazzy suit, easily one of the most powerful fighters in the series even after being involved in only a single battle.
  • Rei Hououmaru from Kill la Kill wears a white suit jacket. Unusually she combines this with hotpants and fingerless gloves, both also in white, and green-and-rainbow aviators. This is to mimic her boss Ragyo, who has white skin and clothes and rainbow patterned hair. She ditches the outfit in the OVA after Ragyo's death.
  • Inspector Verossa Acous from Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS is a heroic example.
    • The Hückebein family from Magical Record Lyrical Nanoha Force are a villainous one, however. Apparently, they are good enough at murder that slaughtering an entire facility of mooks in Chapter 17 didn't leave a single stain on their badass suits.
  • Female example: Rin in Mnemosyne.
  • Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam has Kai Shiden, who's shown to have become a badass reporter and Jame Bond-esque sleuth, as well as having developed a taste in sharp suits. The Day After Tomorrow manga further expound on his exploits in sharp suits.
  • When he isn't dressing up as his sister, Johan from Monster is usually seen in a well-tailored suit (albeit sans necktie).
  • My Hero Academia: All For One, the world's oldest and the most powerful Super Villain, is never seen without an impeccable black business suit. Given the manga's western comic book inspirations, this is probably an intentional shout out to villains like Lex Luthor. All For One's nemesis, All Might also wears a suit when working as a high school teacher.
  • Negima! Magister Negi Magi:
    • Takamichi Takahata is always seen with his suit and tie even when out on missions. He got the habit from his master, Gateau Kagura Vandenberg.
    • Setsuna and Kaede also suit up on occasion.
    • Jack Rakan trashing the Quirky Miniboss Squad while wearing a tux probably counts.
    • What, no Kurt Godel?
    • Even Negi pulls it off, the suit becomes part of his demon form!
  • One Piece:
    • Most of CP9, especially Rob Lucci, complete with the suit getting taken apart as the fight goes on. He also wears a top hat.
    • Admiral Kizaru wears a yellow striped (maybe a bit loud) suit; looks pretty sharp.
    • Former Admiral Aokiji has a more down-to-earth white suit with a navy blue shirt, although he sometimes works without the coat (he still carries it around). He ditched the suit look after leaving the Marines.
    • Captain "Black Cage" Hina, in the woman-in-a-mannish-suit category.
      • High-ranking Marines in general tend to wear pretty badass suits.
    • On the side of the good guys, Sanji's usual getup tends to be suits. The entire crew did when they initially raided Shiki's fortress in One Piece Film: Strong World.
    • Capone Bege and his Firetank pirates all dress like mafia gang; as his name suggests, Capone Bege especially looks the part.
    • Doflamingo used to wear one when he was younger.
  • The Blizzard Group from One-Punch Man are all (apart from their leader) dressed in traditional suits, including their female members. They may not be as powerful as the main characters we follow, but they still are a group of B-Class heroes who put their lives on the line to deal with powerful monsters.
  • Reborn from Reborn! (2004). Isn't he just the cutest little mobster?
    • Tsuna and his Guardians as well.
  • Tuxedo Mask in Sailor Moon wears, well, a tuxedo, Domino Mask, top hat, and Badass Cape.
  • A cover of The Seven Deadly Sins shows the Holy Knights wearing suits. It's really badass.
  • Soul Eater most obviously has Death the Kid, but Maka's uniform might also count, not to mention the positively Mafia-like black pinstripe suit Soul wears in his Black Bug Room with the grand piano.
    • Mosquito is always wearing a suit and is fully capable of going One-Winged Angel on Death the Kid, nearly killing him in the process.
  • SPY×FAMILY: The world's best superspy, Loid Forger aka Twilight, is normally seen wearing his iconic green three-piece suit during his missions.
  • In Tokyo Ghoul, this is the standard uniform for Ghoul Investigators. They dress like normal officer workers, usually covering up with a white Badass Long Coat when out in the field. Female Investigators tend to favorite modest heels and pencil skirts with their suits. The vast majority are Badass Normals that can go up against dangerous Ghouls and win.
    • Yamori and his underlings favor white suits, and are known for being brutal killers.
  • Yuto Kigai, Seishiro Sakurazuka, and possibly Seiichiro Aoki from X1999.
  • Yu-Gi-Oh!:
    • Kaiba wears one in the Death-T arc which gives him a more regal appearance, unlike his school uniform. He later prefers Badass Long Coats.
    • Pegasus J. Crawford, the creator of Duel Monsters, is wearing his iconic red suit for most of the time, and he was one of Yugi's most difficult opponents to deal with.
    • Dartz, one of the most overpowered characters has a bright suit, but he never duels while wearing it.
    • Siegfried Schröder wears one since he is Kaiba's Unknown Rival. When Haga and Ryuzaki are about to be disqualified (they weren't invited) Siegfried insists the ref let them stay, as he wore his best suit and doesn't want to waste the trouble. He has a phenomenal winning streak until he loses to Kaiba.
  • Yu-Gi-Oh! GX: Edo Phoenix has several copies of his white trademark suit and he wears it anywhere. He is one of Judai's strongest rivals, as he has defeated Judai and Kaiser even before Edo became stronger during the series.

    Comic Books 
  • Whenever the Minutemen from 100 Bullets take a job, expect to see all of them wearing black suits and ties.
  • Astro City features The Gentleman, a seemingly ageless Flying Brick whose costume is a perpetually immaculate tuxedo. He may be the manifestation of a young girl's ideal image of her father, so it's not surprising that he seems perfect and invincible — how else would a little girl want to imagine her father?
  • Batman:
    • Batman's Rogues Gallery's most notables have a... fondness of such sort of sophisticated outfits. Possibly justified, seeing as more than a few of his rogues run criminal empires, and dress for the "Don" look.
    • The Penguin and his trademark tux and top hat.
    • The Joker may originally have been intended as this in the Golden Age, but by the Silver Age, it was pretty firmly established that his iconic pinstripe suit, while undeniably spiffy, really was purple, not just a comics coloring convention representation of "dark grey".
    • The Riddler, especially thanks to Frank Gorshin, tends to wear a green bowler hat and suit adorned with question marks.
    • Two-Face's suits are usually two-toned, reflecting his character.
    • Most of the Red Hoods other than Jason Todd (who instead goes for a biker outfit) sport this look, with the addition of a red hood or helmet, and perhaps a cape. The New 52 Red Hood Gang was full of these.
  • Deconstructed in Blue Estate. Two Italian mobsters are always seen wearing nice suits. Only to have them continually ruined by the work their jobs require (blood, termitesnote , vomit...). One of them even questions why he spends half his paycheck on suits he knows will inevitably be ruined.
  • Walter from The Mask always wears tailored suits, at least one of which is mentioned to run into the several-thousand-dollars range. None of them last long due to the gratuitous violence inflicted by and at him each appearance, but he evidently has a tailor on call because he’ll always have a nice new one by his next appearance.
  • In 2000s-on comics, Moon Knight started wearing a three-piece white suit when his "Mr. Knight" genius-urban-crime-fighter persona was in control.
  • Mr. Beaver: The titular character wears a blue suit and red tie. He's also an ass-kicking anthropomorphic beaver.
  • New Avengers (2015): Sunspot, cunning billionaire, starts decking himself out in a black suit once he became the leader of the New Avengers. After his team switched to the U.S.Avengers, they all attended a socialite party where the team (women included) were all tidied up in suit and tie.
  • Nick Fury's early spy adventures in Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. (Strange Tales) had him and his fellow S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, particularly those who followed him in from the Howling Commandos, dressed in business suits. In time, this gave way to him becoming more associated with the SHIELD blue and white catsuit, but it still pops back now and then.
  • Sam from Sam & Max: Freelance Police wears his suit with a striped tie and fedora.
  • Spider-Man:
  • Wonder Woman (1987): For his Post-Crisis iteration, Angle Man was a Reality Warper Gentleman Thief who dressed in suits, hats, and ties, though later writers put him back in the green and yellow spandex.
  • In the Chris Claremont-era X-Men comics, Sebastian Shaw, the Black King of the Hellfire Club, always wore the height of Eighteenth-century fashion, complete with ruffled collars and sleeves. Most Hellfire high-rankers wore this style while meeting at the club (the men did— the women dressed less formally) but Shaw kept up the look all the time.

    Fan Works 
  • All For Luz, All For One, his world's oldest and the most powerful Supervillain, is never seen without an impeccable black business suit in Luz's Mental World. She notes how it's almost like a metaphor, how his appearance and reputation projects the image as if he were seemingly spotless and flawless.
    • Luz also wears one as part of her vigilante costume.
  • In the Slashfic of The Matrix called: Bringing Me To Life, just like in the film Smith wears a black suit exclusively during the first few chapters and a green one in a few of the flashback fight scenes. In later chapters, he sometimes trades his black suit-jacket in for a dark-blue, jean jacket from Neo.
  • Averted in The Return of What If?, when Neo’s actions force the Machines to deploy a new type of Agent who are better able to understand humans on an emotional level, to the point of dressing in more casual clothing that could be mistaken for hacker attire.
  • In The Butcher Bird, C is typically dressed to the nines — though after a fight it's usually wrecked, while the Fae also wear impeccable black suits.
  • Terroma of Forum of Thrones wears the story's equivalent of a nice suit, which are elegant, colourful clothes befitting of a rich Braavosi merchant, even when he fights to the death.
  • Hunting Series a crossover of Supernatural and The Matrix has Smith always wearing his black suit.
    • Along with John, Dean and Sam along with Neo and Jess across the series when they pretend to be from the F.B.I and other government agencies.
      • The Agents, like Brown, Jones, and Moore who always have to wear their dark-green suits.
  • In Soldier Wars, suits are the mode of fashion most preferred by main characters Eli, Umi and Maki. Their use is justified, since their targets for assassination are all people with status, and they have to look the part to get close enough to kill them, though there is a limit to the niceness of the suits they wear. The formal tux Umi is accidentally stuck in for some of the story is shown to get in her way when she has to fight.
  • The Great Alicorn Hunt: Rarity's royal guard contingent, "The Radiant Guard" are some of the best-dressed ponies in Equestria. They are also "Black Flag Specialist" plainclothes security. Rarity's hoofmaidens could fold Big Mac into a small box without breaking a sweat.
  • The Road Not Taken has Jem'Hadar attack Deep Space 9 during a diplomatic summit, forcing Captain Kurland to fight his way clear (with help from security forces and Ambassador S'taass) in his dress whites.
  • In Chapter 57 of This Bites!, assassin team CP9 discusses this trope. The World Government gave them several plausible answers for why they had to be dressed professionally while on the job, but they all realized that the real reason was because it's cooler to kick ass while looking good doing it.
  • Republic City Blues: Korra wears a suit to formal events as Asami's bodyguard; and as an ex-cop, waterbender, and sharpshooter, she can kick plenty of ass.
  • RWBY: Epic of Remnant: After being stranded in the world of Remnant, Lancelot eventually trades in his suit of armor for a black suit and purple tie, and kicks ass in it.
  • A Diplomatic Visit: In chapter 11 of the sequel Diplomat at Large, when Discord shows up to do his Duties as Champion of Chaos and reclaim the Power of Hatred from Adagio Dazzle, he appears as a human in a zoot suit and a wide-brimmed hat. Carrying the Twilicane.
  • In My Hero Academia Villain!Deku fics, it's an almost universal rule that Izuku's villain costume will consist of a sharp black suit, green tie, and black gloves. Usually, this is because where in canon his hero costume was based on All Might, his villain costume will be mimicking All For One.
  • In This And That, after being made the Patron Librarian of Psychology, Powder's outfit is updated into a pink and blue tailored suit and tie with a long coat, though she personally dislikes it due to it making her look like a resident of Piltover.
    • Suho and Bob also count, due to their Assistant Librarian uniform matching their respective patron's main outfit.
  • In Death Eaters Are Sheep, Voldemort hires Muggle tailors so he can invoke the trope. Well, he acts like he's hiring them, but in reality he kills them to avoid paying. People are beginning to notice the tailors' disappearance.

    Films — Animation 
  • In Cats Don't Dance Max, Darla Dimple's utterly massive bodyguard, muscle, butler, and dragon, wears a slick suit, bow tie, and white gloves, which he somehow manages to keep utterly immaculate despite making his appearance by smashing through the wall and being so powerful he's closer to a force of nature than a human being. He even takes a moment to present a brush and sweep dust off of his shoulder after having disposed of a threat to Darla's career.

    Films — Live-Action 
  • Just about any black-and-white gangster or detective film, due to the more formal fashion standards of the time:
  • The heroes (and a lot of the Mooks) in Heroic Bloodshed films.
  • Act of Valor: Invoked by Senior Chief when he interrogates Christo on his yacht.
  • The Adjustment Bureau have the Bureau Agents, who are never seen without their classy suits, even while adjusting people and chasing David Norris. Even the hat is important!
  • Frank Lucas in American Gangster plays this one almost painfully straight; the one time he goes out in public (under protest) wearing a pimp coat instead of an understated business suit turns out to be his downfall.
  • The Avengers
    • Pretty much the only time that Loki isn't in his Asgardian garb is when he goes to a museum gala in Stuttgart, Germany, wearing a fancy tux (with green and gold accents, natch.) Loki then proceeds to rip out some dude's eye and terrorize a crowd of civilians.
    • Agent Coulson. His suit is always impeccable, and he seemingly never loses his cool.
  • In Big Game, Morris is a Secret Service agent — a suit comes with the office. He's also a supreme badass, capable of taking down two men aiming at him with one pistol before any of them even thinks of squeezing the trigger.
  • Subverted in The Blues Brothers, where the brothers wear black suits, but it's soon revealed that those are the only clothes they own. They wear them to bed, into the sauna, etc. Unsurprisingly, they smell bad. Lampshaded in the sequel when Elwood tells his new partners why they have to dress the same way.
  • Collateral: Assassin Vincent wears a steel-gray suit and tie but loses the tie as the situation grows out of his control. Michael Mann explains in the DVD Commentary that his look is designed to be as unremarkable as possible. So he's not just a Badass In A Nice Suit but dressed to get away with murder.
  • Jimmy from Dance of the Dead is a younger version than most but was wearing his prom tux when the zombies rise and has it on throughout the film.
  • The Dark Knight Trilogy:
    • In Batman Begins: Henri Ducard goes into hand-to-hand combat in a suit and tie.
    • In The Dark Knight:
      • Harvey Dent is a heroic version until his Face–Heel Turn, at which point the suit is horrifying.
      • Bruce Wayne disarms a thug with a shotgun pointed at him at point-blank range then disassembles the shotgun.
  • In Die Hard, Hans Gruber points out that he's wearing an expensive suit from the same tailor as the one worn by the Japanese business executive.
  • Storm Shadow from GI Joe The Rise Of Cobra dons a spiffy white suit sans tie in the Paris segment, while James McCullen though not being a fighter does have a nice dark suit.
  • The entire Inception team gets into this at various stages, including Ariadne. Some particularly notable ones are Cobb, Arthur, and Saito in black tie at their first meeting, the hotel dream levels, and Arthur's famous hallway fight, in which he wears a three-piece suit and removes only the jacket.
  • Lao Che in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom poisons Indy while wearing a suit with a white bowtie, even.
  • In Invitation to a Gunfighter, Jules Gaspard d'Estaing cements his status as a Cultured Badass by wearing a finely tailored black suit that makes him look more like a Professional Gambler than a gunfighter, and makes him stand out admidst the roughly garbed yokels.
  • James Bond, much of the time at least. He even has the famous "fix my tie" maneuver sometimes. Also, adjusting his cufflinks in the middle of landing in a train wreck.
  • The Robber in Jewel Robbery is never without his white-tie suit.
  • John Wick marks Keanu Reeves returning to sharp-dressed sharpshooting — once he begins his Roaring Rampage of Revenge in John Wick, he goes black-tie (worn over a ballistic vest, to be fair) and never goes back. The sequel shows him in Rome getting a new suit tailored that's even nicer than the first! This one doubles as Bulletproof Vest because the body armor is sewn into the suit. In the third movie the Elder even gives John a new suit as a gift to signify he's returned to the assassin community.
  • Kingsman: The Secret Service:
    • This is the very definition of a Kingsman agent. Justified, as the organisation started out as and still uses a high-class Saville Row tailor shop as their public front. The suits themselves are badass since they're bulletproof.
    • Eggsy. To the extent that finally donning the suit was how he prepared to infiltrate the supervillain's lair, illustrating the end of his training and the beginning of his life as a Kingsman. The suit itself helps him be more badass, being bullet-proof.
  • In The Last Witch Hunter, the eponymous witch hunter spends most of the movie in shirt and suit trousers.
  • Jef Costello, the hitman from Jean-Pierre Melville's crime picture Le Samouraï never leaves his apartment unless he's dressed in a suit, tie, rain coat, and perfectly positioned fedora. For that extra bit of class, he always puts on white gloves before a kill. Jef cares as much about his appearance as he does his alibi.
  • Let's Get Harry (1986). American construction workers go down to Colombia to rescue a colleague kidnapped by terrorists. They want to hire a mercenary to advise them; cue a Terrible Interviewees Montage of Miles Gloriosus-types dressed in camouflage before they get to a suit-wearing Robert Duvall, who turns out to be the Consummate Professional they hire.
  • The Matrix. Agents are The Men in Black wearing conservative suits. Resistance fighters typically wear flashy black suits and shades, juxtaposing their drab, worn clothing in the real world.
  • The Men in Black: the eponymous agents wear black suits as a uniform and wear sunglasses to shield themselves from their memory-stealing devices. When Agent Jay first dons his uniform, he says, "You know what the difference is between you and me? (Glasses Pull) I make this look good!"
  • Mahogany, played by Vinnie Jones, the silent butcher/serial killer who makes short work of New York subway passengers in The Midnight Meat Train. Despite his gruesome activities, he is always impeccably groomed and dressed; a fact emphasized when Leon, the photographer who has been following him, ultimately confronts and kills him, only to realize that he was only the procurer for a group of ancient demonic beings who, deprived of their delivery man, inform Leon of his new job, which he performs in exactly the same suit and hairdo.
  • Many of Tarantino's characters: most of the cast of Reservoir Dogs (at least on the day of the heist), Jules and Vincent in Pulp Fiction, the Crazy 88s in Kill Bill...
  • Nicolas Cage's character in Snake Eyes changes from his sharkskin jacket to a suit jacket as a symbol that he's stopped messing about and is serious.
  • Tango from Tango and Cash usually wears expensive business suits. His commander even calls him on that.
  • Jason Statham's Frank Martin in The Transporter. In the second film he even has a spare one in his car to deal with the inevitable (non-fanservice) Clothing Damage.
  • Justified by the titular The Tuxedo, which is in fact the ultimate spy gadget, providing its wearer with every possible skill you'd need for a spy mission, from gun assembly to kung fu, to wicked dance moves.
  • In The Untouchables (1987), Eliot Ness is the classiest member of the group thanks to his black suit (provided by the very Giorgio Armani no less!). Though most of the time he wears a Badass Longcoat, it's in the rooftop chase scene where he finally has some action with it.
  • Sebastian Shaw in X-Men: First Class, as well as his goons Azazel and Riptide.

    Literature 
  • Special Agent Aloysius X.L. Pendergast anyone?
  • Butler from Artemis Fowl is never described as wearing anything other than a suit, as befits his professionalism, and will beat up almost anyone who threatens Artemis, whom he is charged with protecting
  • The four main characters from The Bad Guys series wear black suits and ties, a trait that lingers from their original villain days. It keeps them looking like a group, while also keeping their gang-like qualities that they had from the past.
  • Skothiam Felcraft and Denman Malkuth of Dance of the Butterfly are both wealthy, very well-dressed men. They also possess amazing martial skills and do not hesitate to use them on the deadly foes they encounter in the story.
  • Assassins in Discworld. If they don't wear black, they reason, they might as well just be thugs who kill people for money.note 
    • Havelock Vetinari is by education an assassin and has acted like one at least once in canon. Notably, on that occasion, he actually wore dark green (he failed camouflage because the instructor complained that he'd never seen Vetinari in class).
    • Crysoprase the troll godfather wears very nice suits. When he first appears in Soul Music, it's noted that his suit may appear badly-tailored, but it isn't; "even a troll with no clothes on looks fundamentally badly tailored". Since most trolls just wear a loincloth to conceal whatever trolls have that they want to conceal, Crysoprase's dress sense becomes even more notable.
  • The Dresden Files:
    • "Gentleman" Johnny Marcone wears nothing but hand-tailored suits and tuxedos are his standard wardrobe. He may be a mere Badass Normal in a World of Badass, but he faces down everyone else through sheer intimidation and influence.
    • On the side of evil, we have Nicodemus Archleone, who also has the standard attire of a suit. His one fashion deviation is that instead of a tie, he wears the noose that Judas used to hang himself with, as it grants him standard-issue invulnerability.
    • Also, Dresden himself, a few times. Notably, in Death Masks, when he attends a high-class auction with Susan, in Cold Days when he attends the birthday party that Mab threw for him, in Skin Game when he goes to a high-end party to meet someone, and the short story "I Was A Teenage Bigfoot." Also, in each case, Harry shows he is a badass by having some sort of fight in each place in the novels, and utterly intimidating the Monster of the Week in the short story.
    • Warden Chandler is never seen in anything but impeccable tailored suits, often with a bowler hat. On the badass subject, he's regularly assigned duties like guarding the Ways to Edinburgh, all by himself. Duties which are typically done by a team of 5 or 6 wardens. Dresden nicknames him Steed.
  • The Hearts We Sold: The Daemon appears as an ordinary, well-dressed gentleman, but is in fact an extremely powerful demon who is capable of great magical feats.
  • James Bond is mostly seen fighting in a dark blue tropical suit or tuxedo, and is especially adept at CQC while wearing a suit. However, he does wear suitable gear in different environments, such as woodland camouflage gear during a forest stakeout or black tactical ski gear when escaping from Piz Gloria.
  • Grey in Knights of the Borrowed Dark is introduced wearing a very close-fitted and stylish charcoal suit, complete with a sword-shaped tiepin - it's very soon discovered that the sword is not an exaggeration, and he gleefully defeats an Eldritch Abomination using a Dangerous Forbidden Technique. After a nasty case of the Despair Event Horizon, one of the many changes in Grey is that he puts aside his suits for battered training gear.
  • Martín Fierro: When he is conscripted to the Frontier, Fierro invokes this trope by taking his best clothes, his best horse and all the instruments that are needed for the horse. He is not only showing off, but all of those clothes and instruments are also needed for a Gaucho who is going to fight someone, he is being professional about his work fighting the natives.
  • MARZENA: Marian always wears a black suit, whether it's to give a Breaking Speech or for breaking a couple of fingers. She probably has a whole wardrobe filled with these. There's also Livia who likes to wear a grey suit, and Helena a blue one.
  • Subverted in Neverwhere. Croup and Vandemar are contract killers who wear suits, but the suits look like they were made by someone who had only had a suit described to them and thus look creepily off. Not helping matters was that the suits were on Croup and Vandemar, who are so simultaneously human and not as to be described only as "human-shaped".
  • Percy Jackson and the Olympians: Zeus. The king of Olympus fought against the Titans in his youth, and personally led the Olympians into battle against Typhon, and is shown wearing dark, pinstriped suits.
  • The Phantom of the Opera: In the original novel and almost all incarnations, the eponymous character is a terrifying badass with some good fashion sense!
    "The ghost had appeared to them in the shape of a gentleman in dress-clothes."
  • Please Don't Tell My Parents I'm a Supervillain: Upon gaining physical superpowers, Reviled promptly acquires nice suits to wear, including while fighting.
  • DCI Nightingale in Rivers of London. Peter often remarks on his smart if somewhat old fashioned dressing habits, mostly his hand-made shoes and bespoke suits. And he definitely is a badass. Just ask the Night Witch from the 4th book. Or those Tiger tanks he blew up with his fireballs.
  • Simon Templar, AKA The Saint, favours Savile Row suits when not in disguise; one book specifies that he prefers the real-life firm of Anderson & Sheppard. He's also a Lovable Rogue vigilante who has come out on top in scraps with everything from Nazis to Prohibition-style gangsters to the actual Mafia in their home country, usually in ways where the law either can't pin it on him or has to reluctantly admit that he's actually made their lives easier by getting involved. Fittingly, playing the Saint on TV for several years was a major step on the road towards Roger Moore playing a certain other tuxedo-clad English badass.
  • Six of Crows: Kaz. Bright patterns are popular in the Barrel; Kaz wears well-tailors, dark-colored suits to mock the merchant class.
  • Kit Carson of Time Scout habitually wears a rumpled suit when working at his hotel. Anyone who goes downtime has a better than even chance of wearing a very nice suit.
  • Valor's Choice by Tanya Huff has a company of Confederation Marines having to fight a Last Stand in their dress uniforms (they were escorting a diplomatic contingent during negotiations to bring a new species into the Confederation). Fortunately for them, the Confederation military was smart enough to equip even the dress uniforms with some armor protection.

    Live Action TV 
  • 24: Though usually he's seen in more street attire, Jack Bauer has had to dress up a bit sometimes while on assignment (most notably when he infiltrates the Russian consulate in Season 6 and during the White House invasion in Season 7). Curtis Manning also wore a suit for most of Season 4 where he first appeared, which coincidentally, happened to be the season, he was most badass in. He typically wore combat gear in subsequent seasons.
  • All the male S.H.I.E.L.D agents on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. except for Fitz the genius engineer, who prefers plaid shirts and cozy sweaters. Agent Ward also likes to hang out in tee-shirts, although he gets into a suit for missions. Some of the women too, but not the ones on the main team (Agent May prefers black leather that could pass as a Trinity cosplay, Sky prefers to be more casual). Simmonds' outfit could arguably fit the trope since it is something a doctor or chemist would wear to work (and she is the biochem/medicine expert): but it's not a conventional three-piece suit and tie. Fitz and Simmonds do don these when they go to The Hub.
  • The F.I.R.M. from Airwolf. Especially Archangel.
  • Alias: Julian Sark is a consummate professional, and he is rarely seen without a fine suit.
  • This trope was extremely common in American crime dramas of the 60s and 70s, particularly in representing characters from organized crime, who would never go anywhere, including an outdoor worksite, without putting on a full suit and tie. This trope could easily be called Wise Guys in Ties.
    • Lampshaded (unintentionally) in "The Frame," a very early episode of Mission: Impossible, where the team infiltrates a mob meeting at the boss's home and a major plot point hinges on one character getting spilled on and being sent upstairs to change into an entirely new suit, which the boss subsequently compliments him on.
  • Marcus Hamilton in the last season of Angel, who was more or less the Terminator with etiquette. After being told his friends were running from "a tall, well-dressed..." and then Hamilton bursting upon the scene, Angel remarked, "Wow. He really is well-dressed." The season previous, Gunn attended a fancy party, and in order to blend had to wear a suit... and then had to beat up a bunch of warrior monk-types, which he lamented would get blood on it. (It didn't, though. He's that good.) In a minor Moment Of Awesome, he flips one mook over his head and fixes his tie back into place before he even lands.
  • In Auction Kings, Jamie always wears the strangest suits. He also beat Paul in a rematch of The American Revolution... IE — an arm-wrestling match.
  • Quintessential British Gentleman Agent John Steed of The Avengers (1960s) combines this trope with a hat and Parasol of Pain.
  • Police Commissioner Frank Reagan of Blue Bloods invariably wears very nice three-piece suits and ties while working, and though he's at this point mostly a Retired Badass he once kills a rapist for threatening his daughter while wearing it.
  • Every male character on Boardwalk Empire, in gorgeous '20s-era three-piece suits.
  • The Gentlemen from the Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode "Hush" float around ripping people's hearts out while dressed in sharp black suits.
  • Michael Westen of Burn Notice, when not undercover is almost always seen with an Armani suit and his signature designer shades. Never mind that in Miami's weather that suit would probably kill him, it just looks that awesome.
    • He's does tend toward polo shirts when not "on the clock". It's a good look for him.
    • In one particular episode, Michael, Sam, and Fiona dress in all black Armani to give a similar impression to that uniforms give in the battlefield. That is, the impression that one belongs to a larger organization and of unified force. They succeed, of course. Also, they look fantastic.
    • The show is filmed on location in Miami, and Jeffrey Donovan is a martial arts expert who does most of his own stunts; so he really is being that badass, in that suit, in that weather.
  • All the FBI agents except for Reid and Garcia (and sometimes Rossi) on Criminal Minds, for well...obvious reasons. A fair number of the police chiefs rock these as well if they aren't wearing uniforms. Many of the smarter and more well-organized unsubs have them as well: unless they use some other type of uniform to do their dastardly work. You can tell they're about to win when the suit jackets get replaced by bulletproof vests, although in reality policemen (or agents) wearing bulletproof vests usually DO wear jackets. Although this last is justified in the case of Morgan or JJ since they are skilled in hand-to-hand and suit jackets tend to restrict arm movements.
    • Though they're all FBI agents (and all badass), Aaron Hotchner is the only one on the team to consistently wear a suit throughout the show. He only takes off the jacket when he switches it out for a Kevlar vest. And in a handful of very early episodes, Derek Morgan played this trope before opting for more casual dress.
  • ''CSI: NY: Mac, being not only a detective but also the head of the Crime Lab, almost always wears a suit (complete with tie in Season 1, but Stella convinces him to ditch it in the last episode thereof). More extreme examples are:
    • In Episode 2.13, "Risk," Mac and Lindsay are called to a crime scene that Danny is already working. Mac shows up in a tux, having been at a benefit for the mayor. Lindsay arrives wearing a formal dress since she was at the opera. Danny makes a comment about being underdressed.
    • In a later episode, Mac chases down and arrests a purse snatcher while dressed in a tux again; he's about to attend another formal event.
  • Duke Watari from Cutey Honey The Live. Whatever you do, DON'T get blood on it.
  • Daredevil:
    • Wilson Fisk wears custom-made suits with inner linings that make them functionally lightweight armor, making this actually practical.
    • Frank Castle normally wears black leather jackets and clothing when on the street. But when he's put in a suit prior to taking the stand at his trial, Foggy comments, "Frank's wearing a suit. He looks better than I ever have, and he's not even wearing a tie!"
  • On Doctor Who:
    • The Master sometimes wore a black suit and tie (instead of his customary black Nehru suit), especially when he started the story posing as a human.
    • The Silence (presumably deliberately) give this impression. Up close it starts to look like it's actually their skin, however. That or they haven't heard of dry cleaning. Or the Silence planted the idea of wearing suits in our head. That's why suits are considered as classy because that's what the Silence's body looks like.
    • The Doctor himself can be quite a snappy dresser (depending on incarnation). Of note: Doctors One and Three, whose suits were old-fashioned but would've looked nice in their eras of origin; the Tenth Doctor sported a pinstripe suit and Badass Longcoat; the Eleventh preferred tweed and bow tie; the Twelfth Doctor's primary outfit is a stylish callback to both One and Three, although he's just as comfortable in a hoodie.
  • Dollhouse: In classic MIB style, all the handlers are, in Topher's words, "security guards in very lovely suits." Boyd and Dominic look especially good when having Epic Battle Boredom.
    • Alpha counts too when he starts wearing them in Season 2.
  • Joan Watson from Elementary begins dressing this way as the seasons go by. As she grows more into her own as a detective she switches to wearing suits and ties.
  • The Hands of Blue from Firefly, though they only appeared in two episodes and a comic.
  • García!: Elite agent García remains impeccably dressed in a tailored suit even when doing fieldwork.
  • Gotham: Resident schemer Oswald “The Penguin” Cobblepot spends most of his screentime impeccably dressed, regularly outmaneuvering and defeating others, both mentally and sometimes physically.
  • Put simply, villains from Heroes seem to love this trope. We have:
    • Mr. Linderman, from Season 1.
    • Adam Monroe from Season 2 (who really pulls it off).
    • Arthur Petrelli from Season 3 (who doesn't). Maury Parkman, too.
    • Noah Bennet wore nothing but suits for Season 1, and a large chunk of Season 3.
    • Suits were the default clothes for Nathan in Season 1, and most of Season 3.
    • Sylar also attempts this in Volume 3 and does about as well as Arthur.
    • Finally, though this may be stretching it, Danko from Volume 4 wore suit pants with his leather jacket.
  • Barney Stinson on How I Met Your Mother. Suit up!
  • Harmon Rabb, Jr. on JAG. Justified because he is a Navy officer on active duty.
  • Mitsuzane Kureshima of Kamen Rider Gaim was badass enough to qualify for this once he got to wear a suit.
    • Mitsuzane's older brother, Takatora is never seen wearing something else than a business suit and is as a badass as one can get in the series.
    • Yoko Minato also wears a suit, and is a skilled fighter even outside her Rider form.
  • Kamen Rider Ex-Aid has Kuroto and Masamune Dan, Magnificent Bastard one like another and Hiiro after joining Masamune and pulling an Evil Costume Switch.
  • Kamen Rider Saber has Touma Kamiyama, the titular hero, who's always clad in a dapper suit and hat.
  • In The Mentalist, titular character and protagonist Patrick Jane is never seen outside of his signature three-piece suit and waistcoat variant... Seriously. He even takes naps (which he does very often,) and straight-up goes to bed in his suits. The show seems to imply that these suits, dress shirts, and a single pair of worn brown shoes are all the clothes he owns.
  • Detective Chief Inspector Tom Barnaby of Midsomer Murders insists on this while at work, and once sternly reminds his assistant that one does not investigate the death of a man without bothering to put on a tie first.
  • Once Upon a Time has Mr. Gold always dress in a suit during his time in Storybrooke, and, at least in the first season, he's the most powerful person in town.
  • Patriot: Discussed and defied. The leading candidate for the presidency of Iran has noted that secret services agents are too distracted by the sex appeal of wearing nice suits. He makes sure his personal security wear stupid-looking uniforms, and his elite bodyguards must also have unattractive haircuts.
  • Most of the men of Peaky Blinders, particularly members of the title gang itself. Truth in Television, as none of them had a lot of money, but they were well known for their impeccable suits.
  • Person of Interest. Pretty much all Detective Carter needs to hear in a situation is "a guy in a nice suit" to know it is John Reese's doing. The one time he was spotted in a leather jacket, she mused that the suit must be at the dry cleaners. Eventually, the FBI, the US government and the criminal underworld slap him with the vigilante moniker of "the Man in the Suit". This causes a problem when the FBI finally captures Reese after a shoot-out...with three well-dressed Corporate Samurai types, so the next couple of episodes involve them trying to figure out which Badass In A Nice Suit is the man they're after.
  • Power Rangers Dino Charge: Heckyl does not look particularly dangerous even in the nice suit he wears, but he is very good at convincing people to think exactly that.
  • Simon Templar in The Saint.
  • He's a Man of Wealth and Taste but Smallville's Lionel Luthor is definitely this as well, wearing his suit the way the Superheroes wear their uniforms. For that matter so is his son Lex. And Clark's evil, Alternate Universe twin, Ultraman. Needless to say, these two tropes tend to overlap a lot on Smallville.
  • Zig-zagged in The Sopranos, the mobsters like to wear vulgar sportswear most of the time but they dress up according to their fancy businessmen status when the occasion requires it.
  • Most characters in Suits, as one would suspect from the title. Nearly all the characters either work at high-powered legal firms or are CEO-level clients of those firms, though, so it's pretty much Truth in Television; that's what those sort of people actually wear to work.
  • Supernatural:
    • Some of the angels (Castiel, Uriel, and Zachariah) are always shown wearing suits. Castiel scores extra points with his Badass Longcoat.
      • Hell, all the angels. There's only one or two that are ever seen out of a suit.
    • Death and most Reapers wear these.
    • Any time a demon possesses a businessman. Crowley, like Castiel, gains bonus points for his own Badass Longcoat.
    • Some of Sam and Dean's disguises, such as when they dressed as Homeland Security agents.
  • The Thick of It: Malcolm Tucker looks remarkably un-scary — even emasculated — in casual clothes. Put the man in a suit, however, and he'll chew you the fuck out.
  • Given the 1930s setting of The Time In Between, nearly all of the espionage agents are impeccably dressed gentlemen who are also perfectly capable of taking action — physical or diplomatic — if necessary.
  • Ianto Jones in Torchwood is a Badass Normal who almost always wears a nice suit.
  • Elijah Mikaelson from The Vampire Diaries definitely qualifies.
    • Elijah's brother, Klaus, has his turn in the Season 4 finale. He arrives at graduation in a suit and literally his first action is to decapitate a witch by throwing a graduation cap.
  • White Collar The whole show is this — considering that Peter and Neal are very rarely not in suits when in the thick of the action.
  • Brother Mouzone in The Wire is possibly the epitome of this trope. Not only does he wear an immaculate three-piece suit at all times (with a very sensibly-sized handgun underneath), but also Nerd Glasses and a ''little red bowtie''. But do not underestimate his ability to fuck you up.

    Manhwa 
  • Jue Viole Grace and Khun Aguero Agnes from Tower of God.
  • The page image is from Noblesse, Raizel and those who side with him always dress in nice suits in combat (pictured above). 'Inelegant' is fighting words in noble culture.

    Music 

    Pinball 
  • Naturally, James Bond in Gottlieb's James Bond 007, played by Roger Moore.
  • In a blatant copy of Bond, the male agent in Data East's Secret Service pinball also wears one. He's accompanied by a female partner, who can be seen on the backglass and the playfield wearing a full-length gold dress while shooting at Soviet spies.
  • The mobsters in Capcom's unreleased Kingpin all wear nice suits, often accompanied by matching ties and hats.

    Professional Wrestling 
  • The NWA World Junior Heavyweight Champion, later UWA and IWGP Heavyweight Champion Tatsumi Fujinami was frequently seen in a suit of some kind out of the ring. His son LEONA even more so.
  • The Four Horsemen were always dressed to the nines when they weren't inside the ring, as they lived the life of playboy superstar athletes.
  • Four-time AWA World Heavyweight Champion Nick Bockwinkel frequently cut promos while wearing a suit, tie, and sunglasses.
  • Mr. Fuji, topped off by his nice hat.
  • Big Bubba Rogers, the bodyguard of Jim Cornette, always wore a suit even when wrestling. He later became Big Bossman, the wrestling prison guard.
  • Masahiro Chono was famous for his suit, and his gimmick, which hinted at yakuza ties, didn't help.
  • Swiss Money Holding would all regularly wrestle in dress suits and pants, and shoes, with belts and ties, mixed with actual athletic gear in places.
  • Low Ki once wrestled in a suit at Wrestle Kingdom 7. He apparently took a liking to it as he later wrestled in his suit full time between 2017 and 2018.
  • Evolution, the Spiritual Successor to the Four Horsemen, always dressed sharp as well. Batista retained the look for a while after the stable disbanded and he turned Face.
  • When he isn't wrestling, William Regal almost always has a nice suit.
  • StephanieMcMahon and AJLee respectively fit this mold while they were on-screen authorities.
  • Maxwell Chicago is one of the most over the top examples, a lounge lizard wrestling in a full tuxedo.
  • Donny Brooks and Dylan Dunbar, IWA Texas Alums and ACW Tag Team Champions, better known as Dressed To Kill.
  • Downplayed with NWA wrestler Ricky Ruffin, who discards the suit jacket and tie before matches but still wrestles with the pants and shirt.
  • When Stormie Lee isn't wearing a suit, she's wear some kind of custom made athletic gear made to look like her suits. She also considers herself a mafia queen; she intends to knockoff opponents until she can build a castle on the South Eastern United States.

    Roleplay 
  • In Dawn of a New Age: Oldport Blues, one of the first things that Shooter notices about Agent Travers is how impeccably she's dressed in a suave suit and tie. She follows up by forcing him to aid in her detainment of the protagonists, and demonstrates her physical prowess when she effortlessly takes down a girl with superpowers.
  • Maxwell Lombardi in V4 of Survival of the Fittest. V1 villain Jacob Starr also wore a suit in the early part of the game, before replacing the jacket with a trenchcoat.

    Tabletop Games 
  • Butlers in Maid RPG are this by default, as they're required to wear a nice suit at all times, and they are typically much stronger than the already superhuman maids.
  • Commissars and Inquisitors in Warhammer 40,000 favor comparatively conservative suits and uniforms. The Inquisitors add Powered Armour and tote an Infinity +1 Sword, while Commissars add gold epaulets and huge dictator caps.
    • The Dark Eldar special character Duke Sliscus. Described by Aurelia Malys as "amoral, despicable, and impeccably dressed". Oh, and he's pretty badass too.

    Video Games 
  • Ace Attorney:
    • Phoenix Wright may not be physically badass or able to fight (except in Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3), but he's nonetheless a legendary defense attorney in an impeccable blue suit.
    • Shelly de Killer, a professional assassin in a nice black suit.
  • Akatsuki Blitzkampf: Knowledge Broker Sai shows up wearing an office suit and looks very, very classy when he fights in it.
  • Batman: Arkham City: Bruce Wayne at the beginning. Played quite realistically, as the suit coat gets torn along the shoulder seams, demonstrating how restrictive and, well, unsuited to combat a suit can be.
  • Battleborn: Marquis is a badass robot Battle Butler sniper in a dapper suit attire.
  • BlazBlue: Hazama and Valkenhayn. Hazama switches out the jacket and hat for a hooded cape in his Terumi persona.
  • BoxxyQuest: The Gathering Storm: Anonymous has a snazzy suit and tie that he wears for the whole game, (except for the optional Beach Episode during the epilogue). It seems to be standard issue because all of the other Anons living in his Planet of Steves hometown are wearing identical suits –- even the females.
  • Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2: Makarov is almost always donning his signature tieless suit. Even when massacring an entire airport worth of civilians in order to kickstart World War 3. Although he does cover it with kevlar jacket for that particular job.
  • Castlevania: Across the franchise, any game where Ayami Kojima did the designs will have its lead character dressed in the very height of (somewhat) period-appropriate fashion, although special mention must be made of Alucard, both his dandyish dress from Symphony of the Night and his elegant double-breasted suit, complete with red pocket square, from the Sorrow games.
  • Control: Completing the main storyline earns you the Director's Suit, a prim and proper suit befitting Jesse's new position as the Director of the Federal Bureau of Control. Nothing's stopping you from continuing to fight in it. Solving the roulette Easter Egg gets you a golden version of the same suit.
  • Detroit: Become Human:
    • Connor, who's supposed to evoke the image of a well-dressed professional, most likely to give off the no-nonsense, police officer vibe who is designed to accomplish his mission at all costs. He also has a tendency to adjust his suit and tie after just wiping the floor with someone or after just taking down an entire army of highly trained soldiers in armor with ease, and his interactions in the mirror with himself seem to be of him admiring his suit. Gotta look sharp if he's going to be solving crimes after all.
    • Marcus after he becomes leader. He wears a different variety of nice fashionable outfits by the start of a new chapter in order to blend in before getting his Badass Long Coat. And just like Connor, is just as competent in fighting, but with street fighting brawler techniques instead of using tactical combat.
  • The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind: Gentleman Jim Stacey. He's the Master (Gentleman) Thief of the Vvardenfell branch of the Thieves' Guild and wears a full suit of "extravagant" clothing, making him look quite dapper.
  • Fallout 3: Mr. Burke. While nearly everyone else in Megaton is a dirty, ragged-looking peasant, Burke is rather snazzy in his white suit, fedora, and tortoise-shell glasses. This ends up being because he’s not from Megaton, he’s actually from Tenpenny Tower, a skyscraper where the inhabitants live in luxury.
    Burke: "I just had this suit TAILORED!"
  • Fallout 4: The Ballistic Weave upgrades unlocked by doing sidequests for the Railroad make this a practical option, turning clothing such as suits or dresses into actual functional armor.
  • Final Fantasy VII and Advent Children: All of the Turks except for Reno, who wears his suit as casually as can be done.
  • In Final Fantasy XIV, the Warrior of Light, champion of Eorzea and recognized One-Man Army, can dress in one of many suits if the player so chooses. But a handful are given by the story or major quests.
    • Near the end of Heavensward, Tataru has a bunch of tailors jump the Warrior of Light to take their measurements in preparation for making the Warrior the snazzy Scion Adventurer's set. For the guys, this consists of a white blazer, black slacks, and a neat tie accented by silver accessories along with some High-Class Glass. The girls still get the blazer but trade the slacks for a skirt.
    • At the end of Ameliance's Custom Deliveries she gives you the "Appointed" set of clothes, consisting of a black blazer accessorized with a bronze chain, white tie, a layered Waistcoat of Style, matching halfgloves, delicately embroidered white slacks, and white leather shoes. Should you decide to dye the top a different color, the tie changes color to black to better coordinate with the rest of the outfit.
    • In the 2022 Little Ladies Day event, the Warrior of Light is asked to act as a runway model for an aspiring fashion designer. Should they ask to dress as a seneschal for the event, they'll be decked out in a Best Man's Jacket (a black blazer with a white Classy Cravat) along with dark slacks and shoes as well as white gloves.
  • The Godfather: The Game: Almost all the mobsters wear suits with ties and hats. The Cuneos and Barzinis stay in this trope despite using red and green respectively because they stand by dark shades. Your character initially doesn't have a suit, but you can buy several kinds of coats.
  • God Hand: Belze, the Master of the Four Devas, up until the point where he transforms into a giant demon fly/worm with his own face. Subverted in that not only is he considered an easy boss, but it's a Running Gag that his suit is terrible.
  • Niko in Grand Theft Auto IV. In the later part of the game, the player can buy various high-class outfits, a few of them being business suits.
    • And while we're there, Michael in Grand Theft Auto V also counts, thanks to his lifestyle. Franklin and Trevor can also purchase and wear them. And these are also available for both men and women in the game's online mode. Ever wanted to assault a motorcycle gang in a black dress suit with a matching red blouse and heels?
    • Carl Johnson can dress up pretty dapper in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, once the last store opens up.
  • Guilty Gear has Slayer.
  • Half-Life: The G-Man always wears a suit (and carries a briefcase, just to add to the look), helping him stand out against the generic scientists and security guards of the first game and then the ragtag resistance members of the second. He also remains decidedly professional (whatever his "profession" is) and calm compared to all the other characters.
  • Halo 2 has the Prophet of Regret attack Earth during a medal ceremony held aboard the orbital defense station Cairo, forcing those taking part in the ceremony to go into battle in their dress whites. (The Master Chief excepted: he's wearing his MJOLNIR armor instead.)
    • Johnson gives the fact the Chief attended the award ceremony in full power armor a Lampshade Hanging at the beginning of the cutscene at the beginning of the level.
    Master Chief: You told me there wouldn't be any cameras.
    Johnson: And you told me you were going to wear something nice!
  • Hitman: Agent 47 across the entire series. As a Professional Killer, expensive clothes are one of the few luxuries he can enjoy. In Hitman: Absolution, he even makes a stop at his usual tailor to get a new suit before the big finale.
  • Killer7: Garcian Smith, Mask De Smith (along with a cape and luchador mask), and Dan Smith.
  • The King of Fighters:
    • Robert Garcia is both the primary and foremost example in fighting games in general, being that he was the original sharp-dressed prettyboy archetype. SNK established Robert's character from the very beginning by introducing him as always being dressed to the nines. In each game that followed, SNK further emphasized his lavish style by expanding on his wardrobe of designer suits, luxurious fighting stages, and his suave debonair charm.
    • King made her debut in the same game as Robert and has since become his Distaff Counterpart. Like him, she's never without her tux and is known as both a high-class bartender and a champion level kickboxer. Which is why she's usually the captain of the All Women's Team at the annual King of Fighters tournament.
  • In his appearance as the True Final Boss of AOF2, Geese Howard wore a spiffy suit. Outside the arena, his "present-day" wear is a reddish business suit.
  • Vanessa wears a button-up shirt and a tie. In KoF XI she starts rounds taking off her suit jacket.
  • L.A. Noire. Most of the male main characters, but especially Cole Phelps.
  • League of Legends
    • The Valentines' Day-themed "Debonair" skins, have Jayce, Vi, Ezreal, and Galio in very nice suits.
    • Xin Zhao's "Special Agent" skin gives him a black suit and glasses reminiscent of the secret service.
  • Left 4 Dead 2: Nick the con man wears what he claims to be a $3000 suit during the Zombie Apocalypse. Whether or not he's telling the truth, he does look snazzy.
  • In Library of Ruina, the majority of characters, especially most badasses, wear snazzy suits and ties even when going into bloody melee combat. This is Justified in-universe as incredibly advanced technology allows the creation of fibers just as durable and protective as more 'practical' armor without any of the encumberance, and can even give effects like enhancing strength or making you more agile than normal if you have some exceptionally high-quality fibers (usually made from humans). This makes combat-ready suits just more valuable, especially consdiering the game's urban setting.
  • Par for the course in the Like a Dragon series. With many characters, named or unnamed, major or minor, as long as they are a member of the Yakuza are almost always wearing suits either cheap or expensive. The biggest example is Kazuma Kiryu with his iconic grey/white suit with a maroon dress shirt underneath. During his Lord of the Night days, Goro Majima wore a very snazzy tuxedo both in and out of work as a cabaret club owner.
  • Mass Effect 2:
    • Thane Krios wears what appears to be a space tuxedo. Space leather tuxedo, that is. His design process was long and hard to make him not only have the flair and confidence of an assassin but also look intriguing to women. He even poses in his own personal idle animations.
    • Commander Shepard as well in his Cerberus officer uniform or the formal wear he procures from Kasumi's mission.
      • Likewise in Mass Effect 3 with the formal wear from Kasumi's mission or an Alliance officers uniform.
  • The Matrix: Path of Neo has almost too many examples — there's Neo in a few levels, there's in-Matrix Smith and the Agents, then there are quite a few of the Merovingian's mooks.
  • Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance:
    • Senator Steven Armstrong. He takes off the jacket before the first part of the fight, and midway through, he takes off the shirt.
    • Raiden is also wearing a business suit during the intro cutscene, but he tosses it away before the first battle. Thankfully, you can unlock a slightly different version of the suit (human hands vs gloved cyborg hands, normal shoes vs exposed prehensile cyborg feet) by beating the first level on Very Hard difficulty.
  • No More Heroes: Another Suda 51 character, Henry Cooldown, whether it be a Badass Longcoat or a black and gray suit.
  • Overwatch: Doomfist wore a nice white suit to the Monaco casino in the comic that details his return to power shortly after being freed from prison. Later on in the game, he gets a skin wherein he wears another white suit, complete with Cool Shades, and his Power Fist over one sleeve.
  • PAYDAY: The Heist & PAYDAY 2: The player characters are this (except for Jacket, Bodhi, Rust, and Sangres, who don't wear suits). The basic two-piece suit offers the best concealment and speed ratings, which make it useful for stealth runs. Better armor is unlocked over time, but the characters will still wear their suits underneath it.
  • Perfect Dark: The DarkSim's default outfit is this.
  • Persona:
    • Persona 3 and Persona 4 Golden feature the option to dress all the male characters in tuxedos, with Persona 5 having it available as DLC.
    • As part of his Phantom Thief persona, the Protagonist of Persona 5 sports a fancy black dress suit with an immaculate pocket-handkerchief, a double-buttoned vest, and a classy Badass Longcoat.
    • Lampshaded in Persona 5 Strikers by newcomer Wolf in his first battle:
      Wolf: Although raising a bit o' hell all decked out like this is pretty sweet, I gotta say!
  • Pokémon:
    • Giovanni wears a sharp and badass suit, befitting his role as the boss of the mafia-like Team Rocket.
    • Steven Stone, the Champion of the Hoenn region, wears a dashing new suit in his redesign from Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire.
    • There's also Darach, Lucian, and Riley from the ''Sinnoh region, the latter of whom completes the suit with a fedora. Not to mention the waiters/waitresses and maids...
    • Pokémon Black and White: The Striaton City Gym is based off of a café, so all of its trainers — including its leaders Cilan, Chili, and Cress — dress like waiters. And they don't look half-bad, either.
    • Red suits are the standard dress code for Team Flare from X and Y. Although in-universe, quite a few people actually ridicule them for these tacky suits. Their boss doesn't even wear one, instead wearing a black suit as a more straight example.
    • For her return in Sun and Moon, Anabel dons an impeccable black suit.
    • Ms. Geeta from Scarlet and Violet wears a black suit, befitting her role as both the chairwoman of the Pokémon League and the Top Champion of Paldea.
  • Ratchet & Clank: Chairman Drek dresses like he's from the mafia in a pinstripe suit, and it serves as a contrast to the unappealing visage of a Blarg and makes his height all the more amusing. He's a clever enough businessman to make up for it though.
  • The Reconstruction: Sirush, combined with a hat and extremely formal speech as part of the usual assassin attire.
  • Red Dead Redemption 2: Many players will often make Arthur Morgan wear stylish suits and dress him very dapper and tidying him up. There is almost never a playthrough where no one has not dressed him up as looking like some sort of elegantly dressed gentleman movie star. He also happens to be a very skilled gunslinger and a strong brawler who can beat someone much bigger than him to a bloody pulp and turn them into submissive puppies and give everyone he encounters a run for their money.
  • Resident Evil: Albert Wesker in Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles and Resident Evil 4.
  • Saints Row: The Boss, as well as several gang bosses in the first three games, particularly in the first game.
  • Scarface: The World Is Yours Tony's Enforcer wears a grey suit and tie with shades, while Tony can purchase various tieless suits.
  • In Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey, when Commander Gore is revived by the Mothers as the Ubergestalt, he inexplicably starts wearing a formal suit. He also happens to be far more powerful and intelligent than he was while alive.
  • Street Fighter:
    • Street Fighter III: Urien starts off his introduction in a white business suit before tearing it off to fight. When we meet him again in Street Fighter V, his default costume has him fighting in a black pinstriped suit with a purple shirt.
    • Street Fighter IV: The Crimson Viper wears a business suit with lightning generators in her sleeves and rocket boots disguised as high heels.
  • Suikoden III: Of all the games to find on this page, amidst the medieval-fantasy armor and Rummage Sale Rejects, you will find Yuber, in a dapper, vaguely-Chinese black suit and fedora, gleefully chopping people up.
  • Super Mario Odyssey: Mario and Bowser's wedding outfits are impeccable white suits. The description for Bowser's version lampshade that for a giant turtle monster, he sure cleans up nicely. In addition to that, Mario can also wear a black tux and top hat (based on Super Mario All-Stars), and a nice pinstripe suit. Updates later added the suit Pauline's backup musicians wear and one based on Topper the Broodal's green suit.
  • Tales Series: Formal suits are a common type of costume available to the male party members.
  • Team Fortress 2: The Spy wears a pinstriped suit by default, but it's customizable with a plethora of cosmetic options available, and rack after rack of hats to top it all off.
    Spy: You got blood on my suit!
  • Tekken: Brothers Kazuya Mishima and Lee Chaolan tend to wear very lavish suits while fighting: Kazuya wears a dark violet suit with long, angular tails, and Lee wears a black tuxedo with a rose on the lapel and silk gloves. It makes some sense, given their father Heihachi's attire (fur-lined tiger greatcoat with white vest-pants combo). Others who dress in this manner in later games include Baek Doo San (three-piece suit and hat), Feng Wei (mafia-style suit and open-collared shirt), and Anna Williams (cocktail dress). Character Customization also allows many other characters, both male or female, to wear similarly badass suits.
  • Touken Ranbu: Any sword who is part of the Osafune school.
  • Wadanohara: Most of the male characters wear stylish suits and are able to hold their own in combat, including the humanoid form of Sal, The Heavy and primary antagonist.
  • Warframe:
    • It can be difficult to tell with the default colour scheme, but Frost seems to fit this trope and combine it with Badass Longcoat. It's easier to notice on Frost Prime or by changing normal Frost's colours.
    • Tying with Frost as the most well-dressed Tenno in the game is Limbo. And to add to the look, he comes with a variety of helmets he can take off, including his default helmet, which gives the appearance of a suave-looking gentleman. Even more so with the inclusion of the Vistyxio Skin which gives him a white suit and a nicer-looking stovepipe hat.

    Webcomics 
  • Dead Winter: Black Monday Blues, both before the sickness hits and after he gets a chance to resupply.
  • Dogfight has the members of Amaranth fight while wearing suits, probably as agents of justice. Likewise, Baskerville also has a fancy outfit when he goes killing.
  • Ellen goes this route while trying to be Elliot's Evil Twin in the first Sisters arc in El Goonish Shive. While she's not that great at being evil, she has her badass moments.
  • Gabriel Caine from EVIL definitely evokes this trope, although his is a bit more casual with an unbuttoned collar and loosened tie.
  • Turner of Godslave wears a really nice suit and can kill people easily with his Super-Strength and power to shapeshift his limbs. Before his fight with Edith, though, he ditches the suit, to have free use of his powers.
  • Homestuck
    • Each protagonist makes himself new clothes after acquiring enough alchemy ingredients. John gets a rather dashing teal suit, but Dave later one-ups him by making a tuxedo, complete with bowtie!
      • Dave has at least three outfits that could qualify for this trope, including the tuxedo.
    • The Midnight Crew, who live this trope with a healthy dash of noir and more than a touch of sociopathy (although in the case of Clubs Deuce, the "badass" part is... debatable). Diamonds Droog especially has numerous backup suits.
    • Droog's counterpart, the Draconian Dignitary, in the Alpha universe admires Dad's clothing so much, he makes it mandatory for the population to wear it.
    • Same thing goes for the Felt, especially with Doc Scratch as through Ectobiology, Scratch was created with a magic Cueball and Lil' Cal, who had a green suit made for him by Kanaya.

    Web Original 
  • Anonymous is often depicted as a hollow tuxedo or black business suit.
  • Dreamscape: Well he's by no means a badass, Boru is still a villain. Despite being a simpleton, he wears a swell purple suit with a red tie.
  • The Shadow and the Watcher from KateModern, and Tez On Toast towards the end of The Last Work.
  • Virgil, Bree's Watcher and sometimes Lucy, all from lonelygirl15.
  • Malcolm from The Nostalgia Critic gets a lot of this character type. Doug has teased that the reason for this is that he looks good in them.
  • The Slender Man; at least one goon suspected he/it wasn't actually wearing a suit but had a very strangely-proportioned (and colored) body (for instance, his neck actually drooped like a vulture's, giving the appearance of a tie). This is just about the only element of him that appears in nearly all the stories, outside of his signature featureless head.
  • In Worm, the supervillain Accord and his Ambassadors dress in formal wear and masks rather than the traditional sort of superhero garb. The men fall under this trope; the women under Kicking Ass in All Her Finery.
    • Contessa also qualifies; she is typically described as a "mysterious unnaturally competent woman in a suit".
  • Legend from the flash series XIN. In the second half, he trades the full suit coat for a waistcoat, and when it's time to get serious he tears it off and rolls up his sleeves.

    Western Animation 
  • CIA Agent Stan Smith on American Dad! always wears a suit.
  • DC Animated Universe:
    Luthor: Sorry it took me so long. I had to go get my "power" suit.
  • Victor Veloci, the Big Bad of Dino Squad, though he more often fails than succeeds at his attempts to be badass.
  • Agent Six of Generator Rex. He is officially the sixth deadliest person in the world. Where he ranks on the "best dressed" list was, sadly, never specified.
    • We later see Dos, the second deadliest person in the world and by debut's end the deadliest wearing a very snazzy suit.
  • Hit-Monkey: Bryce and Hit-Monkey both clean up nicely, wearing some very nice suits throughout the series.
  • Huntik: Secrets & Seekers: The Organization's agents generally all wear some variation of a dark suit as part of their dress code. The heroes even unoriginally nickname them "Suits". The two Elite Mooks that serve as the Professor's Praetorian Guard are a straight example, dressing in black three-piece suits with turquoise ties and being amongst the more powerful Seekers on the show.
  • Given that Stavros Garkos can break a table in two by merely punching it in anger, the Hurricanes should be glad he never tried to fight any of them in person.
  • General Molotov on Jimmy Two-Shoes dresses this way.
  • Charles Foster Ofdensen of Metalocalypse.
  • The Perils of Penelope Pitstop had the Ant Hill Mob, always formally dressed and carrying Tommy Guns like the good little stereotypical mobsters they were.
  • Samurai Jack.
    • The Guardian. He's Made of Iron, has a Hammerspace arsenal of weapons, and is the only character ever shown to be able to beat Samurai Jack within an inch of his life, and was about to finish him off until he was told not to. He dresses in a sharp black suit and he goes into Unstoppable Rage when Jack ruins it.
    • Jack himself normally wears his trademark white gi, but in "Jack and the Gangsters" he joins forces with the titular gangsters and dons a very nice pinstripe suit. Naturally, he's still just as badass while wearing it.
  • In The Spectacular Spider-Man, crimelord Tombstone and his Dragon Hammerhead both dress this way, as do their comics incarnations.
  • In the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1987) episode "Corporate Raiders From Dimension X", Casey wore a nice suit (along with his mask). So did Rocksteady and Beebop, although that pushes the definition of "badass" a little. (They were very upset about having to ditch the suits when Shredder aborted the plan.)
  • Bishop in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2003). He takes on all of the Turtles, Splinter, Leatherhead, April, and Casey with nothing but a suit and a tie. Shredder needs his armor, Foot army, and Karai and/or Hun to take on the Turtles alone. Truly a badass.
  • Parodied in one episode of The Venture Bros.: "I love killin' guys in a tux, makes me feel like James Bond."
  • Brick in Young Justice (2010). He is, needless to say, quite upset when the suit is ruined in battle. Do you know how much it costs to get a suit in his size?

    Real Life 
  • Any member of the military or police in their dress uniforms. In fact, it's worth pointing out that among the first things a soldier learns in basic training is how to shine boots and iron clothes.
    • In the US armed services, the Navy and Marines probably win this trope; Marine dress uniforms even have a full length lined cloak — that's right, they get an official superhero cape.
  • The Men in Black, the non-descript gents wearing a dark three-piece suit, reflective shades, and earpiece, who work for the Secret Service, Special Branch or perhaps some shadowy organization that runs everything.
  • The Nation of Islam, particularly the paramilitary wing called the Fruit of Islam, exploits this trope. They always appear in public dressed in suits and bowties.
  • Gangsters during the 1920s often made a point of showing off their wealth and status by dressing very expensively (which in turn locked in this entire trope for gangsters for the next century).
  • People who plan to fight are discouraged from wearing a full suit, since the tie can easily be used to pull or choke somebody, and the jacket and pants are often of a cut that restricts movement.
  • In Colombia, there is a specific shop that makes clothes that are pretty much bulletproof. Considering the sort of location Colombia is, it's likely they make a killing... especially considering they are rumored to have made a suit for Barack Obama.
  • John "The Dapper Don" Gotti
  • Jewish gangster Mickey Cohen believed you shouldn't leave home not dressed up. His stated occupation was 'haberdasher', and he ran a men's clothing business in Los Angeles.
  • There was a time in Medieval Europe, particularly during the Renaissance, when full plate armor was worn both for protection and as a fashion statement, allowing the Knight in Shining Armor to fit into this trope (at least for the time, and especially given how fancy a suit of full plate can get at the time). Some of the fanciest suits that are still intact belonged to Henry VIII and the Holy Roman Emperor, and this trend continued well into the Elizabethan Era.
  • Flexible suits, like the xSuit, are designed to allow someone to be one. They're resistant to being dirty, and are built to withstand the type of crouching and stretching needed for atheletic feats like Parkour, Martial Arts, and so on.


 
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Alternative Title(s): Dressed To Kill

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Mr. Fix-It

Grey Hulk starts wearing a suit when posing as a gangster.

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