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Fashion and Modeling Tropes
aka: Fashion Designer

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If you think you'll look half as good in these clothes as Katy does, then she's done her job.

"In a way, I suppose, I'd achieved what I set out to do—to wear expensive clothes and be looked at and admired."
Young Love #50, "Norma The Queen of The Hot Dogs"

First established in the 19th century by Charles Frederick Worth who had his wife model the clothes he designed for the first time, modeling became a profession known for being glamorous and haute. Before humans came to model clothes mannequins were used instead.

Here are all the tropes regarding modeling, fashion, and their industry. Has nothing to do with role models or models that represent objects, plans, and places. Not to be confused with Only a Model, which is about miniature models of larger things.


  • Beauty Contest: A competition where contestants are evaluated based on their appearance and colorful outfits.
  • The Beautiful Elite: Characters in the fashion industry belong to a group of wealthy, glamorous, and high-class people.
  • Brainless Beauty: Models who are extremely gorgeous but unintelligent and stupid.
  • Casting Couch: Someone who wants to be a model sleeps with a producer to land a modeling job.
  • Celebrity Endorsement: Fashion brands use celebrities' fame to promote and advertise their clothes and other products.
  • Deliberately Painful Clothing: Models wear clothes that leave them in pain and in discomfort by choice for money, aesthetic, etc.
  • The Diva: A powerful, dark, attractive, and assertive model that receives respect and attention everywhere and doesn't need to ask for it.
  • Eccentric Fashion Designer: Fashion designers are portrayed as quirky, flamboyant, and odd and sometimes are trendsetters.
  • Fanservice Model: A fashion model that specializes in displaying skimpy or barely there clothes.
  • Fashionable Asymmetry: The model's clothes are intentionally uneven and they still look great.
  • Fashion Dissonance: Clothing, hairstyles, etc. that used to be cool and trendy is now outdated and unfashionable.
  • Fashion Hurts: Sacrificing comfort and ease for elegant but painful clothes.
  • The Fashionista: Fashion-fixated character who dresses nicely.
  • Fashion Magazine: Magazines dedicated to and concerned with the topics of fashion.
  • Fashion-Shop Fashion Show: A female character buys some clothes with her friend/boyfriend and does her own little fashion show trying on different outfits at the shop.
  • Fashion Show: An event where groups of models wear the newest collections of clothes in front of audiences and cameras.
  • Hood Ornament Hottie: A model who poses sexily on a vehicle to show off both the vehicle and the outfit.
  • Hollywood Beauty Standards: In the fashion industry, all models have to be lighter than a feather, have the body of a doll, be conventionally attractive, and have Eurocentric features.
  • Impossibly Cool Clothes: Models wear outfits that are too good to be real.
  • Impossibly Tacky Clothes: Models wear clothes that are tackier and lamer than imaginable for the aesthetic!
  • It's All About Me: Some models are self-centered and only care about themselves and their needs.
  • Model Couple: These models are paired up because they look good together and complement each other.
  • Modeling is Glamorous: Modeling is portrayed as an extremely ritzy job.
  • Modeling Poses: Specific stances, moves, and walks models do to make clothing look appealing and attractive.
  • Model Scam: A character is tricked or scammed with the false promise of doing a model shoot.
  • Proud Beauty: Many models are proud of their beauty and the fact that others find them attractive.
  • Rule of Glamorous: Because modeling and fashion are all about elegance, beauty, and glamor.
  • The Prima Donna: An overbearing and demanding model who thinks everything is about her.
  • The Show Must Go On: When mishaps happen during fashion shows and models still continue their job professionally as if nothing went wrong.
  • Sleazy Photoshoot: A photoshoot where the photographer behaves unethically and inappropriately and makes the model uncomfortable.
  • Stage Mom: Characters who push their child (both usually female) into the modeling industry.
  • Stylish Sunhats: Sunhats are in fashion.
  • Supermodel Strut: A character struts like a supermodel to illustrate their confidence and sex appeal.
  • Undercover Model: A female cop/spy is forced to do modeling or other physical-appearance-reliant jobs.

Alternative Title(s): Fashion Model, Fashion Designer

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