Man of Wealth and Taste

Remember to always look your best when dealing with miserable little piles of secrets.

"Please allow me to introduce myself, I'm a man of wealth and taste."

— The Rolling Stones, "Sympathy for the Devil"

If there's a deliciously evil male villain, he's going to be a well-dressed villain. He'll wear a sharp-looking suit. Silk tie, expensive shirt, exquisitely ironed pants, tailored jacket, leather belt and tasteful accessories. Always perfectly in fashion. Bonus points if it's a monochrome suit, and extra-special bonus points if it's a black monochrome suit.

Turns out, evil has quite a lot of money and excellent fashion sense. The villain might well brag about the kickass English or Italian suit he had tailored, possibly during a Mob-Boss Suit Fitting. It's very common for the Corrupt Corporate Executive. After all, clothing that symbolizes status, wealth, and sophistication helps establish a villain as dangerous to mess with, as well as selfish and arrogant.

When your evil mook uniforms are made by Hugo Boss, this is Putting on the Reich.

Sub-Trope of Evil Is Cool and Sharp-Dressed Man, and Sister Trope to Badass in a Nice Suit. Supertrope to Villain in a White Suit.

See also Wicked Cultured, and A Glass of Chianti. The polar opposite of Wild Man — a hero with no resources, no fashion, but a very good heart. The other polar opposite is Fashion-Victim Villain. Oh, and his (normally) Good Counterparts? That's both Gentleman and a Scholar and Officer and a Gentleman. Also a common trait of Louis Cypher.

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Examples:

Anime and Manga

• In Blood+, all of Diva's chevaliers are rich and well dressed. When not killing for Diva, they often attend fancy parties and run a major corporation.
• Digimon: Astamon, a charismatic Demon Man Digimon, is always dressed in a sharp pinstripe suit.
• Solf J. Kimblee of Fullmetal Alchemist. He wears a magnificent white suit and hat worthy of Michael Jackson. He makes people blow up in a shower of gore and fire while he keeps his suit spotless. Usually.
• Gundam:
  • Mobile Fighter G Gundam: Prime Minister Wong! Aside from his well tailored suit and Cool Shades, he's rarely seen without his flying pimp throne and glass of chilled pocky.
  • Mobile Suit Gundam SEED: Murata Azrael shows up dressed in a very nice blue suit. It's a stark contrast to the pajamas his successor wears.
  • Mobile Suit Gundam Wing: Trieze Kushrenada's miliary dress uniform fits nicely with his magnificent bastardry, although he's more of a Well-Intentioned Extremist than any kind of evil.
  • Mobile Suit Gundam 00: Alejandro is seen wearing a tailored red suit in every single appearance he makes, except in the Season 1 finale.
• Hellsing's Major and Tubalcain Alhambra. Depending on how you look at it, Alucard.
• Serial Killer Big Bad Yoshikage Kira from JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Diamond is Unbreakable is a nicely dressed fellow. It's to be expected since he's a No Celebrities Were Harmed version of David Bowie. His sweet tie with the horned skulls on it has undergone Defictionalization: a Japanese clothing company now makes it. Be warned, though, since it's reportedly quite expensive.
• Monster: Johan Liebert. He'll murder you horribly, but at least he's polite and classy about it.
• Kurt Godel of Negima! Magister Negi Magi. Not surprising since he's the Governor-General of Ostia.
• Several of the World Government's employees in One Piece follow this trope. Notable examples are CP9 and the Admiral Kizaru.
  • Crocodile commits all his devious schemes decked out in one of the pimpest don outfits of all time, hell, one of the first things he does after his arrest he gets a solid black even cooler version of the suit.
  • Doflamingo, given that he is not only a Shichibukai but also the King of Dressrosa and it is implied he has connections with the World Nobles he is a former World Noble himself.
  • Capone "Gang" Bege is always dressed in a nice suit, fitting his identity as The Don who decided turn to piracy after land-based rackets got too easy. He enforces it among his men and would-be allies (forcing the Straw Hats to dress up to meet him during their alliance in the Whole Cake Island arc), and also expects them to carry themselves with proper manners and grooming.
• Light Yagami of Death Note usually wears a neat suit and tie, and is always impeccably groomed.
• Lord Gargoyle from Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water also fits. His suite is immaculate red and worthy for the dinner party he invites sponsors too. The only flaw is his mask and KKK style hat.
• Sebastian from Black Butler. No matter what he's just done, he almost always shows up in an untarnished suit.
  • Ciel, too— perhaps moreso, as Sebastian's suit is technically his uniform, whereas Ciel's just a rich boy with opulent tastes.
• Used a lot in Tiger Mask: the usual attire of Tiger's Cave wrestlers for public non-fight apparitions is an expensive suit and the mask, Tiger's Cave admins wear nice suits and a Ku Klux Klan-like mask, Mr. X almost constantly wears an expensive shirt, tuxedo and top hat suit complete with a golden ring with a tiger's head (the exceptions being when refereeing the World Maskmen League, when he discarded the tuxedo and top hat while on the ring, and a travel attire he wore twice while trying to pass unnoticed), the anime-only supreme admin almost always wears a nice white suit (even if never with the mask), and many heel wrestlers outside of the ring wear expensive clothes of good taste. Played with by the protagonist: while his out-of-the-ring attire as Tiger Mask is composed of the same suit as the admins, the mask and a tiger-striped cloak, he's quickly revealed as an Anti-Hero.
• Black Joke is full of them, since the series is all about fabulously rich criminal organizations fighting each other.
• Akio Ohtori from Revolutionary Girl Utena not only dresses fabulously, but there's that car...
• Tsukiyama Shuu from Tokyo Ghoul. A Ghoul born into a wealthy family, he surrounds himself with luxury and is always dressed in designer clothing even when he expects a battle. His preference for exceptional victims has earned him the title "Gourmet", and he enjoys having his victims prepared in imitation of high-class dining.
• Voltes V: Heinel. Since he's a Boazanian Prince, this is a given. He has the luxurious objects, fancy clothes and the Big Fancy Castle.
• Zofis from Zatch Bell!. He is not only dress elegantly, he is even dressed up his partner Koko in the elegant dress after he brainwashed her.

Comic Books

• The Shade, the Penguin and the Gentleman Ghost in The DCU all commit crimes while dressed in top hats and suits.
  • Most Batman villains have worn a suit or tuxedo at one time or another.
    • Two-Face is known for his symbolically split two-tone suit, though no top hat.
    • The Riddler goes back and forth between a natty question-mark-themed suit with spats, bowler hat, and cane, and a ridiculous unitard version of same.
    • The Joker sometimes wears a tuxedo, Depending on the Artist. Alex Ross' version of the character wears a black tux (no purple) and a white bow tie with spats and a cane. In fact he quite often wears tails, which constitute "white tie" and thus out-formal a tuxedo (black tie), but since he often wears his tails before 5 P.M., he's obviously a bounder of no breeding.
    • The Penguin mixes evil with a comically overstated sense of upper class style. The archetypical Penguin outfit includes top hat, tails, cigarette holder, and monocle.
    • When he's wearing one, Ra's al Ghul will almost always be seen in an exquisitely well-tailored green and/or black silk suit and cape.
  • Superman:
    • In his Corrupt Corporate Executive incarnation, Lex Luthor almost always wears a black or gray business suit. In fact, in the DCU, the "Luthor Look" — a black suit and shaved head — became the preferred style for CEOs.
    • In Who Took the Super out of Superman?, Xviar wears a sharp-looking, three-piece beige suit at all times.
  • Wonder Woman: In the Post-Crisis continuity, Angelo Bend (Angle Man) switches out his vibrant green bodysuit for a well-tailored suit reflecting his wealth for most of his appearances. This refelcts the original Golden Age Angle Man's fashion sense, though he one was just a very clever boss of a group of theives rather than superpowered.
  • Vandal Savage is usually shown wearing expensive suits. In fact, he probably invented them.
• Spider-Man:
  • The Kingpin only wears personally tailored designer suits. Of course, given his size, his suits would probably have to be custom made regardless of the quality.
  • Morlun always dresses in very elegant clothes that never seem to get damaged in his massive fights with Spider-Man (except when Morlun blows up a building with Morlun inside. Then they just get incinerated). His siblings also wear them.
• Throughout his series, Lucifer usually wears a sharp white suit.
• The Invisibles: The blind chessplayer (who may or may not be the devil) always appears in an impeccable white suit, though of course, it's arguable if he's actually a villain.
• Desire from The Sandman (1989), whenever it isn't wearing some slinky black number, is sometimes seen wearing a slick double-breasted pinstriped suit.
• Fantastic Four: Doctor Doom is always clad in a regal green tunic over his Powered Armor.
• V for Vendetta: V, while not exactly a villain, isn't really all that nice. He's not only a Cultured Badass, but also always goes around in black, complete with awesome cape. Eventually, he even quotes the original trope namer to describe himself.
• In Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics), Mammoth Mogul always wore a snazzy suit wherever he went. When Mogul was retconned out, Breezie the Hedgehog took his spot, dumping the Jessica Rabbit ensemble for a suit of her own.
• Mammon from Spawn usually appears as this. In his first appearance, he's not identified by name and so is easily mistaken for Satan.
• The Mighty Thor: While Loki did for many decades disdain mortals, after a while he did pick up a habit of, when on Earth, dressing in appropriate fashion, meaning well-tailored suits.
• Astro City: Evil Sorcerer Infidel lives in an ornate floating palace, is tended to by beautiful naked homunculi, and eats and drinks the finest foods available anywhere.

Fan Works

• Equius of the Homestuck fanfic Don't Name It wears exclusively pure white suits, with jade highlights to represent his blood color.
• Tanizaki Kazuo, the Corrupt Corporate Executive Big Bad of the sequel to The Dark Lords of Nerima, highly steeped in history and culture (mainly looking for things that will grant him power), and is always presented as wearing an immaculately pressed suit.
• Dufayel, the Big Bad of Old West. He is a sophisticated and rich fox with a heavy French accent. He dresses immaculately even under the Mojave Desert's hot sun and dislikes uncivilization from his henchmen and others, yet he does anything he must in order to harvest the gold deposit under the town of Mud, especially because he's under the threat of bankruptcy.
• Lucius Malfoy, Big Bad of the first book of Child of the Storm, is Wicked Cultured, often with a Glass of Chianti in hand, walks with a cane, and dresses in stylish robes. He definitely qualifies.
• In Earth-27, it's a pretty common fashion choice for demon lords to dress fancy, with Lucifer, Satan, Nergal, Neron, Nebiros, Shamash, Crowley and Belphegor all wearing tailor-made suits in their respective colors.

Film — Live-Action

• Veteran character actor Terry-Thomas almost always played an upper-class cad, and was always dressed to the nines with bowler, waistcoat, cigarette holder and cane. In School For Scoundrels he discussed ordering the proper foods to go with the best wines. Apparently, he was like this in real life; for instance, he insisted his strawberries be "bathed" in Marsala wine.
• If Shaffer's Amadeus's Salieri counts as a villain, then he truly was a Man of Wealth and Taste- pun intended.
• Patrick Bateman in American Psycho puts a great deal of importance on clothing, suits and fashion. He is careful to don a plastic raincoat before killing Paul Allen so he doesn't get blood on his suit.
  • And the business cards - God help you if you have a better business card than Bateman.
• When Loki wants to blend in on Earth in The Avengers (2012), he wears a snazzy three-piece suit (or at least the appearance of one. In Thor: Ragnarok, he does the same. As a master of illusion and a prince, he seems to be very big on appearances.
• Bedazzled (1967): The Devil, when he's not dressed for evil work (as a telephone lineman, beekeeper, scuba diver drilling holes in oil tankers, etc) wears a tuxedo, cape, and cool mod sunglasses - and red socks with whatever else he's wearing.
• Code 8: Marcus Sutcliffe is a wealthy and well dressed mobster whose façade of cordiality belies a sleazy drug trafficker who takes advantage of the disenfranchised and betrays his own men.
• Lucifer in Constantine (2005) wears a white suit, but without shoes and black tar dripping from his bare ankles. Personal hygiene apparently isn't a big deal when you're the Prince of Darkness.
  • The demon played by Gavin Rossdale and the angel played by Jadis also wear some wicked suits, at least until the end where the angel Gabriel is apparently an escaped mental patient reduced to some nice pants and a wifebeater/corset.
• Mob boss Top Dollar from the movie adaptation of The Crow wears very fancy, expensive vintage clothing and keeps an array of antique swords nearby. This contrasts with his mooks who all dress in average clothing (jeans, jackets, etc.).
• The Emperor from Curse of the Golden Flower's presence is often announced by the jangle of one of his splendid golden suits. (Oh yeah, and a servant yelling "his majesty the Emperor arrives!") Justified of course by him being the Emperor of China!
• Absolutely everybody who works for the law firm of Milton, Chadwick & Waters in The Devil's Advocate dresses in the most expensive and fashionable suits and dresses. Hardly surprising, considering who the senior partner is...
• Hans Gruber in Die Hard: "Nice suit... John Phillips, London. I have two myself. Rumor has it Arafat buys his there."
• In Drive Angry, the demon sent after Nicolas Cage's character, known as the Accountant (played by William Fichtner), wears a black suit that never tarnishes. He can crash in a car off a bridge and walk out dressed impeccably, without a single crease.
• The majority of gangsters in The Godfather and its game adaptation are Badass in a Nice Suit, but Bruno Tattaglia goes one-up on the lot with a tux. He's a nasty piece of work, being responsible for the deaths of Luca Brasi and, in the game, Frankie Malone.
• Godzilla vs. Kong: Walter Simmons, the billionaire Corrupt Corporate Executive who spearheads Mechagodzilla's creation as part of a Muggle Power plan and out of sheer egotism; is dressed head-to-toe in sharp, expensive-looking and tailored clothes.
• At the end of Interview with the Vampire, Lestat plays "Sympathy For The Devil" on a car radio. Granted, he went out of style a century ago and isn't looking his best, but he's still Lestat.
• Some James Bond villains fall into this trope. Subverted(?) since our James is a pretty sharp dresser himself. Subverted even more strongly in the books, where Bond (who dresses sharp, but subtle) often notes the fabulously expensive outfits the villains are wearing are also terribly flashy, garish, and a sign of "trying too hard".
• Lee Woo-Jin, the antagonist of Oldboy (2003). The final confrontation happens just after he had a shower, which means we are treated to the Man Of Wealth And Taste's version of a Lock-and-Load Montage, including loving close-ups of his tie clip, his cufflinks, his shoelaces...
• The sadistic physician in Quills lives in a luxurious mansion that he has renovated to suit the tastes of his young, not entirely willing bride.
• In the '94 version of The Shadow, they parody the classic radio show's Product Placement in an exchange between a fur-and-armor wearing mongol barbarian and the slick Tuxedo and Martini hero:
  Shiwan Khan: In three days, the entire world will hear my roar, and willingly fall subject to the lost empire of Shan Kahn. That is a lovely tie, by the way. May I ask where you acquire it?
  Lamont Cranston: Brooks Brothers.
  Shiwan Khan: Is that mid-town?
  Lamont Cranston: 45th and Madison. You are a barbarian.
  Shiwan Khan: Thank you. We both are.
  • Incidentally, the next time Cranston catches up with Khan (having dinner at a restaurant) the villain has acquired himself a suit and tie. It doesn't suit him (no pun intended).
• Star Wars: Count Dooku prides himself upon elegance, refinement, and dressing to suit his rank (which, incidentally, is not self-granted; he really is a Count).
• The Turning Point (1952): Neil Eichelberger presents himself as a distinguished businessman, but in fact, is a cold blooded mobster who has no problem intimidating or murdering people.
• Benjamin in Wayne's World is a slick executive who lives in a nice apartment and speaks fluent Chinese.
• Sebastian Shaw in X-Men: First Class is Faux Affably Evil and always wears stylish clothes (with the exception of his anti-telepathy helmet), camouflages his submarine under a luxury yacht, and serves excellent champagne to the officials he's trying to manipulate into causing World War III.
• Percy Blakeny takes this to extremes in The Scarlet Pimpernel (1982) as part of his deliberately over-done Idle Rich act. His discussion of his own and other men's lace on their shirt cuffs is particularly well done in persuading Chauvelin that he cannot possibly be The Scarlet Pimpernel.

Literature

• René Bordelon of The Alice Network is an elegant Frenchman with expensive taste. He affords his fine wines and rich carpets by running a restaurant that caters almost exclusively to Germans and buys half the black-market food in France.
• Bram Stoker's Dracula was one of the first to treat vampires in this way, as opposed to the earlier depictions of them (from various myths and legends), in which they were more animalistic and demonic in nature.
• Woland of The Master and Margarita: throughout most of the book, he appears as a wealthy, educated, and flamboyantly dressed foreigner. He's also Satan, so evil comes naturally, although whether his actions are for good or ill constitutes a debate unto itself.
• Most of the Imperial officers in the Star Wars Expanded Universe wear the same sort of uniforms as they do in the movies, and they are pretty much stock evil. Grand Admiral Thrawn wears white, and he is extremely cultured and, while still villainous, visibly more ambiguous. He's also an alien, and actually all the Grand Admirals have white uniforms. It's just that none of them are nearly as prominent, having all been either killed or captured years earlier. Another example is title character from Darth Plagueis who a wealthy banker in his civilian life, and is outright referred to as "a Muun of wealth and taste" at one point.
• Tales of MU
  • When "The Man", a very suave Hot as Hell devil, first showed up in flashback stories in his pinstriped suit and natty hat, the above lyric got quoted by a reader in the chapter comments.
  • Vice-Chancellor Embries, appearing human but in reality a shapeshifting greater dragon with a penchant for eating his secretaries, is always impeccably dressed.
• Albion of Dora Wilk Series seems to play it straight in his initial appearances (good clothes, manners and so on), but subverts this once we get a chance to see his house. He's definitely a man of wealth, but taste... not so much.
• Here's a fun Drinking Game: take a shot for each of Shakespeare's "gentlemen" who are liars, traitors, thieves, or just general cads. Each and every of them was dressed in the height of fashion for their time and place.
• The Dresden Files:
  • Gentleman Johnny Marcone, wears suits that cost more than Harry's car and once managed to throw a concealed knife through a rope holding him up while hanging upside down and spinning around while a bloodthirsty loup-garou was about ready to try to eat him. In the dark. He's an Anti-Villain who ends up in Enemy Mine situations with the heroes a lot, but he's still not exactly a nice guy. He is, however, composed of pure, solidified Badass Normal.
  • Lara Raith is also a pretty snappy dresser. Presumably she gets this from her father.
  • Then there's Affably Evil Nicodemus.
  • There's also Hades, whose home is described as Smaug's hoard, only with OCD and relentlessly good taste. In his capacity as the god of wealth, he's picked up a fair number of treasures over the millennia, a surprising number of which are artworks of various kinds. He also dresses well, and offers Harry a glass of very good wine. Though as Harry points out, he's not evil; despite the tendency of modern authors to portray him as the Greek analog of Satan, he's actually Heroic Neutral.
• Traditionalist vampires in Discworld, of course, wear full evening dress and opera cloaks at all times. More modern vampires also dress smartly, and the really dangerous ones (who aren't Black Ribboners, but are too modern to bother with all the traditional stuff that gives the prey a chance) can be recognised by their fancy waistcoats.
  • Cosmo Lavish in Making Money tries to pull this off (in imitation of Vetinari, who isn't exactly evil) and completely fails due to being morbidly obese.
  • Every single Assassin. After all, if one isn't impeccably dressed in the latest black silk, one might as well be a common thug who kills people for money.
  • Maladict, a vampire, manages a variant of this trope while in the army, by wearing the uniform so it's "deshabillé [...] scruffy, but with bags and bags of style".
  • Lord Hong in Interesting Times, who, in addition to being a very well-dressed Agatean nobleman, has a very expensive suit of Western Sto Plains clothes for when he conquers Ankh-Morpork, complete with silk-lined cloak and a hat with a feather in it.
    He would walk through the city on that first great day, and the people would be silent when they saw their natural leader.
    It never crossed his mind that anyone would say "'Ere, wot a toff! 'Eave 'arf a brick at 'im!"
• Good Omens:
  • Raven Sable is a famous, jet-setting restauranteur and diet guru, always looking lean and well-dressed. He's also secretly Famine, one of the Horsepersons of the Apocalypse, and he secretly revels in encouraging humans towards disordered eating, food waste, and the consumption of unsatisfying meals, from nouvelle cuisine in tiny portions to fast food and junk food with only slightly more nutritional value than the packaging.
  • Crowley tries to pull this off, but sometimes has trouble getting it right (much like he sometimes has trouble being truly evil). For example, he drives a vintage Bentley... with fake bullet-hole decals on the rear window that he got from a James Bond promotional giveaway.
• Patrick Bateman's love of suits and fashion, as mentioned in Film, is given considerably more screentime (so to speak) in the book: every outfit is described in great and loving detail, down to brand name, fabric, and cut.
  • If one is particularly knowledgeable about fashion, however, one will notice that the outfits are often clownishly mismatched.
• In The Guardians, this is the form demons take to live among humans and tempt them into evil; at least one is a US Senator. Subverted when the Guardians can't find a demon and later realize it's taken the form of a woman of wealth and taste.
• Lucius Malfoy from Harry Potter, as befitting the patriarch of a very old and prestigious wizard family, wears rich and tasteful robes.
  • Not quite as evil, but also somewhat ethically challenged and narcissistic, is Gilderoy Lockhart, who relied on questionable means to advance his career. His clothing is more overtly showy than Lucius' but no less impressive.
• Philonecron of the Cronus Chronicles series. He wears a Victorian-style suit and a long cape, and frequently insults humans on their "atrocious" fashion sense. He even bought very high-quality tuxedos for all of his evil henchmen.
• The Vampire Chronicles: Lestat insists on being at the very height of fashion wherever he goes. Whether he's in a frock coat, three-piece business suit, Badass Cape, or jeans and t-shirt, everything is of the highest quality and selected to convey the image Lestat wants to impart. Interestingly, Lestat seems to have an almost Cloud Cuckoo Lander-like attitude towards his wardrobe, veering wildly between disinterested and obsessive. Clothes that he gets dirty will often be shoved in the bottom dresser drawer and never thought of again, while he showers adoring affection for an old woman who knows the story behind the themed cameo-image buttons on the jacket he's wearing. He plays with a Refuge in Audacity approach in Blood Canticle when he and his latest proteges "invade" a remote Caribbean island: They could easily sneak in through the heavy jungle, or just use their powers and slaughter everyone between them and the information they're seeking, but Lestat instead decides to garb his coterie in the most outlandishly over-the-top outfits in their wardrobes and dazzle their way past the drug lords in residence: The young man with him dresses in a metallic gold three-piece suit, the young woman in a high-hemmed ostrich feather dress not out of place in the Roaring 20's, and himself in a full leather suit described in the book at least a half dozen times, because he likes it that damn much.
• British statesman Lord Chesterfield disputed this trope in Letters to His Son: "I have often known a fashionable man have some one vice; but I never in my life knew a vicious man a fashionable man." (letter 77)
• General Zaroff from The Most Dangerous Game lives in a mansion, wears stylish suits, and displays great taste. He also hunts and murders people. For fun.
• In MARZENA, rich and well-dressed Business Mogul Marian is the female version of this trope.
• Deliberately averted in The Godfather, where the "old mustache Petes" of Vito's generation - many of whom, like Vito himself, came from poverty - wear inexpensive, no-nonsense business suits and disdain anyone who gets too fancy.
• The Trademaster from Messenger and Son. In the latter, the reader learns that he wears nice, well-fitted (black) clothing.
• Paris and Hecate Jakoby from Dragon Factory. They are rich, perfectly beautiful, like to surround themselves with beauty - and they dress so well that they are often shown in glossy magazines or have interviews published. They are also utterly immoral and (especially Hecate) kill people for pleasure.
• The Mole twins in The City Without Memory. Each of them is dressed in pitch-black, with a silver cape and a wolfskin, and it looks very impressive. They are also among the least principled antagonists, being a couple of bandits who make war with everyone in sight.

Live-Action TV

• Ashes to Ashes (2008). Big Bad Superintendant Mackintosh favors well-tailored suits, but the real Man Of Wealth And Taste is Jim Keats, with his monochrome grey suits and black leather gloves.
• In the short-lived Brimstone series, The Devil (played by John Glover) wears an expensive Victorian suit, complete with a red tie and a pocketwatch. In contrast, an angel is shown looking exactly like him but dressed as a blue-collar worker (a ceiling painter).
• Buffyverse:
  • All of Wolfram and Hart from Angel. Particularly Holland Manners and Hamilton, who can engage in any amount of badass fighting without ruining his suit. Everybody even comments on how well-dressed Hamilton is during his debut episode.
  • Angelus was always coiffed in the old days. Spike as well. Then again, they're vampires.
  • Dracula is noted to enjoy living a life of luxury, which is shown to be true especially in the comics continuation. He wears costumes that include top hats, rings, leather gloves, capes, paisley ascots, the whole shebang.
  • The Immortal One manages to fit all aspects of the trope without even appearing on screen once. He is suave, Wicked Cultured and worldly.
• In the Burn Notice episode "Friendly Fire", Michael coerces the allegiance of a gang by Wearing a red and gray silk suit, talking like Clint Eastwood and blowing things up by snapping his fingers.
• Doctor Who:
  • The Master, depending on who's portraying him. Roger Delgado and John Simm's Masters frequently wore great suits, Anthony Ainley's Master wore suits a few times, and Derek Jacobi's Master wears a Victorian version. Michelle Gomez, as Missy, takes "man" out of the equation but retains the dress sense, favouring a Victorian-infused purple coat with a brooch at the throat to create the impression of an Ax-Crazy version of Mary Poppins. Then Sacha Dhawan's version moves in and takes the concept in a bit of a weird direction, with clothes that mostly look quite snappy, but have just enough oddities to throw you off.
  • The Great Intelligence shows a similar preference for Victorian dress suits after taking the form of Richard E. Grant. Most of its henchmen, as seen in "The Bells of Saint John" and "The Name of the Doctor", also wear nice suits.
  • Scaroth / Count Scarlioni wears a natty white suit with turquoise elements, lives in a nice house with antique furniture, and even his villainous plan was founded on stealing the Mona Lisa.
• Game of Thrones:
  • Lord Petyr Baelish always dresses in a dapper manner befitting his station as Master of Coin. It being a Medieval Fantasy series, this tends to get him underestimated rather than respected — he's a businessman, too effete for the warrior nobility and too low-profile to fit in with the more extravagant members of court — which is likely all part of the plan.
  • Also the Lannisters naturally, since the current head of their house at the series' start is said to shit gold.
  • Janos Slynt fancies himself one upon his elevation to Lord. He knows his wine, at least, but he can't disguise his status as a cowardly traitor.
• Gotham has several. The characters that probably fit best are Oswald Cobblepot, when he's not down on his luck and has access to all the wealth of a mob kingpin, and Jeremiah Valeska. Both are extremely fond of nice, possibly custom-made suits, though their dress sense can be a tad eccentric, with Jeremiah's preference for bold colors and Oswald's tendency to occasionally accessorize with less business formal things like feather boas.
• Hannibal: More than any other version of the character (because he's a free man for most of it), Dr. Hannibal Lecter is a man of extremely refined culture and wealth, and both actively and passively shows it off in virtually every scene he's in. His expensive and stylish attire and the exquisite artwork and decor that line his house are all used by him to display his feeling of inherent superiority over the common man.
• Interview with the Vampire (2022): Lestat de Lioncourt, a vampire who sadistically murders his human prey, wears extravagant suits (Florence de Pointe du Lac even considers him to be overdressed), plus he lives in a splendidly decorated townhouse which is filled with luxury goods. Everything related to how he presents himself oozes elegance.
• Kilgrave, the main villain of the first season of Jessica Jones (2015) wears expensive (probably custom-tailored) suits, and loves fine dining. He is also a complete sociopath.
• It can be debated whether or not King Silas of Kings is evil. It cannot be debated that he has excellent taste in suits.
• Legion (2017): The Shadow King manifests his psychic presence in many monstrous ways. When we finally meet him in person, he's a dignified, middle-aged man of Moroccan descent who wears stylish suits from the 1960s, speaks with a cultured French accent, always wears sunglasses and daintily sips on coffee or cocktails.
• Lucifer (2016): After leaving the Hell business behind, the title character adopts this aesthetic as an upscale nightclub owner on Earth. He's uniquely disgruntled when someone vomits on his expensive suit and he's stuck wearing a secondhand t-shirt with a restaurant logo on it. However, he's not evil- Satan Is Good is firmly in effect for this series.
• Harlem mob boss Cornell "Cottonmouth" Stokes from Luke Cage (2016) is always dressed to the nines in dapper as hell suits.
• In Once Upon a Time, while Rumplestiskin was slimy and grimy in the fairy tale world, he arranged things so that he would be a man of substance in the Storybrooke world, and so as Mr. Gold, he always wears snazzy, finely tailored suits and generally carries around a gold-topped cane. In both worlds, he's your go-to guide for making a Deal with the Devil.
• James St. Patrick, the lead character in Power. He's a major drug dealer who worked his way up from the hood where he was a corner boy to the top of the distribution business. He lives in a penthouse apartment, above the lawyers and the doctors, and wears stylish, tailor made suits. While the image is mostly legitimate - he truly does embrace the high life - he also still enjoys many of the simple pleasures from his poor upbringing when he gets the chance.
• Notably, the Devil from Reaper is always seen wearing his trademark suit (of which he has multiple copies), and even has a subplot where his tailor dies, leaving him at a loss with what to wear.
  • He always looks cheerful too. At one point he expresses his disappointment in Sam by dropping store shelves on him. It's probably not a good idea to get him angry.
• All over the place in Scream Queens (2015), given that most of the cast are both current or former members of Kappa House and certifiable sociopaths. Occasionally subverted with certain... questionable fashion choices on part of Chanel #1. Gigi is the best example, since she's a murderer and a fantastic decorator. Even Grace admits that some lamps she chose really tied her dad's living room together.
• Sherlock's Moriarty wears a suitably expensive suit when he finally introduces himself to the heroes, and makes a point of straightening it after a brief tussle.
  "Westwood."
• Lionel and Lex Luthor of Smallville are this trope overlapped with Badass in a Nice Suit. So's Ultraman, Clark's Evil Twin from Earth-2. For examples that are purely evil, there's also Lex's Dragon Regan Matthews, Earth-2 Lionel, the relentlessly Axe-Crazy Lx-3, and Alexander.
• The Goa'uld in Stargate SG-1 tend to go for the traditional A God Am I-style flowing robes, headdresses, and gold ornamentation everywhere. The Affably Evil Baal, however, prefers a stylish turtleneck-and-suit-jacket combo - especially when he's pretending to be the CEO of a major Earth corporation. The fact that he's the only Goa'uld who remembers that he's only pretending to be a god probably has a lot to do with this.
• Supernatural: Possessed!Sam from the future wears a pristine white suit. And there was much rejoicing.
  • Crowley also fits this trope. "THEY. ATE. MY. TAILOR!!!!
• Tales from the Darkside: In "I'll Give You a Million", the Devil appears as a dapper young man in an exquisitely tailored morning suit.

Music

• The Trope Namer is The Rolling Stones song "Sympathy for the Devil", where Lucifer introduces himself simply as a man of wealth and taste who's been around for a long, long time.
• U2: MacPhisto, a "persona" used by Bono on the Zoo TV tour. He's basically Satan as an aging Vegas crooner.

Mythology and Religion

• In Classical Mythology, Pluto, the Roman god of the underworld, was also the god of wealth (although the question of taste is less certain). He's not really a villain, although he suffers from the Everyone Hates Hades trope and some of his characteristics were transferred to the Christian depiction of Satan.

Professional Wrestling

• Ted DiBiase. It's what happens when you're called "The Million-Dollar Man".
• Ric Flair. The Nature Boy always styles and profiles.
  • Anyone who teams up with Flair usually morphs into this: Triple H, Randy Orton, and Batista in Evolution, and AJ Styles and Kazarian in Fourtune stand out as examples.
• Angel Orsini sometimes presents herself this way when not trying to come off as a fiersome bodybuilder or perfectionist gymnast. She wears suits and sips expensive liquors in between rounds of tourturing any soft targets she can get her hands on.
• Montel Vontavious Porter, the highest paid free agent in professional wrestling, enjoys the finer things in life. So when not expecting to wrestle, he likes a suit and a martini. Ted Dibiase Jr, also an example of this trope, thinks MVP is a New Money poser though.
• When he was playing the heel, Alberto Del Rio would often show up in expensive cars with a gold scarf and a nice suit, claiming that all of his lavish trappings were things he was "destined" to have. This is dropped when he's face, instead playing on his proud Mexican heritage.
• After winning the ROH World Title for the second time, Story Time With Adam Cole became increasingly elaborate after every successful title defense, eventually ending up here with his own throne room full of expensive liquor. This, in direct contrast to Kyle O'Reilly, his last scheduled challenger who he deliberately put off all the way to Final Battle, who is almost always seen in t shirts and mixed martial arts gear.
• The Precious One Gilbert. Where Orlando Colon came to the contract signing half formal, scuffed dress shoes, new jeans, a collared shirt and a water bottle, Gilbert's shoes were shined, his suit pants just ironed, his suit three piece, in his arms two bottles of wine and a tall glass. He also hired El Gran Armando and Pedro Portillo III to beat up Orlando after the signing and broke one of the bottles on Orlando's head.
• After teaming up with Action Fashionista and heel Jinny on NXT UK in early 2021, Joseph Conners began to appear like this, appearing much more well-groomed and well-dressed than previously.

Tabletop Games

• 7th Sea: Giovanni Villanova is an archetypal example of this trope. He's evil with a capital E, has a prison built to spec as his own private hell for his enemies, beats his "fate witch" wife, and is generally despicable to the Nth degree... but he's a Prince, by Deus, and that means showing some style. One iconic moment is when he knifes a man from behind (one who's threatening the PCs), shoves him aside... and starts eating the victim's Fettucine Alfredo, because it's too good to waste. He also laments having the cook killed, because the pasta's that good...but while it's one thing to poison an enemy, it's another entirely for the cook to poison such works of art, so he had his men feeding said cook his own poison. Even Evil Has Standards, after all.
• Demon: The Fallen has an interesting justification in a short vignette written from Lucifer's perspective. He can't feel pleasure, or happiness, or anything good... but the bad stuff? He can feel the bad stuff. Every scratch of the fabric, every slight pain from an ill-fitting piece of clothing, every pang of hunger. He travels in utmost luxury, wears the best clothes and eats the finest food just so he can get as close as possible to feeling nothing.
• Dungeons & Dragons :
  • While not a suit, Asmodeus wears "regal finery of unimaginable expense", said to cost as much as a country spends on food in a year.
  • Ravenloft: Strahd von Zarovich is dressed rather spiffily in any of his appearances. He is a vampire, after all.
• In Nomine:
  • Fleurity, the Demon Prince of Drugs, enjoys affecting the appearence of a cultured, suave man of buisness. When manifesting, he takes the appearence of a handsome younger man, clad in a tailored steel-grey suit, with a shaved head and a sharply trimmed goatee, leaning on a cane and smoking a cigar. He also takes pains to hide the worst of his Habbalah disfigurements, keeping them tucked out of sight beneath his suit except usually for a small earring.
  • Valefor, the Demon Prince of Theft, is something of a clotheshorse, and enjoys going around in bold outfits that mix and match styles and include expensive or historically famous items with which to show off his skills. He has a seemingly inexhaustible supply of Armani suits, French silk shirts, and Italian shoes and sunglasses, all lifted right out of the best tailor shops or paid for with stolen credit cards. He expects a similar committement to style from his followers.
  • Belial, the Demon Prince of Fire, likes to affect this trope as part of his attempts to give himself an aura of sophistication, and usually manifests on Earth as a well-built man in a fine suit. The fact that he combines this with a fully functional flamethrower to make sure that he can properly start setting fires when the mood strikes him kind of puts the lie to it.
• Magic: The Gathering:
  • The vampire Sorin Markov. It's stated that, when he's not upholding various pacts that he's made over his extremely long life, he's pursuing only his own pleasure. Innistradi vampires on the whole are like this.
  • If you're on New Capenna and you're not dressed like it's The Roaring '20s, it'll paint you as a tourist so effectively you might as well be wearing an "I <3 NC" shirt. As a result, while there is some variety — such as the Riveteers typically sporting downmarket work clothes, as befits a more underclass kind of gang — there are a lot of prominent gangsters and scoundrels sporting fancy suits — just look at Ob Nixilis in a very flashy black and gold number.
• Vampire: The Masquerade is full of them. Clan Ventrue is probably the most notable, as their clan hat is noble bearing and financial acumen, but many examples can also be found among the Lasombra, Tzimisce, Toreador, and Giovanni.

Theatre

• Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Faust is the Trope Codifier for portraying the devil this way; practically the first thing Mephistopheles does in it is call attention to his elegant, fashionable attire, and throughout the play he's portrayed as an elegant, witty, and sophisticated Deadpan Snarker.
• Old-money Virginia plantation owner Thomas Jefferson in Hamilton. He wears a waistcoat and trousers of purple velvet and a floor length coat of Tyrian purple which was known historically for being obscenely expensive and difficult to manufacture. He mocks Alexander Hamilton - who grew up in poverty - by saying that he "dresses like the pits of fashion".

Video Games

• In Afterlife (1996), the Demon adviser Jasper wears a business suit.
• Given a Deconstructive Parody in Afterparty, where Satan really likes to pretend he's this, but quickly proves to be the polar opposite; a drunken, washed-up wannabe fratboy trying desperately to relive his Glory Days through non-stop partying. About the only part he gets right is the fashion.
• BlazBlue:
  • Hazama. You gotta admit, that is one nice suit, he's even got the mannerisms down pat.
  • Relius Clover may count as well, though his cloak is love-it-or-hate-it, but he's otherwise complete with cravat... albeit a metal one. He had a more conventional cravat in his younger days and a sharp suit as an Immortal Breaker
• Pictured at the top of the page is Dracula from Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. Never let it be said that the ultimate evil isn't civilized and cultured.
  • Nor can one say it about the good in Symphony. Alucard is every bit as snappy a dresser as his old man.
• Vergil, as seen in Devil May Cry 3: Dante's Awakening, wears a more old-timey outfit, complete with ascot, compared to Dante's modern fashion sense. Then again, he is an Anti-Villain rather than all-out evil. The human form of their father Sparda wore even more old-timey, complete with elaborate cravat, but he was a Defector from Decadence. Dante's lack of this has been theorised by some as symbolic of his estrangement from his family, which may make his case a Defied Trope.
• Fallout 3's Mr. Burke and his "boss", Alastair Tenpenny. Tenpenny wears a unique suit that gives a small bonus to the Charisma & Small Guns skills.
• Downplayed but definitely visible with Far Cry 3's Hoyt Volker, a South African organized crime leader who conducts business in sex trafficking and gun running. He wears a blazer and proper button-down shirt, as well as well-kept jeans and loafers, in contrast to his employees, who wear tattered, casual clothes from all the dirty business they conduct on their island base. He also expresses a taste for opera, fine spirits, and quality cigars, and he has a fancy office fit for the CEO of a successful company — which, of course he is.
• Hitman: Agent 47 is rarely seen without his all-black suit with matching leather gloves and distinctive blood-red tie. A number of other rival assassins and targets are seen wearing expensive suits as well.
• In Infernal, the head of hell's forces on Earth seems to be aimed at a combination of this, Scary Black Man, and Baron Samedi.
• The Illusive Man in Mass Effect 2 prefers to do his meetings reclining in a chair in front of an impressive vista, wearing an impeccable suit, a cigarette in hand and a glass of expensive bourbon nearby.
• Shang Tsung of Mortal Kombat certainly qualifies as this, from his outfits to his secluded island to even his palace. While Goro's lair is dark, dirty and covered in blood, skeletons and debris, his palace has pure opulence, from velvet curtains to golden dragon statues to his throne.
• Cardinal Albert Simon from Shadow Hearts is dressed impeccably, wearing a very neat black suit, Waistcoat of Style, pocket watch, and tall top hat (the game being set in 1913, it's thematic). Being a Well-Intentioned Extremist, one might say it's either subverted or played straight.
• Shin Megami Tensei: It's quite clear that The Rolling Stones provided more than a little inspiration for the design of Louis Cypher himself.
• The Grand Vampire NPCs in The Sims 2: Nightlife. The Counts wear Bela Lugosi knockoff suits with tailcoats and such, the Contessas wear old-fashioned evening gowns with puffed sleeves and lots of gold embroidery.
• Tekken: Kazuya Mishima, Heihachi Mishima, Lee Chaolan and Jin Kazama all have incredibly dressy outfits for a fighting game; unsurprisingly they're all part of the same family. It remains to be seen if Lars will follow suit.
• The boyfriend in Unpacking comes across as this; he has a sleek and modern apartment in the heart of the city and owns a next-gen console and fancy coffee-making equipment.

Visual Novels

• Ace Attorney:
  • Redd White in Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney. Subverted since that suit is incredibly gaudy. The "bling" doesn't help either.
  • Also subverted by Zinc Lablanc in Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth; despite the name of his Leitmotif being Man Of Wealth And Taste, his outfit is incredibly gaudy, to the point of being worse than Redd's. The only thing Lablanc's really got going for him is that he doesn't have ridiculously-colored hair (blond, as opposed to purple). Also he's not evil. Just annoying.
  • Kristoph Gavin, a murderer from the fourth game, wears a pretty neat double-breasted suit.
  • Manfred von Karma might fill this trope... in the seventeenth century. Cravats have fallen out of fashion nowadays. (Don't tell Edgeworth that, though.)
• Captain Antares Fairchild, an early antagonist and possible love interest in Starship Promise, dresses in an extremely snappy black Empire uniform with shiny gold braid and trim, with cape, at all times except for when he dons his combat armor. He has a very well-established taste for rare and expensive luxuries that borders on the obsessive, probably because he grew up in poverty in a colony slum. Despite serving as the main antagonist of Orion's first season and starting his own route by kidnapping the protagonist, however, Antares proves to be the very least of the setting's evils, more of a Well-Intentioned Extremist than a true villain.

Webcomics

• The version of Satan from College Roomies from Hell!!! often introduces himself with the trope title, but has never shown much sign of actually living up to it. Hazel Green fits the trope better, albeit as a female example.
• Elwood features an occasionally appearing villain called Baron Nefario who always wears a red collared suit and tie with a monocle.
• Doc Scratch in Homestuck, an incredibly smug Manipulative Bastard with a penchant for nice suits, nice furniture, nice clocks, and providing his guests with candy, even if he's planning to beat the snot out of them immediately afterward.
  • The Draconian Dignitary, alias Diamonds Droog, as well. He judges people on how sharply they dress.
• In The Order of the Stick, a devil summoned by Qarr, under the influence of Crushing Despair, notes that all his classmates managed to be men of wealth and taste.
• Despite operating from a Lucy-like booth, The Devil from Sinfest is usually dressed in a sharp suit (when he isn't hunting angels, that is).
  • And he can visit posh nightclubs.
  • Lil' E introduces him as such.
• In Woo Hoo, the antagonistic Sam Velasquez wears stylish hipster-wear (and is even introduced with fashion photo shoot panels).
• The Young Protectors: The Demon Lord Velliok appears as a (sharp-tooothed, black eyed, grey-skinned) man in a dapper charcoal tuxedo, complete with derby hat and pink carnation boutonnière. Even when he's torturing someone bloody in his manor house. In contrast, other powerful demons go for the Big Red Devil or other Monstrous Humanoid look, and have domains in Hell to match.

Web Original

• Bartholomew Banks, the private equity investor in Dr Glaucomflecken is a Corrupt Corporate Executive who only cares about money and is willing to brutally overwork hospital staff and increase patient mortality to get it. Whenever he appears, he wears a fancy suit and has slicked back hair.
• Mr. Anon from Open Blue, a businessman who dresses in the snazziest outfits of the day, and whose business involves payment that isn't in money...
• Whateley Universe example: unstoppable assassin cyborg Deathlist wears an expensive pinstripe suit when he and a small army of bad guys invade Whateley Academy. Everyone else is in military gear or armor.
• When not dressed in his labcoat, Doctor Steel usually dresses in an Aristocratic neo-Victorian Steampunk style, complete with top hat. (He even has his own personal clothier!) His followers wear uniforms that satirically mimic and playfully deconstruct the uniforms of fascist paramilitary groups.
• Edwin Windsor from How to Succeed in Evil is one, with his tailored suits and taste in art.
• In LISDEAD, Dramatic Detective gives a direct Shout-Out to this, it's the password to the first puzzle
• Ask That Guy with the Glasses:
  Ask That Guy: Don't believe me? Well I'm right. Why? Because I have a pipe and jacket. Sorry, I have a vagina and jacket.
• Among the cast of The Nostalgia Critic following its reboot is The Devil himself, who doesn't appear with typical immense size, red skin, or demonic horns, but is rather a normal-looking man wearing a kickass black and red suit and hat ensemble.

Western Animation

• DC Animated Universe:
  • Batman: The Animated Series has The Joker, Two-Face, the Riddler and the Mad Hatter, who all wear over the top suits, and the Penguin, who wears a more conventional (allowing for his body shape) formal suit.
  • An essential feature of Lex Luthor in Superman: The Animated Series. He is always seen in black coat and slacks, with a white vest and tie. In his last appearance, in the Justice League Unlimited episode "Destroyer", he even remarks that to properly deal with Darkseid, he has to get into his "power suit", abandoning the khaki uniform he had been wearing for his original garb.
  • In Justice League, Vandal Savage always wears a nice suit or a nice uniform, when he hasn't had a castle dropped on him. Also, the Ultra-Humanite is a lover of the fine arts, including opera (much to the chagrin of Luthor, who hates opera, and has a cell next to his on Stryker's Island).
• Lex Luthor's appearance in Young Justice (2010) also counts. Vandal Savage and Count Vertigo also fit the bill.
• Metalocalypse: The band is in the Deep South learning the blues, which involves going to the crossroads to sell their souls to the Blues Devil, who is a gaunt, scary-looking man with a milky white eye and a sharp suit and hat.
• Chairface Chippendale, nemesis of The Tick, is always seen in a sharp vest, tie and white gloves.
• Danny Phantom: Vlad Masters, of course.
• Fat Cat from Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers, who even has a song about how he "wants the best of everything."
• Lucius Needful in Rick and Morty, at least before he upgrades to a Jobsian turtleneck. He keeps his top hat, nonetheless.
• Toffee from Star vs. the Forces of Evil wears a nice black suit and red tie, at least in the present. Flashbacks show that his wardrobe used to be a little different.
• Black Hat in Villainous (Cartoon Network), who wears a black suit, grey waistcoat, red tie, monocle, and black top hat with red band. When he creates a duplicate of himself, we learn that he has a bowler hat under the top hat.

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