Any time a lady carries a parasol as a sign of high-class grace and femininity, and sometimes as a sign of demureness and innocence.
The parasol has been used in cultures all over the world for at least 2,000 years, from Egypt to Greece to China, before making its way to Europe and the United States in the 18th century. This trope basically kicked in during the 19th century, when it was almost always proper for a well-to-do lady to carry one to keep from getting sunburns on her delicate skin, whereas poor women had to grub in the fields. Now that having a suntan isn't seen as so gauche anymore, it's just symbolic of the lady having aforementioned traits. Plus, it just looks...well, pretty.
Bonus points if she is also wearing a white, lacy dress, and even more points if she is on an Old-Fashioned Rowboat Date.
Of course, this means the trope is prevalent in The Gay '90s and Southern Belles. Also of course, this can set off Real Women Don't Wear Dresses.
It can overlap with Parasol Parachute, Parasol of Pain, Kicking Ass in All Her Finery.
Compare Umbrella of Togetherness, High-Class Gloves, High-Class Fan, Southern Belle, The Ingenue, Elegant Gothic Lolita.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- In Doki Doki! PreCure, Alice is never seen without a ruffly parasol, indicating her femininity, gentleness, and wealth.
- Maruga, the white dragon Empress from Dragon Crisis! almost always walks around with a parasol, sometimes even at night.
- Juvia of Fairy Tail used to carry a parasol during the Phantom Lord arc, due to her being the bringer of bad weather.
- K has a Rare Male Example in Yashiro "Shiro" Isana, who is never seen without his pretty red parasol. Which he later on starts using as a variation of a Parasol of Pain in regards to channelling his power in it to block attacks - but ''only'' to block.
- Momo the Lolita from Kamikaze Girls is always twirling a parasol that matches her elaborate outfits.
- In Kill la Kill the "royal couturier", Nui Harime (a cutesy psychopath of immense strength and foil to the lead character Ryuko Motoi) first enters the narrative sporting a lacey parasol accompanying her generally high-fashion-meets-frills attire. However, she soon ditches the parasol to reveal Nui prefers to sport half of a massive pair of scissors as a weapon, proof that she is the killer of Ryuko's father that the protagonist has been seeking, although she is still frequently seen with the parasol later, particularly when effortlessly dodging a hail of attacks, which the stylized animation of the show often represents by showing her and the parasol as a Paper Person rotating along the vertical axis.
- Tot's parasol in Knight Hunters is both of prettiness and of pain, being a lacy and frilly one with a hidden blade.
- Evangeline of Negima! Magister Negi Magi sometimes uses this to complement her Elegant Gothic Lolita attire.
- Miss Valentine of One Piece. Thanks to her weight-changing powers, it doubles as a Parasol Parachute. Perona has a parasol as well.
- Osomatsu-san: In the first episode, Todomatsu, the girliest of the boys, shows up holding a pink parasol. It's also one of the reasons he's the trope picture for the potholed "girliest" (Yes, it's actually him).
- Quon from RahXephon carries a prettied up parasol on occasion.
- Ranma ˝: Played for laughs when an old, dying man starts to haunt Ranma's dreams, because "she" reminds him of his first love. In these recurring dreams, Ranma is dressed in girly clothes and sporting a parasol to further accent the femininity of the look. He has to use an equally feminine parasol
later on, which only adds to his annoyance with the situation.
- Revolutionary Girl Utena: Anthy carries one while watching a duel.
- For the first few pages of the Rosario + Vampire manga's obligatory Beach Chapter, Mizore holds a parasol. Justified, in that it's blocking the hot sun from causing any damage to her. Although, she has no qualms about dropping the parasol and donning a stripy bikini later on.
- One of Usagi's disguise dresses in Sailor Moon came with one of these. She was infiltrating a high-class affair and the disguise wouldn't be complete without it.
Arts
- Many of the Parisian ladies in A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte are carrying parasols to indicate their status.
Comic Books
- Golden Eyes gets to carry one in installment 3 of the World War I serial "Golden Eyes" and Her Hero "Bill", as she was knitting in her garden before she had to detain a German spy.
Film — Animation
- Katrina van Tassel in the "Sleepy Hollow" segment of The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad is seen with a parasol in many of her scenes.
- Bridget in An American Tail has one when she first meets Tony but loses it during the cat attack that follows.
- In Mickey's Christmas Carol, Isabelle has a parasol that is purple, like the rest of her outfit.
- Mulan carries a Chinese parasol when she goes to meet the matchmaker (as do all the other girls who have appointments there).
- Jane from Tarzan carries one in some parts of the film.
Film — Live-Action
- The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. When outlaw Tuco is Crossing the Desert on horseback he's not only wearing a sombrero, he puts up a pretty pink parasol as well. Blondie, however, is bareheaded and on foot, as Tuco wants him to die a slow death of heatstroke or thirst.
- Mandalay: Tanya is introduced twirling a lovely parasol on a hot day, unaware of her imminent betrayal. Her physical beauty is key to the plot since it's because of it that she becomes the brothel's main attraction after her lover sells her to a pimp. And then again, why she's able to blackmail her way out of it.
- Mary Poppins' standard umbrella doesn't qualify, but her parasol in the chalk painting sequence sure does — complete with lacy white dress.
- Master and Commander. When HMS Surprise stops off at a Brazilian port, the natives come out in longboats to trade with the sailors, including several women implied to be prostitutes. A rather pretty Brazilian twirling a parasol catches the captain's eye; he's clearly tempted, but as he's married Aubrey walks away instead (though he can't resist turning for one last look at her).
- Many posters for My Fair Lady have Eliza Doolittle using one while Henry Higgins watches on.
- In The Sound of Music, one of the Von Trapp daughters wanted a pink parasol, possibly for this reason.
- Summer Magic. At the lawn party in which Julia and Nancy are competing over Charles, Julia carries a delicate parasol that matches the dress she made.
- In Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, Mrs. Lovett has a light parasol with red polka dots during her "I Want" Song "By the Sea" — she would like to be a lady and have a happy family.
- In Tombstone, Josephine carries one when she first appears.
- Subverted in Under Ten Flags. During World War 2, the Horny Sailors on a British merchant ship are eagerly checking out the parasol-twirling Kimono Fanservice on a (then still neutral) Japanese vessel, until the 'women' cast aside their parasols and race to man the guns of their disguised German raider.
Literature
- Aw, look at Jessamine's parasol in The Infernal Devices! It's so pretty and pink and it even has flowers on it...and then she stabs and kills a minor "monster" to death with it.
- In Little Women, Meg wants a white parasol with a black handle to take to a wealthy society friend's house, but Marmee gets her a green-and-yellow one by mistake.
- In Welcome to the NHK and its adaptations, Misaki is introduced with one of these - though she is something of a subversion of the Purity Sue archetype.
Live-Action TV
- Kaylee from Firefly carries a parasol when she is first introduced, to show that despite being a Wrench Wench, she still likes some pretty things (a trait we see more of in "Shindig").
- The Ghost and Mrs. Muir: In "It's a Gift!", the Captain attempts to buy Caroline a gift in an attempt to make up for his interfering in Jonathan's education. He is convinced that a parasol would be the perfect gift—as it would have been for a lady of his time—and has an Imagine Spot of her strolling in the garden wearing a lacy white dress and carrying the parasol.
- Kari of MythBusters works the occasional parasol if she's dressing up for an experiment.
- In NCIS, Abbie wore a lacy dress (but a black one), and had a matching parasol that she twirled around.
- Worn with a matching dress in the opening of That Girl.
- In an episode of Unhappily Ever After, Jennie wanted a picnic like that in a film she watched (didn't work out), and wore a white dress and a parasol.
- In the 1999 miniseries adaptation Wives and Daughters, lots of ladies can be seen with a pretty parasol. It's especially noticeable with free-spirited Lady Harriet (emphasis on high class and beauty) and the heroine Molly Gibson (emphasis on gentle disposition and femininity).
Theatre
- In Lestat, Claudia mentions how cute people think she is with a parasol in "I'll Never Have That Chance".
- The young ladies who perform the foot juggling act in Nouvelle Experience not only carry Chinese parasols but use them as their primary props!
- Parasols are featured prominently in the opening number for Ragtime. In fact, they're presented as one thing that separates the upper-class whites from "Negros" and "Immigrants".
Theme Parks
- In The Haunted Mansion at the Disney Theme Parks, the ballerina in the stretching paintings, to help the contrast with the grim situations in the full paintings.
Video Games
- According to a note in Amnesia: The Dark Descent, Daniel had to use one when he went to the desert. He didn't want to, since he would invoke this trope.
- BlazBlue: Lady Rachel Alucard is Weakened by the Light due to being a vampire, so they're used for protection from the sunlight. Being a Fighting Game character, they double as a Parasol of Pain and a cat.
- In Fire Emblem Heroes, Constance carries a parasol with her at all times in her map sprites, likely to avoid conflicting with how the game has no way of changing her mood whenever she's in direct sunlight.
- Yamato from KanColle carries a small one. The shaft is modelled after her namesake battleship's distinctive inverted-tripod mast.
- The King of Fighters:
- Mai Shiranui from Fatal Fury wields one in one of her win poses. Out of nowhere, apparently, just to make her look even more prettier.
- Kasumi Todoh from Art of Fighting also carries one in some of her win poses.
- Considering that she is absolutely loaded, Rose Bernstein owns one, even if she doesn't act prim and proper. One of her brother Adel's special moves solely consists of her strolling in, under the parasol, and taunting him.
- Princess Agitha from The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess isn't really a princess, but she sure acts like one, and when outside she uses a parasol that matches her dress.
- In the mobile phone game Love Nikki - Dress Up Queen, an outfit called Umbrella Memory that requires spending real money to obtain has a special pose with Nikki holding a parasol. The outfit evokes blue and white Chinese porcelain.
- The Parasol Zombie from Plants vs. Zombies 2: It's About Time. Aside from making her look somewhat elegant (for a zombie), it also makes all lobbed-shot attacks bounce off harmlessly, protecting zombies near her from them.
- Selphy, an Eligible Bachelorette in Rune Factory Frontier has one of these when she's outside in the sun; she twirls it a lot, and since it's heavily hinted at that she's a Rebellious Princess this definitely counts.
- Sofia of Rune Factory 3 carries a parasol, mostly for the shade it grants, as she admits it's made of silk and is useless in actual rain. (You can craft a duplicate of her umbrella as a fairly-powerful shield item).
- Okuni from Samurai Warriors is a travelling performer who is incredibly refined in both tastes and fashion, as is evidenced by her use of one of these, but it doesn't stop her from using it as a Parasol of Pain.
- From the Soul series, we have Setsuka, who wields a parasol (and a blade hidden within it).
- Josephine, the "fop" character of Suikoden V, fought with one.
- Princess Peach from Super Mario Bros. being the sweet, feminine lady she is, often gets a parasol. She gets one in the first Paper Mario game that lets her disguise herself as anyone she points it at. It overlaps with Parasol of Pain in Super Mario RPG and the Super Smash Bros. game.
- Princess Peach has access to Perry again in the fan game Super Mario Fusion Revival as her answer to Mario's Raccoon Suit. Perry can be used to fly, to slow her fall, and to attack.
- Several of the Touhou Project girls can be seen with umbrellas, including Yukari Yakumo, Yuuka Kazami, Remilia Scarlet (who is a vampire, and uses it for sunlight protection), and Kogasa Tatara (the last one has it as a result of actually being an umbrella youkai).
Visual Novels
- Mio from Little Busters! always carries a lacy white parasol with her whenever she's outside. This emphasises her traditional, elegant beauty, as well as implying a great physical fragility. The fact that she's never seen in direct sunlight also hints at there being more to her than what people see on the surface, while her nickname 'no shadow' refers to the way she seems as though she doesn't belong to this world. The parasol is so integral to her character, in fact, that her default battle title is 'Parasol-holding Silent Beauty' and her credits sequences involve a stylised, slowly-spinning parasol. It's very important to her plotline - she carries the parasol to hide the fact that she literally no longer has a shadow.
- Dahlia Hawthorne from Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Trials and Tribulations has a parasol with a shade of light pink and ever-present personal butterflies. Until she burns them up with her demonic gaze as part of her Villainous Breakdown.
- As part of her elegant, traditional appearance, Kakuya from Spirit Hunter: NG carries a red parasol when confronting Akira in the underpass. It'll make an appearance in some endings where Kakuya was supposedly locked away, signalling that she might not be gone for good.
Webcomics
- A male example (assuming the gender of this character is stated) is the Monster in the Darkness from The Order of the Stick, who is ordered to stay in the shadows until the right time to reveal him. When going outside, he has to stay in the shadows of a parasol, which is Hello Kitty pretty, to show his gentle nature.
Web Original
- Clemence Ceillet de Rousseau of Survival of the Fittest infamy owned one such parasol. She quickly abandons it, though, considering "She had no time to bother with petty things".
- This picture◊ by Anand Duncan is a winter princess carrying a parasol, and it's trimmed with white fur to match her Pimped-Out Dress.
Western Animation
- In an episode of Alvin and the Chipmunks, Brittany and Jeanette took part in a beauty pageant where, at one point, the contestants dressed in Victorian costumes and handled parasols.
- Minnie Mouse has one in the 1890s-themed Classic Disney Short The Nifty Nineties.
- The "Stormy Weather" episode of Miraculous Ladybug features wannabe weathergirl Aurore Beauréal carrying one. Becomes Parasol of Pain when she turns into the Monster of the Week.
- Penelope Pitstop has one mounted on the back of her car, on Wacky Races.
- Cindy Bear of Yogi Bear fame.
- Pete White of The Venture Bros. frequently carries one. It fits perfectly with his Camp Straight characterization, but it's also fully justified because he's an albino.
