See also The Adjectival Man, Clothes Make the Legend, Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep", Iconic Outfit, Signature Headgear, and No Name Given. Compare The Noun Who Verbed and "Burly Detective" Syndrome. This trope is not related to The One Who Wears Shoes.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- Luffy from One Piece is often called "Strawhat boy" and is the leader of the Straw Hat Pirates (despite being the only member of the crew wearing one). He even has it on his Jolly Roger!
Art
- Girl with a Pearl Earring by Johannes Vermeer.
- Woman In Gold is a nickname for the Gustav Klimt painting Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I
. It was the subject of a film of the same name (see Film folder below).
Asian Animation
- In Lamput, Fat Doc is sometimes named Specs Doc. The doc with the specs.
Comic Books
- One of the members of the Elite in The DCU is called Hat, after his magic hat.
- Red Robin: The only other name Ra's al Ghul's sister the "Mysterious Cloaked Lady" is referred to with is Daughter of Acheron, a title used by multiple people with the same power set to indicate their allied status and the source of their powers.
- In Bone, the villains frequently refer to Phoney Bone as "the one who bears the star" after the star on his shirt.
- The Hood, whose cloak and boots came from a demon and are the source of his magical powers.
Fairy Tales
- Charles Perrault's Donkeyskin, Little Red Riding Hood and Puss in Boots.
- Joseph Jacobs's "Tattercoats", "Catskin", Cap o' Rushes, and Rushen Coatie.
- The Brothers Grimm's All-Kinds-of Fur and Bearskin
- The ghost story The Woman in Black.
Films — Animation
- In Meet the Robinsons, neither Wilbur nor Lewis know who the villain is or what exactly he wants, so they just refer to him as "Bowler Hat Guy." (His hat, incidentally, is an Unnecessarily Creepy Robot who's his Hypercompetent Sidekick and a Dragon with an Agenda.) Eventually they learn that he's actually the future version of Lewis' roommate, Goob.
- Again, Hat of the Elite in Superman vs. the Elite.
Films — Live-Action
- Men in Black: The Men in Black are a secret organization who polices Earth's alien population, while also keeping the aliens' existence a secret from humanity. They all wear black business suits.
- The Man in the White Suit: Subverted at the end, as the suit falls apart when its experimental fabric decomposes.
- The Tall Blond Man with One Black Shoe and its remake, The Man with One Red Shoe.
- The Woman in Red
- The Woman in Green
- The Woman in Black
- Two of the key characters in the opening sequence of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade are credited simply as "Panama Hat" and "Fedora". The latter character is the one who presents the young Indy with his trademark fedora.
- While advertisements for the movie proudly announced that "The Man with the Hat is back!"
- The character in The Princess Bride whom Inigo Montoya calls "The Man in Black".
- Black Hat from the movie version of Priest (2011) (though he's never referred to as such in the film, only in the credits).
- The Boy With the Purple Socks from the film version of Harriet the Spy.
- The titular Devil in a Blue Dress, though we do learn her name: Daphne Monet.
- Rōnin. Although not involving clothes, the unseen man who recruits the mercenaries is only referred to as "The Man in the Wheelchair".
- The Busby Berkeley Number "The Lady in the Tutti-Frutti Hat" from The Gang's All Here, with the lady in question being Carmen Miranda, wearing one of her famous fruit hats.
- That Lady in Ermine
- In The Mountie, the criminals contemptuously refer to Corporal Grayling as "Red Coat". Not that it particularly bothers Grayling. He is proud to wear the scarlet tunic of the Mounted Police.
- The Treasure of the Sierra Madre: Gold Hat
- The ABCs of Death: In "S", Roxanne's pursuer is only identified as 'The Hooded Man'.
- In Goldstone, Patch, the leader of the Howlers motorcycle gang, gets his nickname from his Eyepatch of Power.
- In Black Patch, Clay Morgan's nickname 'Black Patch' comes from the black Eyepatch of Power he wears.
- Woman in Gold is titled after the nickname for the painting at the center of the story, the Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I.
Literature
- The Man in the Yellow Hat from Curious George.
- The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas (also a movie)
- Girl with a Pearl Earring (also a movie)
- The Man in the Iron Pail Mask by Shel Silverstein
- ... Which references another example,The Man In The Iron Mask.
- The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins: The title character is a young woman with cognitive difficulties whose eccentricities include an insistence on wearing an outfit entirely in white, including accessories such as hat and shawl. There's a mundane in-universe explanation for why she does it, but it also functions symbolically as an Ethereal White Dress.
- The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit
- The Man in the Brown Suit: The title comes from a murder suspect who was wearing a brown suit when he was seen leaving the scene of the crime.
- Many characters called "he Man in Black", including:
- The Man in Black in Stephen King's The Dark Tower series.
- The Man in Black in The Princess Bride.
- The Man in Black in Callum Phillpott's Cyber-Hunt.
- The Lady of the Green Kirtle from The Silver Chair.
- The Cat in the Hat and Fox in Socks.
- The Man in the Mackintosh in James Joyce's Ulysses.
- The Sorceress in Green from the Dragaera series.
- Deerskin by Robin McKinley, an adaptation of the fairy tale "Donkeyskin"
- Exploited by the man in The Black Fedora who wears his iconic outfit to make it harder to recognise him when he takes it off and reverts to being one of the main characters.
- The Boy with the Purple Socks in Harriet the Spy. Harriet never bothered learning his name. It's eventually revealed the rest of the class didn't know it either.
- The Man in Yellow, the otherwise unnamed Big Bad of Tuck Everlasting.
- The King in Yellow
- The King In Red from The Craft Sequence.
- The narration of Emil and the Detectives repeatedly refers to the antagonist as "der Mann im steifen Hut"note . He gives other names for himself but they're likely aliases.
- The Assassin in White from The Stormlight Archive.
- The Man in the Red Sweater from The Call of the Wild.
- Ghost Roads: One of Rose Marshall's epithets is "The Girl in the Green Silk Gown", since that's her Jacob Marley Apparel. It's also the title of the second book in the series.
- One of the more humanoid guests at Lord Thymon's eldritch birthday party in the Crew of the Copper-Colored Cupids story Lord Thymon and the Impossible Guests is referred to as "the Man with the Panama Hat" (that is, until Pythe figures out he is a (benign) version of Nyarlathotep).
Live-Action TV
- During the first season, Bennett from Heroes was known as "the Man with the Horn-Rimmed Glasses", or simply "HRG", by the fans, the production staff and even the actor playing him. The use of the nickname/alternative name came about in the pilot, to preserve the surprise that the sinister Man with Horn-Rimmed Glasses is actually Claire Bennett's father.
- The Man in Black in Lost.
- Person of Interest. Vigilante Man John Reese is always referred to as "The Man in the Suit" by the police detectives pursuing him and by New York's criminal underworld.
Elias: Personally, I think they could've come up with a better name.
- This causes a problem for the FBI in Season 2 when they capture Reese along with three Corporate Samurai, all Badass in a Nice Suit types so they can't tell which one is the man they're looking for.
- Pretty Little Liars where one of the main villains and Alison was simply "Red Coat".
- Raina, the titular character of the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. episode "Girl in the Flower Dress". Other characters identify her by outfit (a whole wardrobe of slinky floral dresses) more often than by name.
- Arrow
- In Season One, the protagonist was called by most people "The Man in the (Green) Hood" or simply "the Hood" when not referred to as "the Vigilante". Oliver Queen doesn't like this moniker and so in Season 2 adopts the name "The Arrow", and in Season 4 "Green Arrow".
- When The Canary appears in Season 2, she's referred to as "The Woman in Black" or "The Woman in the Mask".
- In the first season of The Flash (2014), before the heroes learn Reverse Flash's actual name, they refer to him as "the man in the yellow suit". In fact, Reverse Flash's introduction episode is even has this name as it's title.
- The Red Woman in Game of Thrones.
- Not clothing-related, but similar in spirit: The Cigarette-Smoking Man from The X-Files.
- Days of Our Lives: "Patch" Johnson.
- Bananas in Pyjamas: the title characters and Rat in a Hat.
Music
- Ray Charles's "What'd I Say":
See the girl with the diamond ring
She knows how to shake that thing
See the girl with the red dress on
She can do the Birdland all night long - Johnny Cash, "The Man in Black".
- Chris DeBurgh, "The Lady in Red".
- "The Guy with the Polka-Dotted Tie," one of the earlier song compositions of Jule Styne.
- This is inverted in the Logan Whitehurst song "The Villain Who Wears No Pants".
- The Beatles, "The Ballad of John and Yoko":
''The man in the mac says you've gotta go back, you know, they didn't even give us a chance.
- Marty Robbins, "Cowboy In a Continental Suit."
- The Hollies, "Long Cool Woman (in a Black Dress)".
- "Bananas in Pyjamas" written by Carey Blyton. See also Live-Action TV.
Pro Wrestling
- ECW's Hat Guy.
- Veteran Japanese referee Red Shoes.
Theatre
- In the stage version of For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf, all the women in the play are referred to by what color they wear.
- The Woman in Black
- The Motherfucker with the Hat, about a man who finds someone else's hat in his girlfriend's apartment.
- The Green-Clad Woman in Peer Gynt, also known as the Dovrë-King's daughter.
Video Games
- Pyramid Head from the Silent Hill series. Listed as "Red Pyramid" in the movie credits.
- On account of being an unnamed protagonist, the main character of the original Persona is most often referred to as The Boy with the Pierced Ear.
- Although they don't have official names, most of the mask-wearing characters in Hotline Miami are referred to by the name of their masks. This trope applies straight for the protagonist, nicknamed "Jacket" after his letterman jacket. The term has become a semi-official name for him.
- A Hat in Time: The protagonist, Hat Kid.
- Pokémon Red and Blue: The first generation of games, where opposing trainers other than unique ones, weren't named. All are Lost in Translation:
- Lasses are "Miniskirts" (ミニスカート) in Japanese.
- Youngsters are "Shorts Youngsters" (たんぱんこぞう OR たんパンこぞう) in Japanese.
- As of Kirby: Triple Deluxe, the unique Waddle Dee character with a bandana is officially known as Bandana Waddle Dee.
Webcomics
- Black Hat Guy from xkcd. Also Beret Guy.
- The Idiot in an Awesome Hat (listed as such on the vol.7 cast page) from Girl Genius.
- The Order of the Stick has Redcloak. As Cerebus Syndrome kicked in, we learn that he's formally called the Bearer of the Crimson Mantle, and that his cape is actually an Artifact of Doom that slows down his aging while also making him the prophet of his god, the Dark One.
- The Booted Wight also qualifies.
Web Original
- That Guy with the Glasses
- Welcome to Night Vale has The Man in the Tan Jacket, whose other features - aside from a briefcase filled with flies - are quite literally immemorable.
- As of episode 32, he has a potential name. Everett, Emmett, and Ernest are all mentioned.
Western Animation
- A Looney Tunes short titled "Boston Quackie" had secret agent Daffy Duck tracking down a MacGuffin stolen by the Man in the Green Hat
- My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic: Twilight Sparkle's hastily improvised cover identity in the episode "Friendship University". "My name is Eyepatch. I wear an eyepatch".
- An animated segment on Sesame Street about the letter V featured "the villain in the Panama hat" (who even referred to himself as that).
- Throughout the South Park episode "Woodland Critter Christmas," the narrator refers to Stan as "the boy in the red poofball hat."
TV Tropes
Real Life
- Man in the Iron Mask (also a book by Alexandre Dumas and a few movies).
- Many figures seen in the famous Zapruder Film (the most complete and clear recording of the Kennedy Assassination) are known only by their clothing and possessions, most notably the Babushka Lady and the Umbrella Man.
