Rough Overalls

Before they were heroes, they were plumbers.

Overalls, coveralls, dungarees! No matter what you call them, they're sure good at covering up a person. Overalls consist of pants^note or shorts, or a skirt attached to a top front bib, and straps from the back that hook over the shoulders to the front bib. They're often made of denim, a strong fabric that can take the brunt of hard work and harsh cleaning, and cover clothing to keep what's underneath clean. ("Overalls" in British English can also refer to a boiler suit or protective overcoat, rather than the bib-style overalls American English usually refers to, but they count as well.) Jumper dresses (called pinafore dresses in the UK) are a variant where the shorts or pants are replaced with a skirt instead, and can be made either of denim or of something fancier.

One-piece strapped cover-up clothing was once solely the hallmark of blue-collar workers or farm folk, especially in eras where wearing overalls in public places (such as in town) was considered lower-class, rural, and improperly dressed for society — work clothes weren't for social occasions. Overalls have worked their way over the generations into an acceptable fashion choice for many people, but they are often heavily associated in media with a certain shorthand for characterization. An older character in overalls — teens and higher — is likely being characterized as one of the following:

1. A blue-collar worker, or other level of lower/working class. Along with farmers, this covers other manual laborers such as plumbers, carpenters, janitors, construction workers, and the like who don't work sit-down office jobs. Overalls are a fast visual shorthand for a character who's either doing some hard work where their regular clothes would be ruined, working with their hands, or of lower class than the others around them; put one person in overalls and everyone else around them in suit pants and blazers (or even just collared shirts and khakis), and you can quickly tell who's the Working-Class Hero or assumed to not make as much as the nicer-dressed people around them, including their boss. Sometimes, advertisements and propaganda will use these to evoke the idea of the common man or worker and their connection to the lower class, even if the person wearing them is not. They're also worn by characters who may just need them temporarily to stay clean during hard work such as painting, dirty jobs, or farm work. For particularly hot and/or messy jobs, one may also chose to forgo wearing a shirt underneath, as it's much easier to spend five minutes rinsing one's own skin (or fur) than spending hours on end trying to get set-in stains out of a shirt, and wearing overalls is a much more practical alternative to outright toplessness. When needed, the front bib also pulls double-duty as an apron should one not have a rag (or discarded shirt) on hand. But without explanations for why they're being worn in this latter case, that gets a little generic.
2. A rural character, regardless of employment status. Like above, the overalls symbolize they're some degree of lower class that either doesn't have the means to dress up in nicer clothing or can't be assed to. This can easily make the Country Mouse stand out among their City Mouse peers, or confirm that a Country Cousin is exactly that. Also applies to more "bumpkin" characters, even if they aren't specifically from the country (intended to imply that they're not as sophisticated as those around them), the poor (who may not have other nicer things to wear), and adult Tomboys or The Lad-ette (such as the Wrench Wench).
3. To appear young, childlike, carefree, innocent, and/or playful, including emotionally immature people and Adults Dressed as Children. The level of success varies on how well the character pulls it off — they may appear playful and charming, or just look like they're dressed too young for their true age. This isn't the same as Kiddy Coveralls, though it does invoke the idea of them. The difference is that Rough Overalls are on a person who's clearly older and willingly choosing to dress in a way to appear younger than they are, while there's no ambiguity the Kiddy Coveralls are on a kid (and someone who probably doesn't have a lot of clothing choices, unlike adults).

These are the three main uses, with two others that have gone in and out of prominence:

1. An urban youth from the "inner city"; this was prevalent in the late '80s and '90s, but is falling out of fashion. The urban/inner city variant often has the wearer going either with one strap unhooked and hanging free to show the shirt underneath partially or the overalls oversized and sagging low enough to show underwear, showing the wearer's too cool to wear the set properly or to need the protective traits of the clothing.
2. Some media might play overalls up for Fanservice by putting an adult in overalls without a shirt underneath and showing off the chest area, back, sides of the torso (or entire torso if the bib is down), and/or bare shoulders. Since everything sensitive is technically covered but it's the only garment present, this implies that the overalls are all the person is wearing. This is a gender-neutral look — anyone can look sexy in overalls and with men, it's evoking Hot Men at Work. It's also one of the few ways for females to pull off a Shirtless Scene without raising the rating too high, as the front bib will keep their nipples covered, though more "endowed" ladies will have to contend with Sideboob.

Note that the overalls need to be part of the characterization or visualization when on the character, not just mentioning or showing a character who wears them once in a while without a purpose. Just wearing clothes isn't a trope.

A Sub-Trope of Clothing Reflects Personality and Meaningful Appearance, and the Super-Trope/"overalls" half of Overalls and Gingham. The Working-Class Hero might be wearing these, depending on profession, including the Almighty Janitor and the Wrench Wench. Often seen Down on the Farm or in Arcadia, especially for a Farmer's Daughter or Country Cousin. If the character is a Funny Animal and has only the overalls on, this is also a version of a Half-Dressed Cartoon Animal. This trope is about teens and adults (at least around 13); for kids, see the Sub-Trope Kiddy Coveralls (even if they're evoking the rural, urban, or working aspects of the trope).

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Examples:

Advertising

• Monster Cereals: Zig-zagged in the case of Frute Brute. Some marketing portrays him with a shirt and overalls, but some marketing portrays him with only the overalls instead; he's rough with a gravely voice and is more rural and lower class compared to the sophisticated aristocrat mascot Count Chocula.

Anime & Manga

• The Dangers in My Heart: Chihiro "Chii" Kobayashi sometimes wears blue overalls when outside of school. She's more youthful and Tomboyish in personality and looks compared to other girls, is part of the school's basketball team, and according to Yamada she occasionally plays with bugs.
• Galilei Donna: Hozuki wears overalls with no shirt during a very brief scene in the title sequence, in which she is seen taking a wrench to her fish-mecha. This is apparently the only time she wears overalls, as her primary outfit in the anime is a red dress.
• Marmalade Boy: A notable early outfit of Miki Koishikawa is a pair of blue overalls with a heart on the bib over a pink shirt. This goes with her cheerful and cute personality, namely her Tomboy with a Girly Streak personality. This was lampshaded in an early episode when she felt compared against a Girly Girl, calling herself looking like a 'Big Clunky Kid' in her overalls.
• Sailor Moon: Rei Hino, a hot-tempered shrine maiden who pictures herself as the epitome of elegance, is occasionally seen wearing a pair of pink overalls. The outfit demonstrates Rei's dual traits as both girly but also ready to jump into "less refined" activities. Their premiere episode shows this as Rei is first seen in the overalls while pretending to not at all be interested in visiting the studio for the Show Within a Show, the Sailor V anime.
• Star Driver: Mizuno You is the more carefree twin compared to her older twin sister, Marino. Mizuno is also frequently seen wearing overalls as part of her daily wear, highlighting her carefree attitude.

Comic Books

• Superman: In The Man of Steel, Pa Kent — a farmer — is seen working in the fields wearing a pair of overalls and no shirt while Jor-El is explaining where he's sending Kal-El. Lara is horrified by this, declaring that the people of Earth are savages for being so obscene, illustrating the Culture Clash between humanity and Kryptonians.

Comic Strips

• Garfield: Jon's rural living country brother, Doc Arbuckle, wears these as he still lives on the farm with his parents; his father also wears a set. This contrasts the two of them with Jon, who lives in the city and overlaps with Overalls and Gingham.

Films — Animation

• Wrench Wench Audrey Ramirez in Atlantis: The Lost Empire wears overalls, is an engineer, and is a tough Tomboy who's been working on automobiles since she was a child.
• The Super Mario Bros. Movie has Mario and Luigi as plumbers trying to make a go of it together in a new business, complete with wearing overalls to confirm they're Working Class Heroes.
• In Turning Red, Abby Park is the shortest and chubbiest of the group's friends, and wears purple overalls decorated with flowers over a pink turtleneck sweater. She's also the most energetic and rambunctious among Mei's circle of friends, always ready for a fight, and still very girly and prone to Cuteness Overload.
• Wreck-It Ralph:
  • Ralph, the Punch-Clock Villain of the Fix-It Felix arcade machine, wears a pair of dirty brown suspenders with the left suspender unhooked over a frayed plaid undershirt to help emphasize his Lower-Class Lout status as the bad guy.
  • Fix-It Felix also wears overalls — a pair of blue overalls along with his tool belt and hammer — but being the Working-Class Hero handyman these present him in a more professional light than Ralph.

Films — Live-Action

• The Duff: Mae Whitman's character, the titular 'duff', is known for wearing overalls to emphasize her 'Designated Ugly Fat Friend' status.
• Never Say Never Again: A one-off Fanservice Extra credited as "Lady in Bahamas" wears overalls with no shirt when she inadvertently saves Bond while fishing.
• The Hallmark Hall of Fame film adaptation of the children's book, Sarah Plain And Tall has farmer Jacob Witting — Sarah's husband — alternate between a couple of pairs of denim overalls while he's working his land. To hint at his lower class status, the left-side strap on one pair has been replaced with a strip of lighter-colored cloth. His young son Caleb wears them as well, and at one point his Mail-Order Bride Sarah "borrows" a pair of Jacob's to wear while she's helping fix a hole in the farmhouse roof.
• The Punks, one of New York's street gangs in The Warriors, wear overalls over T-shirts for a tough lower-class aesthetic, which contrasts sharply with most of the other gangs who go in for more flamboyant uniforms. The Punks are also one of the genuinely tougher sets the Warriors have to fight.
• Roger of Who Framed Roger Rabbit wears red overalls with a bow tie. While not a working-class hero or of rural background, the overalls evoke the playfulness and goofiness side and of his toon ways; much like other characters put into overalls during the era like the Big Bad Wolf, he's supposed be a bit of a rube, as seen in his short with Baby Herman getting the best of him.

Literature

• Multiple illustrated versions of the Aesop's Fables' story "The City Mouse and the Country Mouse" put the Country Mouse in overalls, to contrast him with the refined City Mouse visually and make it clear he's from a rural place.
• Cat Planet Cuties: Ichika dresses in overalls, a T-shirt, and an oversized cap — which, combined with her physical appearance, makes her look all of fourteen. She's an immortal who is Really 700 Years Old and uses magical talismans, and has cat ears under her hat.
• Hyouka: Maya Ibuki prefers overalls when she's not wearing her school uniform, marking her as the Tomboy in the Tomboy and Girly Girl pairing, with Eru Chitanda making up the other half.
• The Party from Nineteen Eighty-Four has overalls as its primary uniform, since they are ostensibly meant to represent the working class that they profess to champion — blue for outer party members, black for inner party members. This is a reference to how the totalitarian regimes (both fascist and communist) that arose during the leadup to World War II did the same to align with the idea they were connected to the common man. The movie used the British-style boiler suits for the general uniform.

Live-Action TV

• Buffy the Vampire Slayer:
  • In the first few seasons, shy, naive, geeky teen Willow Rosenberg wears overalls multiple times and has them in multiple colors. This starts to change when she goes to college and gets more into magic, changing her look. It also helps that it was The '90s, but it's significant that she's the only girl in the cast to wear them in a colorful fashion.
  • Buffy on occasion wore overalls, but it was nicknamed by the fanbase as her "Dungarees of Depression" due to how she wore them when feeling sad — such as when she had no powers but had to save her mother from a vampire in "Helpless" or when she believed she killed mother's boyfriend when he was really an android in "Ted". The exception to this was during a dream sequence in the Season 4 finale, where Giles dreamt Buffy as a Womanchild wearing overalls with her hair in Girlish Pigtails.
• Discussed in an episode of Blackadder Goes Forth, in which General Melchett fears the Russian Revolution will inspire a similar revolution in Britain.
  Melchett: It's no good crushing a revolution over here only to get back home to Blighty and find that everyone's wearing overalls and breaking wind in the palaces of the mighty.
• The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air has Will wearing these often — including in the first episode — with the variant of one strap loose often. He's much more street-smart and urban than the rest of the Banks, especially his cousin Carlton.
• Referred to in Keeping Up Appearances. In "Let There be Light", Hyacinth volunteers Richard to mend the church hall electrics. He protests that he's "electrically derelict" and that he should be wearing overalls instead of the smart suit Hyacinth makes him wear.
  Richard: People who do electrics wear overalls. It's a very dusty job.
  Hyacinth: But not if you do it executively.
• Letterkenny: Squirelly Dan is a farmer who is always wearing his denim overalls. The Skids in contrast are a mostly unemployed group of drug users who from Season 2 onward are always wearing black overalls.
• Monty Python's Flying Circus: In the "Visitors" skit, a group of obnoxious intruders is a group of Welsh miners who wear mining helmets and overalls.
• Naturally, Sadie: Prior to the Retool of the second season, Sadie often wore overalls to show her Tomboy nature and interest in studying nature, mostly wearing a pair when she volunteers at a zoo or collect samples in a swamp. This became a plot point in "Best of Breed", when an Alpha Bitch volunteers to mentor her on a speech contest but critique Sadie's overalls. Sadie in turn, learn some manipulative tactics and has the popular girl trade away her trendy clothes for her own overalls.
• Square Pegs: A young Sarah Jessica Parker and Amy Linker play a pair of unpopular kids seeking to be accepted by the popular group. As it was felt the two weren't 'ugly' enough, the show's staff made sure to really nerd up their costumes, both often wearing overalls (for Parker's character, in pinafore and jumper styles, for the Girly-Girl style compared to Linker's pant-style overalls, used to cover the fat suit she wears.)

Music

• Dexys Midnight Runners appear in their music video for "Come On, Eileen" as a bunch of overall-wearing working-class stiffs, some of whom are without shirts.

Theatre

• Avenue Q: Gary Coleman, as the superintendent of the building, is dressed in overalls with a toolbelt.
• Godspell: As the play is a Hippie Jesus retelling of the New Testament, with the cast of adult apostles having childlike faith in many senses of the word, it isn't uncommon for at least one cast member to be wearing overalls.
• Mamma Mia!: Donna Sheridan, a hard-working, single woman who owns and runs a crumbling hotel on a Greek island, wears overalls throughout the musical's first act as she continues to work while her friends are visiting for daughter Sophie's wedding.
• In The Play That Goes Wrong, Annie, the drama society's stage manager, set builder, and set painter, wears a pair of blue overalls with paint stains.
• Billy Bob Brockali of The Rock-afire Explosion — a country boy with a Hayseed Name from Tennessee with a wooden bass styled like a banjo — wears red and yellow striped overalls.

Video Games

• Crash Bandicoot: Crash's younger sister was introduced wearing overalls, with one strap off as per 90s tradition. While partially appealing to her Kid Hero status, it also overlaps with her Teen Genius character as she works with making gadgets and machines. She traded out the overalls in the post-Naughty Dog days, going through several redesigns until Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time rebooted back to her original outfit.
• Fate/Grand Order: Paul Bunyan — a female lumberjack — has her second ascension ditch her green coat to reveal blue overalls and a red checked shirt. Her third ascension removes the shirt.
• The Kirby games have recurring Mini-Boss Mr. Frosty, an anthropomorphic walrus wearing a pair of overalls. He has a rough-and-tumble personality, but his overalls also highlight his immature side — while he's not a child, one of his signature attacks involves him goofily Shaking the Rump at Kirby before knocking a block of ice his way.
• In Klonoa Heroes, Pango, one of the playable heroes, wears a pair of green overalls, highlighting his role as a pyrotechnician. His son, Boris, also has a pair of blue overalls.
• LEGO City Undercover: Farm Worker Bill, one of the unlockable Farmer characters, wears only a baseball cap and pair of overalls. He can usually be seen as a background character at Jethro Hayes' farm in Bluebell National Park, suggesting that he's (as his name implies) one of the farmhands.
• Pokémon:
  • The first few versions of Bird Keeper trainers — young men who specialized in working with Bird Pokémon — are in overalls, likely because birds can be messy to handle.
  • Both Ranchers and Cowgirls in Pokémon Diamond and Pearl and their remakes wear overalls, fitting their occupations as farm workers.
  • Pokémon Breeders in Pokémon X and Y^note Starting with the male trainers in Pokémon Black and White are dressed in overalls, keeping them clean while working at a breeding center. Later versions leaned more into the farmer's Overalls and Gingham look to evoke farming aspects of Pokémon breeding. The only versions that revert back to an apron over clothes instead are the remake games,^note Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire and Brilliant Diamond/Shining Pearl where they originally had the look.
• Story of Seasons: The farmer in the first game, Harvest Moon, wears these, as part of the Overalls and Gingham appearance; this carries through to other games, with it being a default look for multiple games. Games that allow clothing variance often have at least one overalls set for the player.
• Super Mario Bros.: The Mario Brothers' iconic overalls reflect their early adventures and characterization as blue-collar workers across various professions, from carpentry to plumbing. Originally, the overalls were red and incorporated into Mario's design to help him stand out from Donkey Kong's black background.
• Team Fortress 2: The Engineer, whose role is in construction, wears a set of overalls as his default outfit.

Webcomics

• Digit from Grrl Power is a Gadgeteer Genius wearing overalls (since she's actually an Expy of Gadget from Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers). As Sydney takes note, the overalls hardly hide the fact that Digit is a shapely blonde babe.
• The Whiteboard: In strips 2348 and 2349, Pirta — who is repainting her apartment — is shown wearing overalls, likely to keep her regular clothes neat as painting is messy; she also has no undershirt.

Web Videos

• Rats SMP: Resident farmer rat Scott wears overalls as a part of his everyday ensemble, and vastly prefers staying in the outdoor gardens and wheat fields to being cooped up in the Mansion, especially at the start of the SMP when the Garden was still inaccessible.

Western Animation

• Bob's Burgers: Tina has fantasies of Jimmy Jr. in overalls in the episode "Pig Trouble In Little Tina" due to going on a hayride at a farm, evoking the rural connotations (and her fantasies).
• The Country Cousin, a retelling of The Country Mouse and the City Mouse, has Country Cousin Abner wearing overalls along with a straw hat.
• Hailey's On It!: Hailey Bank's main outfit consist of a pair of overalls held by one strap, as it goes with her socially awkward personality as a Tomboy and a future inventor. Flashbacks show that since been wearing overalls since she was a little girl.
• Little Rural Riding Hood puts the rural Country Wolf in overalls; this also carries over to the city scenes where, instead of wearing a neat cummerbund like the City Wolf, he's wearing overalls with his dinner jacket and pants.
• Ōban Star-Racers: After proving herself to be a capable mechanic, Molly starts wearing overalls and a crop top. However, it's not immediately apparent that she wears overalls, as she wears the bib and suspenders draped around her waist.
• In the animated short Pigs in a Polka, the third pig wears overalls to emphasize his hardworking nature (he's the one who built his house out of bricks rather than straw or sticks).
• Heffer Wolfe from Rocko's Modern Life is a steer who wears a pair of red overalls, but no shirt; he frequently has lower class jobs such as tree farmer, but is overall lazy and lower class.
• Schoolhouse Rock! has several examples of rural people in overalls, including The Counting Man who counts out the fives in "Ready or Not, Here I Come," the Conductor of "Conjuction Junction," and the farmer in "Little Twelvetoes" among others.
• She-Ra and the Princesses of Power: Entrapta wears overalls over the entire series, even during the Princess Prom. In the first half of the series, she wears them like pants with the upper parts hanging loosely, matching her carefree attitude. At the end of Season 4, she appears in Beast Island wearing them correctly with the suspenders on her shoulders, as a hint that she has become aware of the consequences of her actions.
• The Three Little Pigs:
  • The Big Bad Wolf — a rough country bumpkin — wears only red suspender pants, which pop and fall down after way too much huffing and puffing at the brick house. In two of the sequels, the Three Little Wolves are shown to take after their old man.
  • Practical Pig, the one who builds his house out of bricks, wears blue overalls and a bricklayer's cap. This identifies him as a hard worker, in contrast to his two carefree brothers, who wear sailor suits.
• Hamton J. Pig from Tiny Toon Adventures wears a pair of blue overalls, but no shirt, and is from a lower class — though clean and fussy — family. This is also in contrast to his mentor, Porky Pig who wears a blue jacket but no pants.
• The Tool Street Gang (all heavily anthropomorphized versions of common tools) each sport a pair of blue overalls, evoking their connotations of the working class and construction.
• Transformers: Animated:
  • Mixmaster's robot-mode deco has a dirty-brown shade on the front of his chest and belly, down to a 'belt' line along with upper legs and waist of the same color. Two small patches near his shoulders loop over his back in the same color. This gives him the look of a dirt-encrusted construction worker in overalls, fitting considering he's one of the setting's Constructicons.
  • Huffer and Pipes, a pair of working-joe Autobots, are drawn with much more overt overall designs (including strap buttons!) and big front pocket patterns on their bellies. No surprise there, as they're supposed to be industrial plumbers, and Shout Outs to Mario and Luigi specifically.

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