Basic Trope: A character's outfit looks like it was assembled by the Random Number God.
- Straight: Dave's everyday clothes are really mismatched and not very practical.
- Exaggerated: Every single person in the setting has not one, but several costumes in his or her wardrobe, each ridiculously overblown.
- Downplayed:
- Dave's everyday clothes are somewhat mismatched, but not enough to be especially attention-grabbing.
- Dave's everyday clothes are fairly normal, but the colors are mismatched.
- Justified:
- All outfits are mismatched because the story is set After the End or During the War, when new clothing is in short supply; or perhaps protagonists are just too poor to afford many new clothes. They have to get by with what they have.
- Dave is lazy, and either doesn't care to think about what items of clothing will go with what, or can't be bothered to wash his clothes most of the time. So he just throws on whatever he can pull out of his wardrobe first.
- Dave is a Cloudcuckoolander and as his friends have noted, it'd be weirder for him to not wear a mismatched clown suit.
- Dave is part of a subculture which values a mix-and-match approach to styles. It's a deliberate fashion statement.
- Dave is going through a mental health crisis, and at home wears whatever is at arm's reach in the morning, whether it's washed, fits with the other clothes or not.
- Inverted: Dave wears a stylish black suit.
- Subverted: Dave is first seen in ridiculous outfit... which he is using as a disguise at the moment. Normally he wears normal clothes.
- Double Subverted: Dave is first seen in ridiculous outfit... which he is using as a disguise at the moment. Normally he wears even weirder clothes.
- Parodied: Protagonists are members of La Résistance, and they are using mismatched outfits to channel the power of chaotic creativity against the Faceless Goons of The Evil Empire.
- Zig Zagged: Characters' choices of dress vary wildly from plain old shirts to Coat, Hat, Mask ensembles to something resembling a drunk octopus.
- Averted: Everyone in the story wears normal, reasonable clothes.
- Enforced: "Dave's outfit needs to be distinctive. Let's see how interesting we can make it."
- Lampshaded: "You bought your outfits in the discount section of second-hand clothing store?"
- Invoked: "Why yes, that's exactly what we did."
- Exploited: The Chosen One is being selected tomorrow. Dave really wants to be chosen and knows people with unusual outfits are generally important characters, so he assembles his best mismatched outfit to increase his chances of being chosen.
- Defied: "I'm going to save the world, but I'm going to do it in style!"
- Discussed: "Are you wearing that for a bet?"
- Conversed: "This outfit is ridiculous. She probably couldn't even move with that many ribbons and belts hanging off her, let alone use a sword."
- Deconstructed: Dave may like his outfit, but it's very inconvenient, constantly catching onto something. Searching through pockets for something needed when it's combat time is also not easy.
- Reconstructed: But on the other hand, Dave can stuff unbelieveable amounts of useful things in all those pockets.
Normal clothes are so boring. Back to our beloved Rummage Sale Reject!
