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File:Amidala wardrobe.jpg

And that's just from one movie.


Cquote1
"All I have to say is that she walks through a doorway, and has a wardrobe change. I got one — sorry, two dresses and the first one looks the same all the way around."
Carrie Fisher (Princess Leia), on Padme Amidala in the Star Wars prequels.
Cquote2


Some characters never seem to wear the same outfit more than once. Whether they are rich, or shouldn't have nearly enough clothes, they seem to have a new outfit for every other episode, to every other scene.

This takes special effort regardless of being live action or animated, as a whole new costume need to be made (or grabbed from stock) in some way.

Compare Costume Porn, Changing Clothes Is a Free Action (for a new outfit each scene), Virtual Paper Doll.

Contrast Limited Wardrobe.

Examples of Unlimited Wardrobe include:


Anime and Manga[]

  • Alive the Final Evolution has the protagonists swap clothes quite a bit, which is a little odd when you remember that Taisuke, Nami, and Yuta are all runaways surviving on whatever Taisuke can earn with short, part-time jobs. Partially justified in that they get into fights and require a change of clothes afterward, but sometimes it seems to be just for the sake of a new outfit.
  • Tomoyo from Cardcaptor Sakura always gives Sakura a different dress for every single time she must fight a card, even if that means using 2 different dresses for each episode. Also justified, because Tomoyo is Sakura's Costume Tailor Otaku Girl and has a huge bank account at the Crédit Suisse bank.
    • This seems to be a requirement for anything under CLAMP's belt. If one considers X/1999, Kobato., Tsubasa and xxxHolic (see below for elaboration on the latter two) one could make a very compelling argument that the female quartet just wants to draw anything and anyone in Impossibly Cool Clothes.
    • What makes Tomoyo's work so impressive is she has outfits specially made to deal with specific cards. And she has these outfits as early as the (actual) second episode.[1]
  • The goddesses from Ah! My Goddess had unlimited wardrobes as well, although this was briefly demonstrated as an ability the goddesses had; they used their magic to create outfits for themselves. This occured in direct contrast to Keiichi, who almost always wears the same outfit in every chapter (white shirt and jeans), a fact which was often lampshaded in later volumes.
  • In Suzumiya Haruhi, Asahina Mikuru never wears the same casual outfit twice. This doesn't come up much, as she's usually either wearing her school outfit, or is being forced to cosplay by Haruhi.
    • In the anime version of "Endless Eight" we get to see the Brigade in a lot of different clothes.
  • Yuko Ichihara of XxxHolic and Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle. Not only does she wear a completely new and incredibly elaborate outfit every chapter or episode, she often can squeeze in two or three additional costume changes.
    • There are two outfits that buck the trend in order to indicate thematic/plot information: the formal gown from her first appearance in Tsubasa recurs at least two more times, both very solemn occasions involving huge wishes and prices. Her kimono with butterfly wings attached to the obi has appeared once in each series, both times at an extremely important plot juncture involving Watanuki.
  • Isaac and Miria from Baccano wear new costumes or disguises on each theft. These range from dressing up as mummies to what can be even considered as cosplay.
  • Fujiko Mine of Lupin III rarely wears the same outfit across more than one episode.
  • Beginning with Initial D's Second Stage arc, every character wears different clothing from day to day.
  • Similarly to Samurai Jack, in Fist of the North Star Kenshiro would always destroy his own jacket before the main fight Once an Episode, but would have a new one from nowhere later.
  • The titular Ouran High School Host Club have a different set of outfits for all of them (including everything from knights to police officers) almost Once an Episode.
    • Not just during cosplays, but also with their casual clothes. In the anime none of their casual outfits are seen more than once. In the manga Haruhi wears the same outfit every so often, but she's also from a lower middle class family, so it makes sense. Ranka is also seen in his iconic shirt with the kanji for "father" quite a few times in the manga, but it was a gift from Haruhi, so it's probably a favorite shirt of his.
  • Bleach: Subverted. The characters in the manga typically always are in the Shinigami outfit but outside the manga, as in chapter and manga covers, special art books, and on the back of the manga. They have like a million outfits. Tite Kubo even stated he'd like to go into fashion (probably as a result of it).
    • This is only really the case for any group with specific uniforms or the Vizard. When conflicts aren't taking place, the majority of the characters tend to wear unique clothes when moving around in the human world (that is, unless they're Shinigami not using gigai, the Vizard, or an enemy, which is usually some form of a hollow). In the Fullbring arc of the manga, only humans were involved until near the end, so unique clothing was seen often.
    • Mayuri also have a different mask and makeup every time there's a significant gap between appearances.
  • It sometimes seems the whole point of Paradise Kiss. It is about a group of fashion designers.
  • Rahzel from Hatenkou Yuugi wears a different outfit in every episode, despite the fact that she's travelling on a presumeably limited budget.
  • The costume designer for the titular Princesses of Princess Princess falls all over himself to create costumes, each more fabulous than the last.
  • Kobato.'s outfit changes every day. This is weird, considering she has little money, and her only possessions are a futon, a bottle and an empty suitcase. Though this is probably the least mysterious thing about her.
  • Erza of Fairy Tail has Unlimited Wardrobe as an actual power; the "Requip" ability of her "The Knight" magic lets her change between many outfits at will, which includes both many different suits of ability boosting armors used in combat and regular (or not so regular) clothes for other occasions. She once stated she has a stock of hundreds of outfits, and is continually adding more (as well as losing some, though it's not clear if damaged requips are permanently destroyed).
  • Sailor Moon is a borderline case. Usagi and her friends would wear a "new" outfit in an episode, then change it to another in the next one, and change it again... and after a while, you'd notice that the outfits repeated themselves in a regular basis. (It was specially notorious in the case of Ami, who seemingly owned just one pair of pants and one more boyish sweater...)
  • Lunlun has this as her superpower, since her Transformation Trinket gives her access to an unlimited range of outfits.
  • Becky of Pani Poni Dash! shows up for school in a different and unique outfit nearly every episode. For whatever reason, the same can't be said for any of the other teachers.
  • Michiko in Michiko to Hatchin seems to be wearing something new every episode. This incredible variance is especially surprising considering she's an outlaw with very little to her name. An early episode features her casually stealing shoes for Hatchin, so that's probably how she procures her clothes.
  • All of the characters in Figure17 change clothes every day, no matter how minor their role in the story is. Even things like pajamas that would normally remain constant in an animated show get swapped out as time passes in the story.
  • Rave Master; somewhat Justified as most of the time their clothes are getting damaged.
    • That explains why the anime used Limited Wardrobe! They removed all the clothing damage.
  • The main cast of Ano Hana (with the exception of Menma), when not in school uniforms, have completely different clothes in every episode.
  • Justifed in Kodomo No Jikan, for two of the characters at least. It's shown Rin gets all kinds of stuff because Reiji wants to be nice and Kuro's rich as hell.


Comic Books[]

  • The Wasp from the The Avengers has had several dozen different costumes throughout the years; artist George Perez was particularly fond of designing new outfits for her. This is to call attention to her civilian job as a fashion designer.
    • The Scarlet Witch is almost as bad.
  • You never see any of the kids from Runaways wearing the same outfit twice. This is especially ridiculous considering that they're supposed to be runaways with limited resources. Granted, most of them came from wealthy families, but none of them seemed to be carrying more than a single backpack when they went on the run.
  • While never explicitly called out, Storm from the X-Men has had more costumes than any other member. It got particularly bad in the second half of the X-Treme X-Men series, where she had on a different costume in nearly every story arc.
  • Plus the X-Men teams in general have had far more costume changes over the years than typical superheroes.
  • Batman may be an archetypical example of Clothes Make the Legend but in various adaptations, he's got other outfits ranging from Powered Armor to Humongous Mecha to even costumes fitted for his allies, just in case. Who knew Superman's logo looked pretty good on Batman's suit?
  • Betty and Veronica are classic examples of this trope. It's also one of the rare instances when the Unlimited Wardrobe is Justified for both girls. Veronica obviously has the money to buy whatever clothes she wants...and as for Betty, in some stories she's developed an impressive wardrobe of her own because Veronica just hands off any clothes she gets tired of to Betty. Not that Betty necessarily minds, since Veronica's generosity allows her to keep up with Ronnie in fashion despite her much more limited finances.
    • Katy Keene has had so many outfits, that Veronica once celebrated finally owning more outfits (although Katy still modeled far more).
  • Tony Stark updates the design of his basic Iron Man armor every ten or so years. This is done by the artists to prevent Zeerust. Stark is also shown on more than one occasion to have hundreds of purpose-built armors, stored in a gigantic cellar.
  • Spider-Man: How many costumes has he gone through?!
    • Averted in that his costume changes are always very temporary. As is, he has had as many costumes as Superman.
  • A plausible answer for many of the costume changes in comics boils down to two words: Clothing Damage. This is also lampshaded every now and then, such as Spider-man more than once wearing some mish-mosh of things during particularly grueling marathons of combat, once needing to use his webbing to keep his suit together and still having the wits to lament how hard it was going to be to get a whole bunch of new suits.
  • In contrast to her game version Amy in Sonic the Comic has numerous articles of clothing, apparently changing them every arc (including one-shots). She's worn eye-liner on one occasion, and has even sported a Gothic Lolita look in the fan continuation.
  • Millie the Model has several outfits worn by the models.
  • In the flashback portions of Transformers More Than Meets the Eye, Shockwave changed his paint every week.

Fan Fic[]

  • Seemingly, everyone in My Immortal.
  • In the Lyrical Nanoha fanfic Blood and Spirit, Arisa, having died and come back as a ghost, has the ability to imagine herself wearing any clothing, and thus change her outfit accordingly.


Film[]

  • Star Wars. Two words: Padmé Amidala. Wookieepedia even has a separate article for that. Justified because she's the queen of Naboo, later a senator representing at least a system, if not a sector. Between the hair and the outfits, she's a wonderful challenge for female (or male) cosplayers.
    • Lampshaded in The Phantom Menace. When stranded on Tatooine, one of the things that Obi-Wan suggests in order to get money to repair the hyperdrive is to sell the Queen's wardrobe.
    • Padmé's handmaidens also have their own ever-changing assortment of robes, to show hers to greater advantage.
  • While not nearly as bad as Padme, both Arwen and Eowyn of The Lord of the Rings films have quite a few dresses for their characters. This website shows off their, plus the rest of the cast's outfits in detail.
  • As a rare male example, William Shatner in Star Trek: The Motion Picture changes through five or six uniforms during one mission.
  • Jareth of Labyrinth condenses this for movie length by wearing something new almost every time he appeared on screen.
  • Elizabeth Taylor in Cleopatra had 65 costumes, a record for a motion picture. This works out to an average of one costume for every five minutes in the extended directors cut. She was the Queen of Egypt.
  • Both Blind Mag and Amber Sweet in Repo! The Genetic Opera have striking costume changes for each scene they appear in. Amber goes one step further, however, by also having different hair colors different body features, as befits an addict to high-tech plastic surgery.
  • Kirsten Dunst as Marie Antoinette, for the same reasons as Elizabeth. Dunst wears five costumes less than Taylor in a movie that lasts half as long. Now that's got to be a record! Well, it got them an Oscar.
  • Well, screw both Dunst and Taylor: Throughout the film version of Evita, Madonna had undergone 85 costume changes, 20 more than the latter (including 39 hats, 45 pairs of shoes, and 56 pairs of earrings), which is enough to earn her a spot in the 1996 Guinness Book of World Records! That's a REAL Unlimited Wardrobe!
  • In The Great Race Natalie Wood wears a different costume in every scene, despite taking part in a car race around the world.
  • The Shirley MacLaine comedy What A Way To Go is interspersed with parodies of other movie genres. One of these is the "1950's Big Budget Hollywood Romance", and so her character goes through five or six extravagant costume changes in as many minutes. (And in the rest of the film she runs the gamet from furs to near-rags..)
  • Maggie Cheung wears a different Qipao in every scene of In the Mood for Love.
  • Near everyone in Clueless, but especially Cher who even has a program on her computer to pre-match her outfits so that she can hit a button on her closet and have the clothes roll out to her like at the dry cleaners.
  • Lisa Fremont in Rear Window:
Cquote1

 Jeff: Is this the Lisa Fremont who never wears the same dress twice?

Lisa: Only because it's expected of her.

Cquote2
  • The Duchess: Keira Knightley wears a different dress in every. Single. Scene. Justified because the film takes place over several years and she's ludicrously rich, but still.


Literature[]

  • In The Clique, the members of the Pretty Committee change outfits all the time. This only accentuated by the fact that every outfit is described in brand name-filled paragraphs.
  • In The Baby Sitters' Club series, Claudia is, in every single book, said to never wear the same outfit twice. She goes out of her way to do this; never in the history of the books has she worn an exact outfit more than once, even if it means just using a different pair of earrings.
  • Sei Shonagon in The Pillow Book. Then again, she was a lady-in-waiting of Empress Sadako, and she was very fussy about following (or even setting) court fashion.
  • The Guardians can create clothing with a thought, though some have more skill than others. Selah, an 18th century housewife, describes it as her reward for spending her life sewing.
  • Molly Metcalf from the Secret Histories series has a magical version of this. She can conjure up any outfit she likes with just a thought.


Live-Action TV[]

  • The Cat in Red Dwarf wore a different outfit every episode. Not initially a full example, since it's an explicit part of his character - in "Future Echoes", faced with a choice between death or trimming his wardrobe down to only two suits, he declares that "Two suits is dead!", and considers cutting off his leg to give him room for a third - but it slips into how-does-he-do-that territory in season six, when the ship unexpectedly disappears, leaving the crew with just one shuttlecraft and its contents. (On the other hand, season six also contains the only episode in which the Cat is seen to repeat an outfit, setting up a joke in which the return of a killer android from the episode in which he previously wore the outfit leaves him less concerned about imminent death than about the damage his reputation will take if it gets out that he's worn the same outfit twice.) Naturally, in the "Better Than Life" episode, one of his fantasies catered for by the virtual reality simulation involves his wardrobe - it's so big that it crosses an international timezone.
    • According to the DVD commentary, it has happened at least once behind the scenes. One outfit the Cat wore was a black and white striped outfit. The designers, needing a new outfit, took the clothes and proceeded to use a felt tip marker to colour the white stripes yellow.
  • Doctor Who: In contrast to the decidedly limited wardrobe of the Doctor, most of his companions wore different outfits in each serial. In the 2000s series, Rose Tyler is often seen coming home from time-travelling with a basket full of laundry for her mother to do.
    • The new series has shown the TARDIS to contain an extremely large wardrobe from which the Doctor picks his outfits, and the Tenth Doctor has occasionally been seen to trade in his brown suit for a blue one, or to don a tuxedo. The Fourth Doctor also changed his wardrobe occasionally as period fashion dictated, but maintained the same color scheme and his characteristic scarf.
      • Well in the Fourth Doctor's initial introduction, he went through several outfits, including a viking costume, a harlequin clown outfit, and a few others before settling on his coat and scarf standard. This scene is actually taken to another extreme when Romana regenerates, and uses her vastly greater control to go through several significantly different bodies, each wearing a different outfit, until she settles on a copy of Princess Astra wearing the Doctor's outfit (though she then swaps it for a somewhat pinker version). Other Fourth Doctor stories show in passing a large number of inner rooms of the TARDIS, including an extremely large room the Doctor refers to as his "boot cupboard".
      • Even though individual Doctors tend to settle either on a single outfit or variations on a theme, it's probably justified that he owns a lot of clothes because he regularly (well, regularly for someone who measures his lifespan in centuries) regenerates into a new body and personality. Never know what the new you will want to dress like, or if your old stuff will even still fit. He also seems to keep around clothes that his companions leave behind; in one serial Sarah Jane finds a dress, and the Doctor comments that it belonged to Victoria, meaning he's probably hung onto it for decades at least. Despite this, he's still had to steal his clothes from hospital locker rooms on no less than three separate occasions.
    • Martha Jones wore the same outfit for her first 6 episodes, although they did take place straight after each other and since it was supposed to be "just one trip", she hadn't bought a change of clothes. After she and the Doctor returned to Earth, she presumably picked up more clothes since her outfits started changing.
    • In the fourth series of the New Dr. Who, Donna bought a number of suitcases with her when she joined the Doctor in the TARDIS, including a hat box, and thus has a different outfit every episode.
    • Whereas in the Classic series, Sarah Jane Smith often had multiple costume changes in several serials. Usually these changes were for no apparent reason including one time in "Genesis of the Daleks", where Sarah found a change of clothes in a cupboard full of explosives. This was due to a mistake by the production team - the serial after that one had already been filmed with that costume, and it was only when they were filming "Genesis" that they realised Sarah didn't have a chance to get back to the TARDIS in between (having been forced onto that mission by the Time Lords), so they had to contrive a way for her to change clothes.
    • Amy Pond does occasionally reuse jackets and her long red scarf, but for the most part she has a pretty varied wardrobe. Though it is logical that she brought a decent amount of clothes with her, since she'd been waiting for him to return since she was 10 years old and would probably be Crazy Prepared.
    • River Song wore a different outfit every time her personal timeline intersected with the Doctor's. As of the end of season 5, we've had a white spacesuit, two different black dresses, a skin-tight black pant suit, white overalls, and a Cleopatra disguise.
    • Clara Oswald had a truly staggering amount of costume changes. Her Wikipedia pages only shows most of them.
  • The Sliders seemed to have new wardrobe (and always plenty of money) every week, despite only ever taking one change of clothes through the wormholes between worlds. There were occasional attempts to explain this (alternate versions of the sliders have the same ATM PIN), but it still strained credibility to have every cast member show up with a whole new ensemble each week, especially since this would happen even with episodes that were set immediately after each other, leading one online fan to ask the question "what really goes on in that wormhole??"
  • While all of the other castaways in Gilligan's Island had to make do with a Limited Wardrobe or a few token outfits, the Howells dressed as though they had a bottomless clothes chest. One has to wonder just what they were doing taking all that clothing on what was ostensibly a three hour tour. (Not only did they have several outfits each, but they had costumes, wigs, enough fabric to make long door curtains, and large bundles of cash in varying denominations.) Additionally, the castaways as a whole even had enough spare clothing amongst them to sew together to make a theater curtain.
    • The Howells brought so many clothes with them on the Minnow because they were rich bastards twits who were incapable of tolerating limited means, ever. In the unaired pilot you can see Gilligan struggling to carry several of their suitcases on board.
    • Ginger also Flanderized into this in the later seasons; at first she's seen wearing an outfit made from canvas (or something) with "SS Minnow" stenciled on it.
    • When you take into account all the people and stuff that tends to wash up on that island (how far can it actually be from the shipping lanes), a crate full of women's evening gowns doesn't seem that unlikely.
  • The characters on Sex and the City were famous for this.
    • In fact, the costume department took it upon themselves to ensure that no character ever appeared in the same outfit twice. It became easier in later series, when they started being sent lots of freebies...
  • The cast and crew of News Radio viewed Kathy Griffin's character on Suddenly Susan as a knock-off of their character Beth. Thus Beth would always wear lots of wacky one-of-a-kind clothes in an effort to make her inimitable.
  • Lampshaded as a major plot point in How I Met Your Mother. Lily's fabulous wardrobe is revealed to have caused massive credit card debt.
  • Delenn in Babylon 5 had a same style costume in almost every episode, but almost every time with different colours.
    • Justified in that, well, she's an ambassador, supported by a government that has a vested interest in her making a good impression.
      • It doesn't need justifying. If you're paying attention, she's mix-and-matching the same dresses and over-dresses in differing combination, which do repeat. In fact the only dresses NOT seen more than once, are the ones in the Flash Forward Episode at the end of the fourth season, and the ones from the Distant Epilogue.
      • Can't say I recall her wearing that Little Black Dress from her first dinner with Sheridan ever again. Shame, that.
      • She was seen in two LB Ds, both of which appeared only once. The first one did suit her a lot better. The second, strapless, LBD made her look very top heavy given her headbone.
  • Buffy, Willow, Cordelia, Dawn, Tara, and Anya never wear the same outfit twice; and, with the exception of Willow's clothes in Seasons 1 and 2 (and early 3), were all very fashionable. Even when Willow was dorky-jumper-and-sweaters girl, they were different dorky jumpers and sweaters every episode.
    • While it's true that they rarely repeat full outfits, if you pay close attention the characters will repeat articles of clothing. I do remember one repeated outfit though, Willow wore the same long pinkish dress in season 3 and 5; the cast also had limited coats that would be repeated several times.
      • In one or more episodes in season 6, Buffy had a fairly distinctive white blouse that she at least tried to wear more than once. Dawn, at some point, plays around with Buffy's clothes and gets pizza sauce on it, and Buffy is, in season 7, shown trying to get the stain out so she can wear it for what might be a date with Principal Wood.
    • This point is mostly true, except that Tara's early outfits (on her first appearances in season 4) were not exactly fashionable (quirky is more like it). As with some other Buffyverse women, her fashion sense seems to improve apace with her self-confidence.
    • Financial difficulties also don't seem to slow down these characters' clothes purchases, either, if Buffy in Seasons 6 and 7 (after her mother's death) is any indication. Though Cordelia loses her family fortune, her wardrobe in later years stays varied, though less flashy and country club-like than in her high school days.
  • Maybe the Charmed girls had a magic wardrobe-replenishing spell- they wore different clothes every. single. freaking. episode. Most of them, other than Holly Marie Comb's, were also of the extremely Fanservicy variety.
    • This was also Lampshaded in one episode, which had Alyssa Milano exclaim, "I'm going to go change--I've been wearing this outfit for almost an hour!" You'd really have to be insane to raid Phoebe's closet, especially in the later seasons.
  • London Tipton (played by Brenda Song) of Disney's The Suite Life of Zack and Cody has never worn the same outfit twice, IIRC. Her hairstyles are equally varied. This makes sense, since she is absurdly rich and self-centered. What's kind of weird is that ALL of the people who don't wear suits have immense wardrobes, including the titular characters Zack and Cody, their mother, and their friend Maddie. None of these characters are particularly rich. In fact, it is somewhat frequently mentioned that Maddie is not that well off financially (despite attending a school that requires uniforms. Go figure).
    • Disney Channel loves doing this in their live-action shows.
  • On Ugly Betty, the title character seems to have an unlimited supply of bizarrely dorky outfits, despite her lower-middle class background.
  • The Carol Burnett Show had costumes designed by Bob Mackie. He loved designing new clothes for sketches.
  • Firefly dances around this; though each character tends to wear a wide variety of clothing, a few of them have specific outfits they wear multiple times, like Mal's iconic brown and red shirts with suspenders, River's pink dress with white lace duster, and Book's priest outfit. On the other hand, Jayne, Inara, Wash, and Kaylee never seem to wear the same clothes twice.
    • Watch carefully for repeating articles of clothing. For example, the top and veil that Inara wears in Trash is the same as what she wears in the flashback in Out of Gas.
    • And Kaylee has two distinct sets of coveralls (the green sleeveless one with the teddy-bear patch, and the grey boiler suit) which she wears with different T-shirts. She also undoes the top part and lets it hang around her waist when she isn't actively Wrench Wenching.
  • Mary Richards of The Mary Tyler Moore Show was sufficiently well-known for this that Mad Magazine made it the central focus of its parody, "The Mary Tailor-Made Show".
  • This is parodied in an episode of Big Wolf on Campus in which Merton Dingle wears a different costume (After he decides that he, the main character, and Lori Baxter are a superhero team) during each scene over the course of said episode. These costumes include a parody of Professor Xavier and a pirate (complete with plastic parrot).
  • Desperate Housewives.
  • In Pushing Daisies, it gets to the point where even Lily's eyepatch changes on a regular basis.
  • Melinda Gordon of Ghost Whisperer hasn't worn the same too-fancy-for-upstate-New York-outfit twice.
  • Subverted in Dollhouse, as the episode "Needs" (1x08) has Echo and her fellow Actives stumbling into the Dollhouse's extremely full costume warehouse. With tags identifying whom each article of perfectly tailored clothing is for, almost making this a parody at the same time.
    • Dollhouse may be the only show to use the Unlimited Wardrobe and Limited Wardrobe tropes at the same time, given the ultra-standardized outfits (in the same few, muted colors) the dolls wear while in the Dollhouse and mindwiped.
  • The only time any character from Friends wore a shirt a second time, was in a flashback-episode set two years in the past. Chandler wore a shirt he's already worn in season one.
    • Chandler had a few bowling shirts and jumpers that he'd wear more than once (spanning several seasons). In earlier seasons, Joey would occasionally wear the same shirt as well.
  • Roseanne does an excellent job of averting this, with characters repeating the same outfit several times a season. However, they did make the mistake of having those outfits include Guess Jeans for Becky and Doc Martens for Darlene and David, articles of clothing certainly beyond the means of the show's unemployed, blue-collar teens, so you can't win them all.
    • The girls do get jobs at The Lunch Box once it enters the picture, and they wouldn't be the first teenagers to buy impractically-expensive clothing just for the name (people in a finanical position like the Connors might have the occasional piece of designer clothing that they got for a birthday or Christmas.)
  • Gossip Girl's UES characters. Notable exception - Chuck's pajama... coat... thing.
  • All the ladies from Smallville despite Lana's frequent mention of a lack of money.
  • Sabrina the Teenage Witch. Helps that she could just wave her finger and create new clothes. The title sequence for the first three seasons always ended with her trying on a new outfit.
  • Kyle XYs female characters.
  • Both Lorelai and Rory qualify for this on Gilmore Girls, though the costume department had the sense to have them wear some articles more than once...at least, for the first few seasons. In the later seasons, however, Rory is turned into a literal fashion plate and never seems to wear the same outfit twice.
  • Fran from The Nanny constantly goes through several outfits in each episode. Justified in that she's a fashion nut and shopaholic. But also justified that her cousin is Todd Oldham, the well-known fashion designer. He's the one that gives her all these outfits (already wore by other celebrities) because "she can't dress that nice on her income." And she has an obscenely rich employer/eventual husband that (usually) adores her.
  • The Cylons on the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica Reimagined seem to have an upscale fashion boutique on every basestar.
  • Characters from Glee change clothes often enough, but Kurt is the queen of this trope. One artist has a chibi Kurt's wardrobe from each episode [1], sometimes covering eight or nine completely different outfits in the forty-four minute span.
    • IIRC, the only outfit he's worn more than once was his Cheerio uniform.
    • However, while he might not rewear whole outfits often (with the exception of the Cheerios and Dalton uniforms), a closer look shows that he does rewear individual pieces reasonably often, and makes up new outfits by mixing and matching them.
    • Lampshaded in episode 21: "I'm so depressed I've worn the same outfit twice this week."
    • Perky Goth Tina has pulled off similar stunts.
  • Most female soap characters are rarely, if ever, seen wearing the same outfit twice.
  • Hannah Montana has the Hannah Closet, effectively a clothing store attached to a bedroom.
  • The female leads in Shake It Up, especially noticable because of their...interesting sense of style.
  • Roy of The IT Crowd has a large number of amusing t-shirts, but still occasionally makes repeats. This is truth in television for many geeks.
  • Madam Goo Goo has on a different crazy outfit on almost every time the camera is on her. Appropriately lampshaded.
  • While no one in Zoey 101 wore the exact same outfit in two episodes, they still wore broadly the same look. Lola in Season 2 however changed her look every episode, sometimes multiple times in one episode.

Manhua[]

  • The 60-70s Hong Kong Manhua ~13-Dot Cartoons~ has to be the queen of this trope: people have counted that the protagonist 13-Dot has donned 1,728 outfits in 28 issues, or an average of 62 per issue.


Music[]

  • Christine Daae in both the stage and film versions of Andrew Lloyd Webber's adaptation of The Phantom of the Opera.
  • Elisabeth in the musical of the same name. To be fair, this is a fairly accurate depiction of what she was like in real life, too. This happens to Death as well in the Takarazuka version, with a costume change for every scene.
  • Nowadays, Lady Gaga is very rarely seen in an outfit more than once.
  • Elton John's seemingly limitless supply of costumes, designer clothing, boots, eyeglasses, sunglasses, hats, shoes, etc. routinely comes up for auction to benefit his AIDS foundation and other charities. A portion of his glam-era wardrobe (including his infamous Minnie Mouse and Donald Duck costumes), at the time up for auction, can be found in the artwork for the 1988 album, Reg Strikes Back.
  • Steven Tyler of Aerosmith has a vast wardrobe of showy outfits; he even admitted to occasionally wearing women's clothing!


Toys[]


Video Games[]

  • Athena Asamiya from The King of Fighters has changed her outfit and hairstyle with every game she's been in. This is given a Lampshade Hanging in KOF '98, where her intro pose sees her psychically switch between all four of her previous outfits before settling on her current getup. It's even used in one of her DMs, Psychic 9, where she changes outfits with every hit.
  • Simon Belmont of Castlevania wears a different outfit in each interpretation of 1691, whether it be the classic golden armor and black hair in the NES original, a similar attire but with blue hair in Haunted Castle, the oddly-pink armor in the MSX2 game Vampire Killer, the green outfit in Super Castlevania IV, or his black Conan-like armor and red hair in the Arrange Mode of Castlevania Chronicles.
  • Since you can buy outfits online in THE iDOLM@STER, this is actually justified.
  • You can also buy outfits in the Tokimeki Memorial Girls' Side games. With enough money your main character can go through the game without ever repeating an outfit. The guys you date also have lots of different clothes, though if you date them long enough they'll start repeating them.
  • In Super Paper Mario, Mimi wears four or five different outfits over the course of the game; then again, she is shown to be filthy rich and obsessed with Rubees. And a Shape Shifter.
  • Bayonetta doesn't do this to the same extent, but Bayonetta and Jeanne have customizable outfits the player can make them wear, and a few of them come in three different types, such as a Japanese kimono-style outfit. Bayonetta can even wear an outfit similar to Jeanne's.
  • You could spend millions of rubies on dozens of shirts, pants, skirts, belts, and contact lenses to customize the main characters in Resonance of Fate.
  • Little Big Planet has many, many costume options for Sackboys and girls. Glitches in the second game allow things like lights and Circuit Boards to be attached to the Sackboy as well.
  • Daggerfall had such a bewildering variety of clothing that it encouraged this trope to the degree of a Guilty Pleasure for some. Characters could collect an unlimited wagonful of clothes, to wear a different outfit to every visit to court, every inn, every guild in every town. Daggerfall Fashion Gallery was the first mod, and was written to indulge fashion enthusiasts even more.
  • With all the user-created content out there, it is very easy to turn your game of The Sims into this. There is a reason why it is listed under the Virtual Paper Doll trope.
  • In Project Diva, Miku is shown to wear a bunch of different fancy, colorful, and very cosplayable outfits throughout the game.
  • Terraria added three "Vanity Items" slots just to facilitate this. The slots replace the sprite (but not effect) or headgear, armor, and pants, just to show off all the clothes you've bought and/or made yourself while still being a walking Magitek tank.
  • In Kingdom Hearts II, Sora has five different drive forms (six in Final Mix) and five Disney world-based forms (again, six in Final Mix). Oh, and his regular outfit. And that's not even taking outfits from other episodes of the franchise into account.
  • The No More Heroes series has a ton of extra clothing items. The first game actually hid dozens of T-Shirts in dumpsters. It got more complex in the second game with a bunch of different shaped items, like baggy pants, visors, hoodies and other such things. And it was all really, really pointless. Heck, buying clothing in NMH 1 actually cost nearly more than what you need for major upgrades and boss fees.


Webcomics[]


Web Original[]

  • Deconstructed in Manwhores when Randy's constantly new, ever more extravagant outfits, starting with just a cowboy outfit and ending in full geisha regalia, before suddenly pushing the apartment crew into the Broke Episode.
  • While clearly not to the extent of other examples on here and unless it's an arc, The Nostalgia Chick has a tendency to have a different outfit in every review while the Critic wears the same thing all the time.


Western Animation[]

  • Zuko of Avatar: The Last Airbender has countless outfits during the series. Nevermind that he was living as a penniless peasant during the second season, he still managed to rustle up a wardrobe that will put most fashionistas to shame. Ironically, once he got back to the royal court, that's where Limited Wardrobe kicked back in.
  • Although it seems impossible, Samurai Jack combined this trope with Limited Wardrobe. Even though he was stranded in the future, a future where nobody remembered his home time, Jack managed to keep finding new kimonos to replace the ones subject to Clothing Damage in previous episodes... He must have found a very cheap clothing store on his first day there.
    • There was episode dedicated to Jack losing his trademark sandals, and trying out new shoes given to him by the owner of a post-apocalyptic "Foot Locker" until he finds a kindly old Japanese man who makes him a new pair. The episode began with Jack making a new hat for himself out of straw. Given Jack's variety of skills, he probably knows how to make a new set of his simple robes with whatever materials he can find.
  • Kimiko of Xiaolin Showdown combined this with Limited Wardrobe. While she always wore the same outfit around the temple, outside she rarely has the same clothes... or hair colour.
  • Similarly, while on the job the girls in Totally Spies wear the same color-coded jumpsuits but in their "spare time" not only have a seemingly endless wardrobe, they love to go shopping as well. Apparently they have rich parents. And they do live in Beverly Hills, which in fiction never has anyone with less than upper class income.
  • Anya in Anastasia doesn't have a different dress for every scene she's in, but she does go through far more costume changes than the average animated heroine (in order, she has a tattered peasant dress, a yellow ball gown in a dream sequence, a plain blue dress, a pair of blue pajamas, a purple flapper-esque dress, a blue dress similar to the purple flapper getup, yet another 20s-style dress [these last three all show up within the same musical number], a tight-fitting purple evening gown with fur coat, a pair of midriff-baring pink pajamas, and finally a cream-yellow court dress). Most animated films give their female leads two, maybe three outfits at most!
  • Princess Mérida from Brave has a total of 22 outfits.
  • In The Super Mario Bros Super Show, Bowser often had a different outfit depending on the theme of the episode (i.e. dressing like a cowboy in "Butch Mario and the Luigi Kid" and dressing like Julius Caesar in "The Great Gladiator Gig").
  • The Music Meister from Batman: The Brave And The Bold had a double-digit number of outfits during his episode, at one point changing clothes eight times during a single song.
  • Ilana of Sym-Bionic Titan can't seem to stay in one outfit for an episode. She's worn everything from flanel and daisy dukes, to an Elegant Gothic Lolita outfit. And it works too.
  • Many of Disney's female leads will inevitably have a huge number of outfits for them to wear, but only some of them end up in their debut films.
  • Though everyone else seems to wear the same thing all the time, Marceline, the Vampire Queen from Adventure Time does not. Except for a non speaking background cameo, she has never worn the same outfit twice in all of her appearances. Princess Bubblegum also has a wide range of outfits, but not to Marceline's extent.
  • In contrast to the rest of the cast, LaBarbre in Futurama has a different sexy outfit every episode she appears, sometimes more than one.
  • Roger in American Dad!. Though he sometimes recycles a costume, he has a factory full of them, usually using at least three in one episode.

Real Life[]

  • This is Truth in Television. Some monarchs were known to have hundreds, even thousands of different outfits.
    • Sissi, the Austrian empress, was known to change her outfits up to three times in the same evening
    • Her contemporary, Queen Emma of the Netherlands, prided herself on the Calvinist simplicity of her dress, but still found to her annoyance that she absolutely needed at least 40 dresses for the 5 day wedding celebration of her sister.
    • Empress Elizabeth of Russia, who effectively made having an Unlimited Wardrobe necessary for court life by forbidding her nobles from wearing the same clothes twice to a ball (and since said balls were a near-daily occurrence...). At her death, she owned thousands of dresses, easily beating the more infamous Marie Antoinette.
    • Imelda Marcos, wife of Filipino dictator Ferdinand Marcos, was particularly notorious for owning over 2,500 different pairs of shoes.
  • Lots of modern-day celebrities go through a similar process because designers give them clothes for free, since they get good publicity for it. Some of them end up doing massive charity sales of outfits that were only worn once.
  • Major Fashion Magazines have 'closets' stretching across several floors to hold all the clothes that are currently in season...
  • Female hosts of the Academy Awards sometimes demonstrate this within the show's three-odd hours, eg, Anne Hathaway in the 83rd show. It isn't just the Oscars, though; most award shows with a female host will have them change their outfit at least a couple of times. A particularly good example: In the late 90's, VH-1 teamed up with Vogue to do the VH-1/Vogue Fashion Awards, which was kinda like the Oscars, only instead of actors and directors, it was for models and designers. One year, they had Heather Locklear hosting. Heather had it placed in her contract for hosting that she would get to keep any clothes she wore during the show-- then proceeded to change her outfit every single time she appeared on stage.
  • The Oregon Ducks college football team is known for its flashy uniforms, which allow for countless uniform combinations, many of which are only worn for a single game.
  1. As opposed to the "second episode" of Nelvana's Macekred "English" version.
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