Hollywood Dress Code

The lazy Costume Tropes. This is where items of clothing are only worn by certain types of characters. It's done so that these people will be certain to have Distinctive Appearances.

This isn't always a bad thing. On Strictly Formula TV, there isn't always the time to subtly tell us what a character is like, so their clothes act like visual markers.

When the same thing is done to show us where a character comes from rather than what their personality is, see Culture Equals Costume. (Of course, certain works will assume that cultural origin determines personality, so there's likely to be overlap between the two stereotypes.)

Note this applies to regular outfits, not something someone tries on for just one episode.

Compare Dress-Coded for Your Convenience, Villainous Fashion Sense, Stock Costume Traits. Hat Shop is a subtrope.

Not to be confused with an actual Dress Code, nor to be confused with Hollywood Costuming.


 * It's rare to see someone wear glasses who isn't a Nerd, Meganekko (meaning this isn't actually limited to Hollywood), or using them to show how creepy they are. Harry Potter is an exception, but novels don't usually rely on this trope, given they have words to make characters. Pulp fiction books might, but they are also Strictly Formula. A woman wearing glasses is very likely to turn out to be Beautiful All Along, especially if she's the main character.
 * HRG from Heroes is a subversion. Early in Season 1 he comes off as a somewhat creepy investigator up to no good. Later on as we get to know him better, we learn he's a Badass Normal.
 * Derek "Wheels" Wheeler, from Degrassi Junior High, gets some Nerd Glasses partway through the second season. Of course, being Degrassi, the implication here is simply that he needs them to be able to see clearly. He is never shown to get any "nerdier" than he already is.
 * This trope is so ingrained that the makers of Seinfeld had to go to special lengths to stop people assuming George was the smart one, just because he wore glasses.
 * Because of the above, there is now a Real Life tendency for people to wear glasses just to look smart, even if they have no vision problem.
 * Suspenders (braces in the UK, galluses if you're really old), are a surprisingly rich trope-mine. They are practical substitutes for belts, but if you wear them on TV you will fit in one of these categories:
 * If you wear them with a cardigan, corduroys or a tweed jacket then you are Old, and do so because you always have.
 * Pair them with a shirt with rolled up sleeves (preferably unbuttoned and unironed) and you are a Police Chief, News Editor or similar Frustrated and Overworked Professional.
 * Lassiter from Psych shows us how it's done.
 * Keep your sleeves down and your tie on, however, and you are a Ruthless Businessman. If your suspenders are red then you are a City Trader of the Gordon Gekko school.
 * This one's more justifiable, as many of the current hallmarks of this character type were developed in the 1980s, when this was indeed part of standard business fashion.
 * Combining suspenders with narrow jeans, Doc Martens and the appropriate haircut marks you as a Skinhead, specific subtype unspecified.
 * Suspenders are the essential accessory for any aspiring Lumberjack or Frontiersman, and should be worn with a flannel shirt in the appropriate pattern.
 * Do not wear suspenders with sweater vests, pocket protectors or short sleeved shirts or you risk being condemned to the farthest reaches of TV Nerd-dom, particularly if the suspenders are red. (Bubba Higgins of Mama's Family is an exception: a jock and former delinquent who sometimes wears his suspenders over a sweater vest.)
 * Mork from Ork wears rainbow suspenders (which have reached Memetic Outfit status), and can get away with it because he is an alien (and a Cloudcuckoolander one at that).
 * Members of The Mafia tend to be wearing suspenders far more than other Badass in a Nice Suit characters, probably as a sign they come from an earlier time where they were more widely worn.
 * Four guys wearing suspenders, pinstriped dress clothes, bowties, and boaters are almost certainly a barbershop quartet.
 * Or you're a fireman who needs to keep his pants up. Shirts optional.
 * In British English, "suspenders" are the sort of stocking garters that encircle the leg above the stocking and are clipped to the stocking by little elastic strips, glimpses of which are still Fan Service and/or Fetish Fuel even today when worn around the thigh by women. When worn around the ankle or calf by men, they are usually subject to the same stereotypes as braces/suspenders, except that they make the person look even more old/nerdy/ridiculous.
 * If you wear a fur coat, and are female, you are usually the Rich Bitch or The Vamp, at least nowadays. If you aren't one of those two, and wear fur, it will last just that one episode.
 * If you wear a normal coat with fur trimming, you're a Japanese schoolgirl.
 * A fur coat on a man means he's a pimp, a playa, or a Badass. Or some combination of the three.
 * Or in the middle of a Zany Scheme.
 * If a male character wears a leather coat, the style will reflect the character type:
 * If it's cut like a blazer or a casual coat, he's dangerous and most likely on your side: (Angel and the Ninth Doctor).
 * If it's a duster, or a trenchcoat worn open,, he's dangerous (or want you to think they are,) and could be on either side.
 * If it's cut like a biker jacket, then he's a biker, hoodlum or, rarely, the sensitive bad boy.
 * Of course, if you wear anything else in leather...
 * If the leather is studded, then the character is either a punk or, as occurs with momentous frequency in comic books, a thug or gang member about to get his ass handed to him by Batman.
 * A man in a business suit (lately) is pre-known to be some kind of Mafia, Lawyer, Corrupt Corporate Executive, Producer, or the like. It's the tie. Perhaps due to standards of dress in California (which is noticeably more casual than most places in the U.S., except perhaps Hawaii), here is something not to trust about a guy wearing a tie, unless it is part of a work uniform. And the type of tie matters. Strong tie = strong character. Weak tie = underhanded (or a geek). Bowtie = geek.
 * If the man wears one of those colored shirts with white cuffs and collar, he is an especially sleazy 80s Wall Street guy. (a la Gordon Gekko in Wall Street)
 * If the protagonist's top button is undone and they wear their tie like a headband, they either intend to rebel or rock out. In Japanese media, the headband tie is code for falling-down drunk, and is usually seen on salarymen.
 * If it's all black, the character is either creepy and possibly sinister, or a member of a top-secret organization. Unless he's a jazz or blues musician.
 * A woman in "business attire" -- the analog of the male "business suit" --- is a Suit, subject to the same pre-judgments as her male counterpart. Typically, they are ambitious and are willing to sacrifice love and children for career advancement. Particularly prone to heel face turns or they're office-worker-types who "conform" and are "part of the system". If they're the protagonist, they're creatively stifled.
 * For bowties, it's all in the color. If it's a black bowtie worn with a matching suit, you're ridiculously refined. If it's a coloured bowtie you're a bit mad. If it doesn't match the suit then you're just tragically nerdy. If you wear the bowtie because you think Bow Ties Are Cool, then you're all three.
 * Men in work uniforms (as opposed to military uniforms) are subsumed by their jobs. The job is the role, not the man.
 * A woman in Sex and the City garb -- specifically Choo shoes -- is vapid, grasping. She can dress like that or be a philanthropist. Not both.
 * Baseball caps. They can be worn casually by grown men and women, and some jobs even have that in the uniform. Yet in media, no job seems to require a baseball cap (because those hats aren't embarrassing enough), no women seem to wear them, and if you are an adult and wear one with the bill facing forward, it means you are a slob, a trucker, or never really grew up.
 * Wearing it backwards or sideways means you are trying way too hard to be cool.
 * A man in T-shirt and jeans is a regular joe.
 * A woman in a T-shirt and jeans is the down-to-earth tomboy the male lead should be dating instead of the shrew in a skirt and heels that he clearly has nothing in common with.
 * The Ordinary High School Student wears jeans, a T-shirt, with an open button shirt and Converse (TM) Chuck Taylor All-stars optional. Possibly intentional, as while the look is rarely in style, it's never exactly out of style.
 * Male High School athletes always wear wool letterman jackets with leather sleeves, even in Southern California at the very beginning or end of the school year. If not that thay will wear a football jersey, especially if they're a heavyset fellow. On the heavy set fellow this can also indicate he is a bully. Cheerleaders wear their team uniforms to class. Whether this is Truth in Television or not varies widely based on requirements of the school district and even of individual coaches.
 * Also, in Fictionland, it is not possible to letter in anything other than athletics. Even then, few people letter in anything other than American football or baseball. No one letters in academics, theater, speech or debate, swimming, tennis, band, or math team. Also, girls do not wear letter jackets, even if they are a butch Lesbian Jock.
 * Facial piercings, unnatural hair colours and tattoos sported by anybody over the age of 20 make the character dangerous. On anyone younger, they show that the character is a teenage rebel, or the body modification is simply something to fight with their parents about.
 * Strapless dresses clearly indicate you're at least a Femme Fatale, if not The Vamp.
 * If you wear a Kimono than you are definitely a Yamato Nadeshiko. Or trying to be one.
 * A woman in a military uniform is either intensely butch or The Squadette. If the latter, she's instantly hot. If the former, she may also be so, for some.
 * If you are wearing a track suit, you are in the mob.
 * Or you're the President, in which case you're surrounded by other men in track suits and shades. Or in suits and shades, depending on silly the work is. Bonus points if you do this for a Governor or some local official, to up the Serious Business aspect.
 * A headband worn across the forehead has two meanings. If it is worn with warm-ups and wristbands, you are a nerd exercising. If worn with almost anything else, you are a bad ass.
 * For the subject of skirts and dresses:
 * If you are a girl who wears a skirt that shows too much leg, with a tank top with too much cleavage, with the possible addition of showings your stomach, you are either the Alpha Bitch or The Vamp. Either way, your intentions are neither good or wholesome. Could be the Ms. Fanservice or Hooker with a Heart of Gold if you are lucky.
 * If you wear a flowery sundress that shows just enough leg to still be innocent, along with a open front blouse over that, with a hair band or hair clips or wearing Girlish Pigtails, you are either Naive Everygirl, Proper Lady, Love Freak, Token Wholesome, or all of the above. Either way, you are definitely the hero's Love Interest.
 * If you wear a skirt that is too long, along with being pleated and or plaid, with an ugly cardigan sweater, glasses, a messy ponytail, and or braces, you are the Hollywood Nerd, which means that in TV Land, you are one of the ugliest beings in the universe, and can only be seen as acceptable once you lose the glasses and undo the ponytail.

A variation is that certain jobs require clothing that is almost never worn now, but was, at some time, the common style for that profession.
 * Doctors wear lab coats, when you usually see them dress in shirts and slacks or scrubs these days.
 * Some hospitals have begun to actively discourage the wearing of ties for sanitary reasons. See the House episode where Cuddy gives some doctor a tie-ectomy after several babies fall ill.
 * Similarly, you often see nurses wearing all-white uniforms and caps, when (in the U.S. at least), nurses haven't worn caps for about 50 years, and rarely wear white uniforms anymore. The cap and uniform is purely Fetish Fuel if the story in question is not a period piece.
 * Nurse Hathaway once showed up for work on ER wearing the all-white uniform, but it was because she was moonlighting at a second job that enforced that dress code. All characters agreed that the second employer's dress code was absurdly old-fashioned.
 * To an extent, any kind of Stressed Urban Professional as mentioned above (cop, journalist) wearing suspenders is a purposeful throwback to the 1920s-1950s, where wearing suspenders was more common, especially for a man with a desk job.
 * Another example is hats like trilbies or fedoras being worn by..well, pretty much anybody. In earlier times, dressing in a suit was generally accompanied by some sort of hat, but such is out of style now. You still see them on journalists or private eyes sometimes in cartoons. In real life these are all over the place among subcultures--ska and geeks for men and women, and also on women trying to look Avril Lavigne-ish--but thus far, it has not been seen in Hollywood.
 * Deerstalker hats are pretty much limited to cartoon detectives and Sherlock Holmes. In reality though they were mostly worn by hunters hence their name and would actually be out of place for a fashion consicious urban fellow.
 * If a woman is wearing a short, usually leopard print skirt, fishnet stockings (or torn tights), granny boots, an off-the-shoulder Flashdance-style t-shirt with a Union Jack or skull print, heavy makeup and elaborately teased, spiked and sprayed short hair (with or without red or blue streaks), chances are she's a punk rocker in an 80s teen movie.

This can also be spoofed when a character actually changes character type when a piece of clothing is put on or removed.

Anime and Manga

 * Lady Une from Gundam Wing.

Live-Action TV

 * Also the basis of a game on Whose Line Is It Anyway? (though rarely with pieces of clothing).

Tabletop Games

 * White Wolf's Mage: The Awakening has an interesting take on this phenomenon. The Order of the Guardians of the Veil have what they call the "Masque". It is a series of "identities" built around defining virtues paired with defining vices. Characters must train in their use, but can gain distinct in-game benefits... and penalties... when using the "token" for the Masque they happen to be employing at the moment.

Western Animation

 * Basis of a Warner Brothers cartoon where a multitude of hats fall out of a truck and blow in the wind, causing Elmer Fudd and Bugs Bunny to change characters as various hats land on their heads.