History Main / DressingToDie

* ''Fanfic/GoneBatty'': Oda is absolutely certain that Tachibana will kill him when he finds out that he (Oda) sold Tachibana's sister to sexual slavery, so he puts on his best suit before telling him.

* ''Fanfic/FinalToll'': Cremia decides not to change out of her signature white dress while waiting for the moon to crash because she finds it [[WhiteShirtOfDeath fitting that she'd die in it]].

* In the conquest of the island of Bali by the Dutch Colonial Empire, Balinese rulers and their courts chose death rather than surrender. Royal families, priests and attendants [[DyingMomentOfAwesome dressed in their most beautiful garments and marched purposely into the gunfire]]. Those who were not shot stabbed themselves on the spot. At Denpasar, they came out in silent procession, wearing white cremation outfits and jewelry, and killed themselves with ''kris'' daggers. Women threw jewels and gold coins at the soldiers, cheating them of any sense of victory. Another royal court dressed in all their finery, left their palace and paraded, singing, off the edge of a cliff.

* In ''Series/{{Rome}}'', once Cleopatra sees through Octavian's FauxAffablyEvil persona and realizes that he intends to drag her off to Rome in chains to parade her in front of a mob and then murder her children, (particularly Cesarion, who is falsely believed to be the son of Julius Caesar) she has a brief breakdown. She then composes herself, gets dressed again in queenly attire before committing suicide, and makes sure to die sitting on her throne with [[TogetherInDeath her hand clasping the hand of Marc Antony's body]].

* Dahlia in the play ''Theatre/{{McQueen}}'' has Lee make her a dress, wanting to look pretty when she dies though she doesn't tell him this. Though, she could be a figment of his imagination as a personification of his depression and so when he tries to save her life she asks him what he was doing with his belt when she came to get her dress, suggesting he should have known because he was doing the same/they are the same.

* On ''WesternAnimation/KingOfTheHill'', Cotton puts on his old military dress uniform and all of his BlingOfWar in preparation to kill himself, but ultimately does not go through with it after [=DiDi=], unaware of Cotton's depressed state, barges in just in time and forces him to watch Good Hank for a while since she's been with him all day and is exhausted. [[spoiler:Though he eventually ''does'' kill himself in a much later episode, for entirely different reasons and while wearing a very ''not'' fancy hospital gown]].

'''DeathTrope''', so unmarked spoilers ahead.

* In ''Film/ThePatriot'', Maj. Villeneuve shows up for the film's climactic battle (against the numerically superior British forces) in a [[BlingOfWar very fancy French uniform]]. When Benjamin Martin gives him a funny look, Villeneuve explains, "If I die, I will die well-dressed."

* The end of the ''Manga/DeathNote'' anime heavily implies that [[spoiler: Misa throws herself off a building. She dresses herself in a black gothic lolita style.]]

* In the ''Anime/GirlsUndPanzer'' fic ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/10226935/3/Under-The-Black-Forest-Flag Under The Black Forest Flag]]'', Miho changes into an Anglerfish Dance costume[[note]]In Episode 4 of the anime, Miho and the rest of the Panzer IV's crew had to put on costumes and dance the Anglerfish Dance after losing to St. Gloriana[[/note]] before [[DrivenToSuicide committing suicide]] over being disowned.

* In ''Film/{{Titanic|1997}}'' some of the men are seen returning to their rooms to change into their formal suits when they realise that they're going down with the ship. The captain also goes to put on his Captain's hat and jacket, parts of the official regalia not usually worn when actually captaining a ship but for ceremonial purposes, when he chooses to stay on the bridge. Benjamin Guggenheim, one of the First Class passengers who remained aboard, declines a life jacket offered by a steward by saying "We are dressed in our best and [[FaceDeathWithDignity prepared to go down like gentlemen]]. [[INeedAFreakingDrink But we would like a brandy!]]". The first half of the quote is reportedly one of the last things [[TruthInTelevision the real Benjamin Guggenheim was heard saying]].

[[quoteright:350:[[Film/TheShawshankRedemption https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/shawshank_brooks_suicide_3.png]]]]
[[caption-width-right:350:Well...that's one way to hang up your best suit.]]

* In [[Recap/DoctorWhoS32E8LetsKillHitler "Let's Kill Hitler"]], the Doctor has been given a poison that prevents regeneration and is dying, but takes the time to change into a tuxedo before facing his killer.

* On ''Series/{{Glee}}'', Dave Karofsky lies a suit on his bed and the next cut to him shows him wearing it and stepping up on a stool, preparing to hang himself. Possibly an example, too, is [[Recap/GleeS3E14OnMyWay in the same episode]] when Quinn is, first, given her cheerleading uniform back and, then, has to go home to change into a bridesmaid dress, before being hit by a truck. However, both ultimately survive.

* In ''Series/BeingHumanUS'', Sally, after realizing that the body she returned to life in is going to die soon if she doesn't kill people, decides to FaceDeathWithDignity and become a ghost again rather than hurt anyone to stay alive. However, this time her friends help her pick out a good outfit to wear to her death (since that'll be what her ghost form will wear forever, and last time she was unfortunate enough to suffer a sudden death while wearing something rather boring).

* In ''WesternAnimation/XMen'', during the "Dark Phoenix Saga", Jean Grey puts on her old Marvel Girl costume while preparing to be executed for her crimes as the Dark Phoenix.

* ''Literature/AdrianMole'': In ''Wilderness Years'', the character Jake in Adrian's novel makes a point of shaving before attempting suicide, because he is vain and keen to look good as a corpse.

* Played with in ''Film/Finch2021'': The titular character -- who [[YourNamesAreNumbered is dying of UV radiation poisoning through the film]] -- finds a spot in the desert with no ozone damage, so he dresses up in nice clothes to have a meal under the sun for the first time in years. After he ruins the clothes by coughing blood on them, he changes back into his shorts and T-shirt and lies down in his RV's bed, where he dies in his sleep.