History Main / FrozenFashionSense

* Averted in ''TrueBlood''. Most of the main vampires wear perfectly modern clothing. In fact the first view we get of Godric, known to be about 2,000 years old, he's wearing sweatpants and a simple shirt.

* Averted in ''Film/LairOfTheWhiteWorm''. Lady Marsh is very fashionable and chic.

* The Countess's coterie in ''OnceBitten'' all dress in the style appropriate to when she brought them over. Victorian prostitute, civil war soldier, etc.

* Played with in the 1980s comedy OnceBitten. The Countess and her Dragon have a modern fashion sense, since the Countess needs fresh virgin blood every year to maintain her youth and beauty. So they are often out-and-about. But, many of the Countess's lesser vampires are stay-at-homes who still dress in their period appropriate attire (we see one wearing a Civil War-era uniform).

* Averted in ''Lair Of The White Worm''. Lady Marsh is very fashionable and chic.

* Although deriding the idea that vampires have an inate fashion sense, ''[[Literature/TheLaundrySeries The Rhesus Chart]]'' does point out the difficulty that older vampires (who out of necessity are isolated from society, as well as being occult sorcerers more interested in research than interaction) have of fitting in with society as it changes around them. One vampire gets round this by training a {{Renfield}} from every generation to act as his surrogate.

* Although deriding the idea that vampires have an inate fashion sense, ''[[Literature/TheLaundrySeries The Rhesus Chart]]'' does point out the difficulty that older vampires who out of necessity are isolated from society, as well as being occult sorcerers more interested in research than interaction, have of fitting in with society as it changes around them. One vampire gets round this by training a {{Renfield}} from every generation to act as his surrogate.

* Averted in ''Film/{{Underworld}}'', where most vampires wear up-to-date clothing, even for a formal occasion. Amelia's outfit, for example, wouldn't be out-of-place at the Academy Awards. Then you have Victor, but he can be forgiven, as he has just been woken up after a century-long slumber, and he didn't get his normal update on all events of the past century. The decadent vampires dress for a party, while the Death Dealers and Kraven's goons prefer [[HellbentForLeather leather]].

* [[http://www.home.earthlink.net/~lotrgundam/id15.html Mr. Shido]] from ''Nightwalker.''

-->-- '''Lestat''', ''QueenOfTheDamned''

* As the page quote suggests, many vampires in the film ''QueenOfTheDamned'' are wearing outfits that look like the Society for Creative Anachronism's best efforts, from the bizarre pseudo-belly dancer chic Pandora dons in the background to Akasha's interpretation of prehistoric Egyptian royalty's clothing.
** It partly makes sense with some of them, as a deleted scene shows them being woken up from who-knows-how-long slumber by Lestat's song. Like everything else in the movie, this doesn't match the book.
** This is [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]] by Lestat (who is dressed as a rock-star) when he sees Marius wearing the same red velvet outfit as he did centuries ago, when he asks him how he managed to slip unnoticed through the past several decades wearing that.

Related to JacobMarleyApparel and FashionDissonance.

* Mentioned in the first episode of ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' where Buffy spots a vampire by his Seventies wardrobe and then dropped afterward for all but a very few vampires like Dracula and The Prince of Lies. A lot of the low level vampires tend to just wear the sort of clothes you grab off the rack - or, of course, take off people you kill.

* The Countess' coterie in ''OnceBitten'' all dress in the style appropriate to when she brought them over. Victorian prostitute, civil war soldier, etc.

* This trope is something of a recurring theme in Laurell K. Hamilton's ''AnitaBlake: Vampire Hunter'' novels.
* MercyThompson has met vampires who only do this for formal events. They dress in appropriate contemporary style the rest of the time, but in a formal setting wearing clothing appropriate to their native timeframe is a visual indication of how old they are, and therefore how powerful they may be as well.
* ''KittyNorville'' has vampires who go either route. Some dress contemporary, some dress affected to their timeframe. One dresses like an old time cowboy.
* ''TheHollows'' has vampires who mainly dress contemporary rather than anachronistically.

* Justified in ''TheVampireChronicles'', where Lestat explains that if vampires don't wear the clothing from the time period in which they were mortal, then they like to wear clothing that resembles such apparel; it's explained (in so many words) as psychologically comforting for the vampire. Lestat also claims that it's an excellent way to gauge a vampire's age; given that this is very much a StrongerWithAge world, it can help give another vampire a way to gauge the danger (i.e, if a vampire consistently wears clothing appropriate for Colonial or Elizabethan times or earlier, it's time to ''run'').
* PlayedStraight in TeamHuman, where the vampires like to dress the way people did before they were turned.

This trope is becoming less and less popular for live action features, since it's all but impossible to put a vampire in tights and a doublet in TheCity and take the character seriously. Or to avoid the FridgeLogic this trope entails, as period costume would presumably wear out after a few decades' use, and similar replacements would get increasingly hard to come by.

* In ''TheDresdenFiles'' most of the Red Court of vampires dress in contemporary clothing, although they do have ancient {{Mayincatec}} outfits for ceremonial occasions. The White Court frequently dress in the height of fashion, or at least what will be the height of fashion in a month, but appear particularly fond of catsuits. The Black Court isn't well represented, but the sole prominent member seen, Mavra, does tend towards ancient styles of dress. Seeing as she's also unmistakably a walking corpse, and can become invisible, there's not much point in keeping up to date. At one point Harry notices that her centuries out of date clothing is machine made, so presumably she just likes the style.

* This trope made a brief appearance on ''Buffy'''s spinoff, ''{{Angel}}'', when an obnoxious, {{Rat Pack}}-era vampire from Las Vegas arrives in town for a museum heist.

** The character of Spike could be considered a loose example. Originally a plain vanilla vampire from Anne Rice era, he lifted some fashion tips from BillyIdol and [[TheSexPistols Syd Vicious]] (though spike would claim they stole ''his'' look) and remains stuck in the 80s.

* Mentioned in the first episode of ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' where Buffy spots a vampire by his Seventies wardrobe and then dropped afterward for all but a very few vampires like Dracula and The Prince of Lies. A lot of the low level vampires tend to just wear the sort of clothes you grab off the rack - or, of course, take off people you kill. According to the pilot commentary, the original idea was the vampires eternally wear the clothes of the era they died in. This idea was swiftly dropped with the introduction of vampires centuries old who pass for everyday men and women.
--> '''Buffy''': Deal with that outfit for a moment.
--> '''Giles''': It's dated?
--> '''Buffy''': It's carbon-dated.

* PlayedStraight in TeamHuman, where the vampires like to dress the way people did when they were still human.

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* Mentioned in the first episode of ''BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' where Buffy spots a vampire by his Seventies wardrobe and then dropped afterward for all but a very few vampires like Dracula and The Prince of Lies. A lot of the low level vampires tend to just wear the sort of clothes you grab off the rack - or, of course, take off people you kill.
** According to the pilot commentary, the original idea was the vampires eternally wear the clothes of the era they died in. This idea was swiftly dropped with the introduction of vampires centuries old who pass for everyday men and women.

* Mentioned in the first episode of ''BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' where Buffy spots a vampire by his Eighties wardrobe and then dropped afterward for all but a very few vampires like Dracula and The Prince of Lies. A lot of the low level vampires tend to just wear the sort of clothes you grab off the rack - or, of course, take off people you kill.

* In a 1989 ''Series/DoctorWho'' serial, ''[[Recap/DoctorWhoS26E3TheCurseOfFenric The Curse of Fenric]]'', the sequences where the haemovores rise up to feast on the living display everything from Elizabethan doublets to eighteenth century seawool. Justified, as they've all been holed up since they were turned, and haven't exactly had a chance to nip down to the shops and pick up something more trendy.

** On the other hand, Russell Eddington, who is 3000 years old, prefers to dress in an old-fashioned manner at home... and then go out to meet his werewolves in a leather jacket.

* Averted in ''Film/LairOfTheWhiteWorm''. Lady Marsh is very fashionable and chic.

* Averted in ''LairOfTheWhiteWorm''. Lady Marsh is very fashionable and chic.
* Averted in ''{{Underworld}}'', where most vampires wear up-to-date clothing, even for a formal occasion. Amelia's outfit, for example, wouldn't be out-of-place at the Academy Awards. Then you have Victor, but he can be forgiven, as he has just been woken up after a century-long slumber, and he didn't get his normal update on all events of the past century. The decadent vampires dress for a party, while the Death Dealers and Kraven's goons prefer [[HellbentForLeather leather]].

* The higher ranking "New Shadows" faction in the game ChampionsOnline tend to dress in eighteenth century clothes. The mooks dress in torn rags, and the Big Bad of the faction wears armor similar to, but sufficently different from, the armor worn by Vlad Dracul during the back story of ''Film/BramStokersDracula''. And still wears it in a modern day New Orlea ... err, Vibora Bay, that is.

* Averted in ''LairdOfTheWhiteWorm''. Lady Marsh is very fashionable and chic.
* Averted in ''{{Underworld}}'', where most vampires wear up-to-date clothing, even for a formal occasion. Amelia's outfit, for example, wouldn't be out-of-place at the Academy Awards. Then you have Victor, but he can be forgiven, as he has just been woken up after a century-long slumber, and he didn't get his normal update on all events of the past century. The decadent vampires dress for a party, while the Death Dealers and Kraven's goons prefer leather.

* In ''TheDresdenFiles'' most of the Red Court of vampires dress in contemporary clothing, although they do have ancient {{Mayincatek}} outfits for ceremonial occasions. The White Court frequently dress in the height of fashion, or at least what will be the height of fashion in a month, but appear particularly fond of catsuits. The Black Court isn't well represented, but the sole prominent member seen, Mavra, does tend towards ancient styles of dress. Seeing as she's also unmistakably a walking corpse, and can become invisible, there's not much point in keeping up to date. At one point Harry notices that her centuries out of date clothing is machine made, so presumably she just likes the style.