History Main / ImpossiblyCoolClothes

[[folder:Web Original]]
* Just outside Whateley Academy, in the ''Literature/WhateleyUniverse'', Cecilia Rogers has a clothing boutique where she makes supersuits for the students... and also for big-name superheroes. She uses special fabrics and has a superpower over fabric, so the outfits she makes can be (mostly) bulletproof, acid- and stain-resistant, knife-resistant, etc. And she repairs them too. She also tailors school uniforms for the impossibly cool who have to meet school rules. Alternately, for people with special needs. Such as werewolves. Who can't change back.
* ''Literature/NewYorkMagician'''s Michel sure likes his Burberry (later London Fog) coat, which is resistant to harm.
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* ''Franchise/TheFlash'':

* Parodied on ''WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddParents'' with [[ShowWithinAShow The Crimson Chin's]] costume, which is so unbelievably skin tight it should be impossible to bend over. Though his origin story suggests it works like the symbiote suit in ''Franchise/SpiderMan''.

* ''Franchise/SpiderMan'' seems to openly oppose this trope in most of its formats, other than [[Film/SpiderMan1 the movie]]. In the comics and the original animated series, Peter Parker was known to occasionally patch up his costume with needle and thread. In ''ComicBook/UltimateSpiderMan'' Mary Jane makes and repairs his costume, and there have been several episodes where he's had to go in [[CheapCostume less than perfect versions of it]] due to fights with Mary Jane, or because he damaged it so much that she's not finished fixing it. In fact, the only time Franchise/SpiderMan ever wore Impossibly Cool Clothes, they turned out to be [[SubvertedTrope a symbiote]].

* ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}'': A GreatOffscreenWar created a world where people celebrate their individuality, and Huntsman "combat outfits" are particularly colourful, dramatic, and sometimes even impractical, compared to ordinary people. Examples include: Blake and Neo wearing detached sleeves that stay in place; Yang's pale, frilly skirts or bows that never get damaged or dirty; never-compromised modesty, such as Pyrrha's pencil micro-skirt or Emerald's boob-tube; never-compromised modesty such as Ruby and Pyrrha's bodices or Weiss and Ruby's crinoline-packed skirts. Clothing always forms perfect lines, even during intense activity, and cloaks always billow regardless of their weight. Even the best cosplayers can't defy physics, but the characters always look good as a result.

** Snake's [[SpyCatsuit Sneaking Suit]] from ''VideoGame/MetalGear'' is very form-fitting without any wrinkles or bends and seems to do an impossible amount of tricks, such as protecting him from the cold despite its presumably thin material, reducing the damage he gets, and helping him to hide in plain sight. [[http://metalgear.wikia.com/wiki/Sneaking_Suit More here]].

* ''VideoGame/{{Tekken}}''. Go on, try to last in a serious fight wearing Christie Monteiro's clothes ''without'' flashing someone. Double-dog dare you.

When we gasp and we say to each other in awe, "Look at what [[Series/HockeyNightInCanada Don Cherry's]] wearing!"''

* The girls of ''Franchise/TouhouProject''. Only a few of the outfits can be considered practical--and they tend to be part of the occupation (For example, [[{{Miko}} Reimu, Sanae]], and [[NinjaMaid Sakuya]]. And even then they're not the most practical in a series where almost everyone flies.) The most impossibly cool must be Iku's shawl... thing that she can use as a {{whip|ItGood}} or [[ThisIsADrill drill]]; Utsuho's and Miko's capes which, in the fighting games, have ''[[UnmovingPlaid individually scrolling]]'' galaxy and dragon patterns on them individually, as well as Tenshi's skirt, which looks like it was actually made from a strip of the sky itself. There's even a Pixiv meme about drawing what artists think how the clothes work [[http://safebooru.donmai.us/pools/1765 here]]. The amount of thought given into these is really impressive.

* Parodied in ''WesternAnimation/TheIncredibles'' with the character Edna Mode, costume designer for the superheroes (herself a parody of RealLife Hollywood costume designer Edith Head). The super-suits she designed could absorb tremendous levels of damage and stretch incredibly without significant tearing or abrasion (and yet it breathes like Egyptian cotton!). Also somewhat deconstructed, as it's shown that Edna stopped making her suits with capes ("NO CAPES!") because if they ever got caught on anything, since they're indestructible you'd be stuck to or sucked into such things as rockets, jet engines etc.

* The Unstable Molecules created by Reed Richards to allow the powers of the ''ComicBook/FantasticFour'' to not burn away their clothes, or force them to go naked if they want to be invisible. They, of course, were what ''WesternAnimation/TheIncredibles''' Edna Mode was paying homage to in the first place. They were also used to explain why the ComicBook/XMen and other spandex clad Marvelites were so hard to hurt: the unstable molecules used in their costumes were flexible under normal circumstances, but hardened to bulletproof levels when subjected to the appropriate stresses. A rare subversion of the ReedRichardsIsUseless trope.

* Kvothe, hero of ''Literature/TheKingkillerChronicle'' famously has a cloak of darkness, which a fairy woman sewed him from the night sky.

* ''Manga/InuYasha'':

* Appears very often in ''LightNovel/{{Slayers}}'' universe. Lina, Rezo, Gourry, and '''oh dear gods NAGA''' are some of the strongest examples. Some of Lina's outfits are terribly confusing though, since pieces of fabric seem to overlap in an almost non-Euclidean fashion.
* Lampshaded in ''LightNovel/DirtyPair'' (the novels anyway), there the 3WA suits are actually skintight forcefield generators.

* ''Manga/ShamanKing''--Hao's pants, [[http://haopants.tripod.com/ 'nuff said.]]
* Futaba Aoi from ''LightNovel/CatPlanetCuties'' wears a battle suit so skintight she is literally shrinkwrapped into it.

* In ''LightNovel/OkamiSan'' some characters wear clothes that wouldn't be seen anywhere in a normal HighSchool. Otogi Academy is a ElaborateUniversityHigh where the students are given large freedom and encouraged in self-expression, and most of them wear personalised outfits. Thoses include a character in a [[{{Meido}} Maid]] outfit, one with a bunny-eared which hat, and Momo-chan-senpai {{Stripperiffic}} [[IhaveBoobsYouMustObey outfit]]. The Shy and average-looking Ryôshi is the only one of the main characters to wear the normal school-uniform whithout any modification.

* Franchise/GreenLantern's costume is created by the ring out of energy--the comics say the black sections are ice cold, and the green almost burns.

* Karin in ''VideoGame/ShadowHearts: Covenant''. Swordfighting in ''high heels'' and a microskirt that doesn't actually reach all the way around her waist. And some of her skills require her to ''jump'' in that getup. She basically floats up off the ground, because there's no way she'd be able to actually do that. And then there's the [[{{Stripperiffic}} Dating Costume]], which is basically a few threads held together by sheer willpower.

** Also the [[BareYourMidriff transparent Midriffs]] of the later suits in the 2040 Series.

*** Shion Murasaki's standard outfit contains BareYourMidriff and (oddly for someone suffering ACupAngst) a CleavageWindow, along with generally being extraordinarily fancy. One wonders how she's allowed to wear such clothes in her school...

*** [[TheChick Vanille's]] [[spoiler:traditional Gran Pulsian]] attire is a pink halter top, numerous belts, adornments, beads, and a skirt made of scraps of material covered by a bear pelt.

* In ''LightNovel/OkamiSan'' some characters wear clothes that would'nt be seen anywhere in a normal HighSchool. Otogi Academy is a ElaborateUniversityHigh where the students are given large freedom and encouraged in self-expression, and most of them wear personalised outfits. Thoses include a character in a [[{{Meido}} Maid]] outfit, one with a bunny-eared which hat, and Momo-chan-senpai {{Stripperiffic}} [[IhaveBoobsYouMustObey outfit]]. The Shy and average-looking Ryôshi is the only one of the main characters to wear the normal school-uniform whithout any modification.

** HighlyVisibleNinja [[MsFanservice Mai]] [[{{Gainaxing}} Shiranui]]. Just how does that gi stay in place?

* In ''Anime/ReadOrDie'', Ms. Deep's leather catsuit with its impressively low-cut decolletage would be impossible to wear in the real world without its occupant violating local indecent exposure laws in those places that have them. (See {{Gainaxing}}, TheissTitillationTheory.)

* Felicia and Morrigan of ''VideoGame/{{Darkstalkers}}'', who have the excuse of them not actually being clothes (but rather fur and magically shaped bats, respectively). ...lucky bats. Morrigan also has the excuse of being a [[HornyDevils succubus]], so she has a reason to [[{{Stripperiffic}} expose some flesh]].

** Sniper Wolf's AbsoluteCleavage fatigues look fantastic, but why on Earth did she think dressing like that ''in Alaska'' was appropriate? Consider that the low temperature forms relevant obstacles throughout the story--for instance, Snake had to be injected with special proteins in the Briefing sequence to protect him from frostbite, one door is inaccessible because it is frozen shut, Snake's Rations will freeze if he doesn't have them equipped while outside... Vulcan Raven is underdressed for the weather, too, but it's explained as his special power. Sniper Wolf has no excuse.

* Clothing in the ''VideoGame/DevilMayCry'' series seems to boast a HealingFactor, as they appear to regenerate from wounds inflicted on their wearers. Some fans have taken issue with Capcom's laziness in not properly modeling the ClothingDamage. In a cutscene where Lady opens fire on Dante, several of the bullets pass through his coat as he flips past them and he holds up his coat as he lands, annoyed at the holes in them. The holes are not present once gameplay resumes, though.

*** Oh, have we forgotten the white outfit and [[NiceHat Kite-Hat]] worn near the end of R2 when he [[spoiler:becomes Emperor]]? Not to mention Suzaku's outfits, the outfits of the royal family, and... well... pretty much every nobles' outfit. It helps that the series' outfits are [[MemeticMutation inspired by G Gundam... no, not the outfits of G Gundam, the MECHA]]. Also, it was designed by CLAMP, so yeah...

* There's a reason why viewers never see Magneto actually ''putting on'' his [[NiceHat extremely cool, telepathy-blocking helmet]] in the ''Film/XMenFilmSeries''. It's because the helmet actually comes in two parts and must be fitted by a costumer.

* Not exactly a costume, but has anyone tried to consider what a body would hide under that [[PoweredArmor Impossibly Cool Armor]] of a ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'' Space Marine? Cosplayers never get the look right, because they ''couldn't'': Astartes simply have [[SuperSoldier different body proportions]] than normal humans. Fluff frequently lampshades this, describing marines out of armor not simply as giants, but as being positively ''deformed'' with their barrel chests, narrow waists, impossibly broad shoulders and longer limbs.
** Impossibly Cool Clothes in general are a must in the setting that ''runs on'' a RuleOfCool. While Astartes, Inquisitors and Eldar Farseers are in the top tier, high-level [[RedShirtArmy Imperial Guard]] officers would also be a tough contenders simply on the matter of [[BlingOfWar battle bling]], and Ork Warbosses are cool in a RummageSaleReject way, the cake probably goes to the [[http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/mediawiki/images/9/9b/The_Emperor.jpg Emperor's armor]].

* ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}'': A GreatOffscreenWar created a world where people celebrate their individuality, and Huntsman "combat outfits" are particularly colourful, dramatic, and sometimes even impractical, compared to ordinary people. Examples include: Blake and Neo wearing detached sleeves that stay in place; Yang's pale, frilly skirts or bows that never get damaged or dirty; never-compromised modesty, such as Pyrrha's pencil micro-skirt or Emerald's boob-tube; never-compromised modesty such as Ruby and Pyrrha's bodices or Weiss and Ruby's crinoline-packed skirts. Clothing always forms perfect lines and cuts even during intense activity, and cloaks always billow regardless of their weight. Even the best cosplayers can't defy physics, but the characters always look good as a result.

* ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}'': As a consequence of a GreatOffScreenWar, Remnant has a very strong tradition of people celebrating their individual personalities through their appearances, and this is taken to extremes by the "combat outfits" of Huntsmen, which are colourful, dramatic, often impactical, and stand out from ordinary citizens. Examples include: Blake or Neo wearing detached sleeves that stay in place even when fighting; Yang wearing pale frilly half-skirts or bows on her boots that never get damaged or dirty; clothing that never compromises modesty even in battle such as Pyrrha's pencil micro-skirt or Emerald's boob-tube top; clothing that never compromises movement, such as Ruby and Pyrrha's bodices or Weiss and Ruby's crinoline-packed skirts. Clothing always forms perfect lines and cuts, no matter what activity a character is engaged in and anything that is even slightly capable of swirling, such as Ruby or Qrow's cloaks, will do so in the slightest breezes despite the weight of material. It's a standard even the best cosplayers cannot match due to the defiance of physics involved, but it ensures the characters always look good no matter what.

* ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}'': As a consequence of a GreatOffScreenWar, Remnant has a very strong tradition of people celebrating their individual personalities through their appearances, and this is taken to extremes by the "combat outfits" of Huntsmen, which are colourful, dramatic, often impactical, and stand out from ordinary citizens. Examples include: Blake or Neo wearing detached sleeves that stay in place even when fighting; Yang wearing pale frilly half-skirts or bows on her boots that never get damaged or dirty; clothing that never compromises modesty even in battle such as Pyrrha's pencil micro-skirt or Emerald's boob-tube top; clothing that never compromises movement, such as Ruby and Pyrrha's bodices or Weiss and Ruby's crinoline-packed skirts. Clothing always forms perfect lines and cuts, no matter what activity a character is engaged in and anything that is even slightly capable of swirling, such as Ruby or Qrow's cloaks, will do so in the slightest breezes despite the weight of material. It's a standard even the very best cosplayers cannot match due to the defiance of physics involved, but it ensures the characters always look good no matter what they do.

* ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}'': As a consequence of a GreatOffScreenWar, Remnant has a very strong tradition of people celebrating their individual personalities through their appearances, and this is taken to extremes by the "combat outfits" of Huntsmen, which are colourful, dramatic, often impactical, and stand out from ordinary citizens. Examples include: Blake or Neo wearing detached sleeves that stay in place even when fighting; Yang wearing pale frilly half-skirts or bows on her boots that never get damaged or dirty; clothing that never compromises modesty even in battle such as Pyrrha's pencil micro-skirt or Emerald's boob-tube top; clothing that never compromises movement, such as Ruby and Pyrrha's bodices or Weiss and Ruby's crinoline-packed skirts. Clothing always forms perfect lines and cuts, no matter what activity a character is engaged in and anything that is even slightly capable of swirling, such as Ruby or Qrow's cloaks, will do so in the slightest breezes despite the weight of material. It's a standard even the very best cosplayers cannot match due to the defiance of physics involved.

* Like most anime, almost every character in ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}'' has an outlandish outfit with not only their own unique emblem and colour scheme, but also modifying their own clothing in various ways to get a unique look, from [[{{Ninja}} Blake]] [[AloofDarkHairedGirl Belladonna]] having one sleeve on one arm and a ribbon wrapped around the other to [[BoisterousBruiser Yang]] [[BikerBabe Xiao]] [[CoolBigSis Long]] having mismatched socks and an asymmetrical skirt. What makes ''RWBY'' a unique example is that it's a JustifiedTrope: eighty years before the events of the story, there was a huge world war where a fascist-style government tried to suppress all art, creativity and free will. They eventually lost to those who opposed such tyranny, and among the victors it became tradition to [[http://rwby.wikia.com/wiki/Color_Naming_Rule name their children after colours]]. Much like how fascism and nationalism were discredited as philosophies after the defeat of the Axis in World War II in real life, because of this shocking war over collectivism vs. individualism the world of Remnant places a societal emphasis on individuality, self-expression and general wackiness to a degree far beyond that of even our own world, which goes come way to explaining why between Jaune (who mostly wears a hoodie and jeans) and Pyrrha (who dresses in full Greco-Roman-styled armour), it's ''Jaune'' who sticks out more.

** Impossibly Cool Clothes in general are a must in the setting that ''runs on'' a RuleOfCool. While Astartes, Inquisitors and Eldar Farseers are in the top tier, high-level [[RedShirtArmy Imperial Guard]] officers would also be a tough contenders simply on the matter of [[BlingOfWar battle bling]], and Ork Warbosses are cool in a RummageSaleReject way turned UpToEleven, the cake probably goes to the [[http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/mediawiki/images/9/9b/The_Emperor.jpg Emperor's armor]].

** And that's just the "one size fits all" generic armor of the [[VideoGame/MassEffect1 first game]]. [[VideoGame/MassEffect2 The second game]] takes impossible outfits UpToEleven.