The Fashionista Narrator

Basic Trope: A character who is known for being feminine, dressing very nicely and being interested in fashion. Straight: Alice is a Girly Girl who always dresses well and knows all the latest fashions. Exaggerated: Alice never talks about anything but fashion. She wears high heels just to get the morning paper and sexy lingerie to bed. Downplayed: Alice dresses well but does not make a fuss about it. If she is pointed out people will say she looks good, but otherwise she won't be noticed and Alice is fine that way. Justified: Alice grew up in a home where her parents encouraged her to always dress neatly. Alice lives in an area or works in a career where dressing your best is extremely important. Alice dresses up as a hobby and takes an artistic interest in it. She considers it as serious a hobby as any other. If Bob gets to make a fuss about fly fishing and outdoor gadgets, why shouldn't Alice make a fuss about clothes? Inverted: Rummage Sale Reject. Gender Inverted: Bob always dresses well and knows all the latest fashions. Bob is The Dandy Subverted: We hear that Alice is a model, but we later see that she wears sweats and plain t-shirts when she's not modeling. Double Subverted: Sweats and plain t-shirts are the height of fashion this year. Parodied: Alice wears Impossibly Tacky Clothes, but thinks they are the height of fashion and accuses anyone who tries to point this out of being jealous. Zig Zagged: Alice knows fashion but is only intermittently concerned about it. She likes dressing up from time to time but is happy in casual clothing. Tomboy with a Girly Streak. Averted: There are no fashionistas in the show. Enforced: It's a makeover show. Lampshaded: Charlotte: "That Alice is so beautiful. She always has the nicest clothes. swoon" Invoked: "Hi I'm Stacy, and that's Clinton, and you're on TLC's What Not To Wear. Defied: Alice decides she doesn't care what anyone thinks of her outfits; she'll wear whatever feels comfortable. Deconstructed: Alice becomes overly obsessed with being too fashionable that she becomes an outcast by the society. Reconstructed: But if it is to win the hearts of handsome men in the society, Alice is not bothered by it. Played For Drama: Alice feels inferior and ugly, and thinks she has to cover that up by being image-obsessed, becoming vain, shallow, and catty in the process. She learns that you can dress well to reflect your inner beauty and confidence, rather than mask a lack of it.

MEDIA EXAMPLES

Cardcaptor Sakura: Tomoyo would Once per Episode design Sakura some darn creative outfit. Sometimes they had some practical benefit but usually, they were just to make her look cute. Sonoko Suzuki identifies the victims in one case as belonging to the ganguro fashion subculture upon seeing their pictures. She even distinguished what kind of ganguro they were! Ai Haibara is a milder example. When not at work, she regularly reads fashion magazines. She also sometimes demands expensive purses or other fashion items in return for favors. Don't Become an Otaku, Shinozaki-san!: Akina Shinozaki loves clothes and fashion and even plans to become friends with her otaku classmate Kaede to draw her out of the otaku life. This backfires, causing Akina to become more of an otaku and results in things like Akina spending more than two hours designing an MMORPG avatar. Dragon Ball Z: Android 18 loves clothes, and even has her own Costume-Test Montage in one of the films. Fairy Tail: Erza is a Lady of War who loves to dress up, has over 100 outfits, and according to Word of God she once scared a major fashion designer into designing pretty armor for her (the insignia on said armor indicates Heart Kreuz is the designer in question). Her past as a slave at the Tower of Heaven gives her a reason for this. GA: Geijutsuka Art Design Class: Every time Nodamiki appears, she wears a different hairdo and has the uncanny ability to spot the identity of different fashion pieces — despite being just a tenth grader! Raimu Kouno a.k.a. "Rairi" from Kaiju Girl Caramelise. She's an expert in makeup who regularly gives fashion tips to her classmates, and her Establishing Character Moment sees her spontaneously giving Kuroe a makeover despite the other girls in their class previously thinking the latter irredeemably unattractive. It's soon revealed that Rairi actually has the face of a gorilla underneath all that elaborate makeup, and she originally got into fashion all so she could disguise it. Lapis Re:LiGHTs has Ratura of Sugar Pockets. Her family runs an internationally-lauded fashion brand, she's inherited the talent of designing clothes, and is very stylish and fashionable in general. However, her creations find their home in the pages of her manga than on the runway as she's also a magical girl otaku and aspiring manga artist/writer and her personal wardrobe is very limited due to both a limited allowance (as discipline training) and her hobby collecting official merchandise. Magical Record Lyrical Nanoha Force: Isis Egret has dreams of starting her own fashion label despite coming from a family that specializes in guarding important people. Naruto: Hinata's younger sister, Hanabi, is shown to have become one of these as a teenager in The Last: Naruto the Movie, which she also remains in Boruto as an adult. Hinata complains that she's become a bit too concerned with looks, to the point where she puts cute accessories on her kunai. In Naruto Ultimate Ninja Storm 4 one of her attacks even has Hanabi complain when her hair becomes messy in battle. Koito from Otaku Elf wants to be a fashionista and is occasionally seen reading fashion magazines and bought both a high-end handbag and a second-hand trench coat from a high-end fashion house, but, as other characters note, it doesn't really work for her. When she showed the high-end handbag (which cost her three years of new-year's money) to other characters, they said it looked out of her league, which she admitted that it really does. As to the trench coat? It was way too big on her and just looked ridiculous, though when Elda, the aforementioned otaku elf, tried it on, she looked amazing according to the other characters. In HeartCatch Pretty Cure! Erika's president of the school's fashion club. Having parents who run a clothing shop helps. Miki from the previous show is also an aspiring model, so she goes around changing her fashion occasionally until she gets a 'perfect' look. Princess Jellyfish: Kuranosuke becomes a Wholesome Crossdresser so that he can pursue his passion without interference from his family of politicians. In Tamagotchi, Memetchi is fascinated with the latest fashion trends. Unlike her rival, Makiko, she's also interested in making her own fashion. Anna and Maho from Wandering Son are both fashion-savvy, especially Anna. Justified as they're both fashion models. Wasteful Days of High School Girls: Lily Someya has been the most shiny girl of her class and is so good in clothes matching that a chapter is spent of her giving fashion advice to some of her classmates. Despite being an Otaku and mostly plays the Straight Man, Akane "Ota" Kikuchi dresses rather well outside of school, as well as sporting different hairstyles with each appearance in her casuals. She even dyes her hair to a lighter tone after moving to high school and shows an interest in makeup. One of the defining features of Veronica Lodge is her love of clothes and fashion. Katy Keene is also a fashionista. Official Fan-Submitted Content helps her out with this. Justice League of America: Green Flame/Fire from the Global Guardians was a model at one point. Millie the Model and her friends. It's right in the name, and she even provides our page image. Patsy Walker was a model in her early days, and even after joining the mainstream Marvel Comics as Hellcat, she likes to indulge in Costume Porn. Pocket God: Toola takes great pride in her beauty and fashion. Spider-Man: Mary Jane Watson was, at one point, a fashion model. She is kind of a Tomboy in personality, though, in that she's very direct and enjoys sports. She has used her fashion design and sewing skills on many occasions to make and repair Spider-Man's costumes. She also designed the Hornet, Prodigy, and Ricochet costumes. Teen Titans: For a time, Starfire (a hot alien babe with orange skin) had a successful career as a fashion model. The Wasp: Janet Van Dyne is a fashion designer in her spare time. She likely has the largest wardrobe in comic book history. Wonder Woman (1942): Glamora Treat is usually seen in her Holliday Girls sweater or T-shirt, but has a wide array of shorts, pants, and skirts to pair it with. She also has a full closet of outfits to wear for every possible occasion when she's not wearing her Holliday Girls shirts, lending itself well to disguising herself for infiltration or just for dressing for any kind of party or ball. The Legend of Wonder Woman (2016): Etta Candy sews and designs her own clothes and is very fashion conscious. She is happy to get an interview with a Parisian fashion magazine editor and is thinking of designing clothes to make money. Wonder Woman Historia: The Amazons: Hera wears a new, entirely different ornate and detailed costume for every new scene she's in. 101 Dalmatians: Cruella de Vil's obsession with fashion, especially of the furred variety, is her entire motivation, leading her to acquire nearly a hundred puppies to make into clothing for herself. Since she is the evil variety of fashionista, she lacks the typical good looks, having instead an exaggeratedly thin body with protruding cheekbones and a great deal of make-up. Inside Out: Disgust takes on this role, as part of her job is to set high standards for Riley. Disgust: "When I'm through, Riley will look so good the other kids will look at their own outfits and barf." Most of the women (except Andy) in The Devil Wears Prada are like this, largely because they work for a fashion magazine. It's implied to be the imposed edict of the magazine's owner, played by Meryl Streep; during the "gird your loins" scene where everyone is in a flurry because she's on her way, there's a brief throwaway shot of one woman hurriedly exchanging her sensible and comfortable shoes for a pair of stilettos. The Dressmaker couldn't get much more self-explanatory. In House of 9, Max Roy is a fashion designer whose initial concern on being trapped in a Deadly Game in a house with nine strangers is that he only has one outfit. The Hunger Games: Effie Trinket has been wearing fancy dresses in all her appearances. When she has to wear jumpsuits after defecting to District 13, she's obviously pissed off. That said, she is able to rock the jumpsuit with a few alterations and accessories. In A Knight's Tale Jocelyn likes wearing different clothes and dressing to match her knight because a flower is only as good as its petals. Elle Woods of Legally Blonde was originally a Fashion Merchandising major before switching to Law. Her in-depth knowledge about the industry helps her to catch a saleswoman that tries to rip her off by charging full price for a year-old dress. Mean Girls: Regina George and the rest of the Plastics. There's even a dress code, such as which days they're supposed to wear pink. In the dueling biopics Yves Saint Laurent and Saint Laurent, Yves takes inspiration from his muses. Betty Catroux fascinates Yves with her androgynous style and Loulou de la Falaise delights him with her eclectic fashion choices. Birdie Jay from Glass Onion used to be a supermodel and now works as a fashion designer, and her background certainly shows in the colorful, flashy outfits she wears throughout the film. Animorphs: Rachel is described as incredibly beautiful and able to coordinate any outfit to resemble a fashion model's style. Shopping for clothes in the mall is her favorite hobby; it becomes a Chekhov's Skill in one book when she needs to dress a malfunctioning Erik in a stylish outfit and successfully picks out the perfect ensemble without knowing any of his sizes. Rachel also happens to be the team's best and most enthusiastic fighter, happily morphing to grizzly bear to tear an Hork-Bajir or five to shreds. In one book, she undergoes Literal Split Personality; her "good" half is cowardly and loves shopping, while her "evil" half couldn't care less about clothes (although he still manages to look good in her tomboyish clothes) and takes her Blood Knight tendencies up a notch. The Baby-Sitters Club: Anyone who grew up reading this series will remember the obligatory description of Claudia's outfits as the highlight of the otherwise virtually copy-and-pasted introductory passage in each book. She was also the artsy one, and her dress sense obeyed no laws of fashion except her own, but we're assured that "on her, it totally worked" every time. Her best friend Stacey was from New York, which was treated like it was proof of fashion consciousness in itself. In The Egypt Game, April goes for a '60s Hollywood look (Beehive Hairdo, Pretty in Mink, etc.) at the start. (The novel was written in 1967.) She's emulating her inattentive actress/singer mother. Jessamine Lovelace from The Infernal Devices is very concerned about how she looks, and it's she who takes Tessa out to buy new dresses. Letters to His Son: The French in general are fabulously fashionable; "Fashion is more tyrannical at Paris than in any other place in the world; it governs even more absolutely than their king, which is saying a great deal." In Lonely Werewolf Girl, this is the Hat of the Fire Demons. The standout character is, of course, Malveria, but Werewolf-fashion designer Thrix runs a close second. Showing up in the wrong dress could start a war you know. The Parasol Protectorate has the extremely fashionable vampiric Lord Akeldama, and his retinue of rarified dandies. Time Scout: Margo dresses well with timeless class. When she first encounters Connie Logan's shop, she practically orgasms. In the Twilight saga, Alice loves dressing people up and throwing parties, especially if Bella's involved. She not only organizes Bella's wedding, but packs her honeymoon suitcase, dresses her up in a cocktail dress and stilettos for her first post-vamp hunt, and fills up her closet at home with high-end, fashionable clothing while Bella would rather wear jeans. Ward has the main protagonist, Victoria Dallon. While she doesn't go overboard, she is very fashion conscious and her narrative descriptions of other characters frequently include a rundown of exactly what they're wearing and her own critique of it. While My Pretty One Sleeps: Neeve Kearny loves fashion; she's always well-dressed and runs a successful fashion boutique, Neeve's Place, helping to dress dozens of women in stylish and flattering outfits. Her keen eye for fashion even helps solve the central mystery of what happened to Ethel. Neeve notices something is off about Ethel's clothes: firstly, she has supposedly left town but didn't take any winter coats despite the freezing weather, and when her body is finally found, Neeve believes her killer dressed her in a specific outfit because the blouse she's wearing with her suit is one she would never have picked for herself (while it was the one sold with the suit, Neeve had warned her off it as it clashed with the rest of the outfit), one of her stockings has a significant run in it (Neeve says she would never go out with her stockings in that state) and she isn't wearing any jewellery (which could be used to identify her). The caftan she tended wear around her home is also missing (it was the outfit she actually died in and it got covered in blood). This means Ethel was killed in her apartment and her body dressed to look like she was intending to go out. Neeve also correctly deduces that Ethel's ex-husband didn't kill her because based on his dowdy clothes, he knows little about fashion. Neeve inherited her interest in and talent for fashion from her mother; Renata also had a good eye for fashion and took a part-time job buying clothes for a boutique, often bringing Neeve with her. Renata wasn't afraid to call out merchants trying to sell her unflattering outfits, was always impeccably dressed and believed that "A woman's clothes should fit her like a second skin". She also took it upon herself to help her husband dress better, including laying out his ties for him, as Myles is all but clueless when it comes to fashion. It's revealed that Renata even had the makings of being a great fashion designer, with Sal saying he knew just from looking through her design portfolio that she had The Gift for it; Sal stole her designs and made fashion history with them. Amber Brown (2022): Brandi is quite into wearing different stylish outfits and hairdos. American Idol: When female judges started commenting on how a contestant looked, it was usually a sign that they couldn't find anything good to say about their performance. Nicki Minaj, on the other hand, is always giving commentary/suggestions on their style choices and still commenting on the performances themselves. Arabela: Princess Xenia is very fond of clothes, especially the modern ones worn in the human world. The Bold Type: All three of the main characters — Jane, Kat, and Sutton — are beautiful dressers, mixing high and low fashion labels. Their boss Jacqueline Carlyle is always dressed in high-end designer fashions. Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Cordelia and the Cordettes are vicious enforcers of fashion rules. Angel: It was kind of like the Soviet Secret Police if they cared a lot about shoes. Degrassi: The Next Generation: Fiona Coyne is a talented artist and is also very interested in fashion, as shown through her unique sense of style. Desperate Housewives: Gabrielle is a former fashion model who, despite giving up the runway, hasn't sacrificed the clothes she wore while posing. She's easily the best dressed of the titular housewives and is known to spend extravagantly on the latest designer outfits. In the final season of the show, her sense of style becomes a Chekhov's Skill—she treats herself to a day of shopping and proves incredibly good at creating elaborate ensembles, so the high-end store she's visiting offers her a job as a "professional shopper" for rich clients (she's responsible for picking out clothes for people who either don't have time to choose or lack fashion sense). Gabrielle finds herself genuinely enjoying the work and parlays it into a full-on home shopping empire, making her rich and successful. Friends: Rachel works her way up the fashion career ladder. Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha: Hye-jin's outfits are always luxurious and well put together. When trying to plan an outfit for a former classmate's wedding, she orders dozens of packages in the weeks leading up to it. Middle daughter Mandy on Last Man Standing is always dressed well, and she creates her own line of clothing and sells them out of her parents' basement. Llan-ar-goll-en: This is an Informed Attribute with Tara, who is supposedly an expert on fashion, yet has the exact same clothing and hairstyle in every episode, just like the other characters. Maggie & Bianca: Fashion Friends: The title characters attend the Fashion Academy. Ironically, Maggie (the middle-class girl) fits the trope more than Bianca (the rich daughter of a fashion entrepreneur). While Bianca cares about being stylish, she only attends the Fashion Academy because she's forced by her father and does not want a career in fashion (unlike Maggie), because her real secret dream is being a singer. The Nanny: Fran Fine, the titular character, is as well known for her amazing fashion as her nasal voice. Her outfits range from the eye-catching (a dress made of candy wrappers) to the outlandish (a floor-length faux fur coat in bright orange) to the truly bizarre (a dress that resembles a brick wall), but they're always extremely chic. Fran frequently discusses shopping for the best available deals at department stores, and one episode reveals that Todd Oldham, a real-life fashion designer, is her cousin and gives her free outfits ("How do you think a nanny could afford to dress the way I do?"). Our Miss Brooks: Wealthy Miss Enright, Miss Brooks' rival, is always impeccably dressed. Parks and Recreation: Tom's obsession with living a glamorous and luxurious life comes with an obsession over fashion. In later seasons, he parlays this into a business that rents out clothing. Pretty Little Liars: Hanna all but uses the school hallways as her catwalk. The Queen's Gambit: Beth likes fine clothes and makeup almost as much as she likes winning. Once she can afford it, she starts dressing absolutely beautifully, which makes some of her opponents dismiss her, thinking someone so feminine and glamorous couldn't possibly be a formidable chess player. They are quickly proven very wrong. Part of Beth's love of nice clothes stems from the fact that she grew up in an orphanage where she only had one dress, and even after being adopted, didn't have that many outfits and was bullied for it at school. After she starts making money, she treats herself to a new wardrobe to celebrate moving ahead. Red Dwarf: The Cat: Cat: (being made to scrub the floor) Aw, look at my hands! I had lovely hands! Lister: Well, wear the smegging gloves! Cat: Marigold with blue? Are you crazy? Schitt's Creek: Moira, David, and Alexis all sport high-end designer looks that were purchased before the family went bankrupt. The Suite Life of Zack & Cody: London Tipton rarely wears an outfit more than twice. It's presented as one example among many of her frivolity and status as a wealthy hotel heiress. That's So Raven: Raven Baxter herself lacks supermodel proportions but fashion design is her passion and she makes most of her own clothing. The plots of several episodes revolve around her interest in fashion and making it a career. The Vampire Diaries: Caroline is trendy and loves fashion. Velvet: Many of the female characters. Unsurprising since the show takes place at a high end fashion house. The West Wing: C.J. has trouble being taken seriously as a female White House press secretary (people either focus on how she looks rather than what she's saying or assume she does that). The Wilds: Nobody can argue Fatin's not constantly concerned with her looks. She's always seen in the most flattering possible clothing, plus makeup. The Wire: D'Angelo Barksdale is shown to take a long time picking his outfit every day, with his then-girlfriend Shardene even teasing him about taking longer than most women. He also stops to change clothes before driving to New York for a pick-up while the police wait outside. Bunk Moreland is rarely seen out of his pinstripe suit, only once showing up in sweatpants and an old lacrosse t-shirt out of protest. He also knows a lot about different designers. Jimmy: You know how they call a guy who pays that much attention to his clothes, do you? Bunk: Yeah, an adult. Ziggy Sobotka wants to impress people with his $2000 Italian leather jacket, but gets mostly laughed at.