Killer Outfit

Clothing can be functional or ornamental. It can be distinctive, dramatic, or symbolic.

It can also kill you.

Killer Outfit is when a character dies as a direct result of the clothing he wears. Note that the clothing must be directly responsible (if an inanimate object can be described as responsible) for the death. If Bob is shot because he's disguised as one of the Big Bad's henchmen, that would be Mistaken Identity. If Bob dons the disguise, catches the hem of his longcoat in his spurs, and breaks his neck in the resulting fall, that's Killer Outfit.

Cape Snag is a specific subtrope. Any examples with capes/cloaks should go on that page, not this one.

Compare Fashion Hurts and Clothing Combat. This can overlap with Hoist by His Own Petard if the clothing was intended to protect the wearer.

Examples of Killer Outfit include:

Anime

• In the first episode of Noir, Kirika grabs a mook's tie and hangs him with it.

Comics

• One Golden Age Batman story had Batman pursuing four escaped killers, sentenced to die by different means of execution in different states. Each dies in a way that mirrors the way they were due to be executed. The one sentenced to hang dies when his tie gets caught in a generator.

Film

• In the movie Happy Birthday to Me, one of the victims is killed when the killer kicks his long scarf into some machinery, strangling him.
• In Law Abiding Citizen, one of the characters mentioned that Clyde Shelton can kill anyone he wants, any time he wants. The example he uses is how Clyde managed to kill some terrorist hiding in a bunker, completely locked away from the word in a totally secure environment.

One time we're tasking this tricky target. I mean, we're using cruise missiles and predators and we even had a B-2 bomber flatten this guy's villa with a JDAM. All right? We're burning up millions in ordnance and we're getting nowhere with this guy. So we call Clyde and we ask him to solve our problem. Clyde develops a Kevlar thread with a high-tech ratchet made of carbon fiber put in a necktie. Two days later, Mrs. Bad Guy comes home, finds Mr. Bad Guy dead on the bathroom tile, choked to death.

• Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. While fighting Indiana Jones, the Giant Mook's sash is caught in the rock crusher and he's pulled to his doom.
• Deep Red has this with jewelry rather than with clothes: the murderer is killed when her necklace gets stuck in a moving elevator, which beheads her.

Literature

• Averted (so far) and lampshaded by Victarion Greyjoy in A Song of Ice and Fire. He is fully aware that fighting sea battles in full plate is Tempting Fate but finds nothing unreasonable about it. After all, he is a faithful of the sea god (the baptism of his religion is getting drowned unconscious and then resuscitated) and he would be no true warrior if he feared going under. So far his plate has served him better than the lighter garments did to his enemies.
• Medea killed her ex-husband new wife this way: she sent her a poisoned dress who caught on fire when she wore it. The dress is so murderous, it killed two people: the poor wearer and the wearer's father, who tried to suffocate the flames and got engulfed in them instead.

Live Action Television

• This trope and an urban legend based on it was used in an episode of CSI New York. The first victim was a bride on her wedding day. It turned out that she had bought her wedding gown used, and it was severely contaminated with formaldehyde. (The gown's original owner had been buried in it, and then dug up so the the gown could be stolen for resale.)
• In one episode of News Radio, the action revolves around a person who had just died from having a tie snagged in a copier.
• In one episode of Monk, a woman got strangled in an elevator, when her scarf got caught in the closing door not. She was strangled in the elevator before, and the accomplice of the murderer appeared as her double.

Mythology

• Putting this solidly into Older Than Feudalism, we have the death of Heracles. After the centaur Nessus tried to kidnap Deianira, he survived long enough to assure Deianira that if Heracles' attention ever wandered, Nessus' blood would act as a love charm. Different myths differ on whether he gave Deianira his bloodstained tunic, or if he told her to save his blood and put it on one of Heracles' tunics. The end result is the same in both versions: the hydra venom Heracles had used on his arrows was still potent and killed Heracles.

Video Games

• Batman: Rise Of Sin Tzu has the Scarecrow nearly end up hanging himself with the noose that was part of his costume.Lucky for him Batman was there.

Real Life

• Dancer Isadora Duncan died when her long silk scarf caught in the rear wheel and axle of the car she was riding in, breaking her neck.
• Several Darwin Awards have been won with the help of Killer Outfits.
  • One burglar, while trying to break into a store via a window in the roof, caught his sweater and accidentally hung himself.
  • Two Darwin Award winners killed themselves by wearing ridiculously high heels — one by trying to drive a car in them , the other simply by falling over and smashing her skull on the pavement.
• Cracked featured an article on various fashion trends throughout history that have killed people. I particularly remember corsets and hoop skirts.
• This is why auto mechanics NEVER wear a necktie at work. Many of them will also call their office-bound boss's tie a noose.
• Office machine repairmen often don't wear ties (or wear clip-ons) from concern that it could catch in the machine they're working on.
• A belly dancer accidentally hung herself after throwing her scarf into the air, and getting caught on a ceiling fan.