I know dressing cartoon characters in the same clothes makes sense–makes them easier to recognize, designing new outfits/getting approved can take time, etc. But are there any examples of shows or comic strips where characters do dress differently?
The only one that comes to mind is a minor example: on Daria, after a few seasons, Quinn wore a long sleeved top that covered her belly, but she still wore it every day. (Plus, the fashion club was seen wearing different clothes on occasion–parties, etc.)
Well, if you’re gonna include the occasional change you’d be better off listing those that never do. Even Mickey Mouse has zoot suits, and Bugs has drag. And any long-running show will stick their characters in tuxes and dresses, and holiday-relevant apparel.
Popeye usually wears blue trousers and a black jumper with a red collar, but sometimes he wears summer whites. He usually wears a combination cover, but occasionally wears a dixie cup cap.
Main characters on The Venture Bros. mostly (but not always) stuck to the convention of ‘iconic looks’ for the first season, but in subsequent seasons they’ve all mixed it up quite a bit. (Of course that’s in line with the creators’ subversive, meta-aware approach.)
I can think of lots of little exceptions. For instance, the Quest team in Jonny Quest put on winter clothing when they went to Tibet/Nepal/Himalayas somewhere high and snowy. And Scuba suits underwater. And sometimes stripped down to swimsuits and went splashing.
But mostly, they wore their “uniform” clothing.
(One delightful sequence where Hadji’s shirt changed colors as he snuck past various barrels in a warehouse. The kid has so much magic, it just oozes out even when he doesn’t intend it!)
Popeye’s character design changed in 1941. Up until that point he usually wore a dark shirt with a collar and a sea captain’s hat. Starting with the cartoon The Mighty Navy he wore the uniform of a sailor in the U.S. Navy.
Wile E Coyote had his regular fur suit, a singed suit, a charred suit and a completely burnt suit. Then there was his slinky suit, when he had that problem with the big Acme spring.
In X-men: Evolution (which was occasionally very decent) the main characters each had two or three different outfits that they appeared in, not including their superhero costumes.
If we’re counting anime, then Bleach, not counting school or “work” uniforms, the main and some minor characters tend to wear different clothes each day.
Are they animated? (Not trying to be a dick here; A: They might be, I don’t know B: The OP didn’t specify animation, but that’s what we’ve been sticking to. Otherwise, Brenda Starr ALONE…)
The whole “super” genre tends to do that; in the case of teen heroes, there is often some sort of school uniform, plus the super suit, plus some sort of non-uniform. And at least one episode where everybody is going to a fancy party.
On Sophia the First, the characters usually wear the same clothes (purple gown for Sophia, yellow for her stepsister Amber) but as the series has been on for a while, and Disney sells dolls based on them, it’s unsurprising that more and more they have extra clothing. Sophia’s is often purple, though. She has a purple riding outfit, a purple exercise outfit, etc.
