Shoujo Wardrobes

Moriya Ririka posing in front of the mirror with Anna's borrowed pink dress.

I've always loved those "floating panels" in shoujo manga, where characters, after an outfit change, appear at full height (often surrounded by symbolic flowers, but not always!) unrestricted by the borders of the panels, so the audience can appreciate the full outfit, before carrying on with the story!

Shoujo anime also have a lot of lovely outfits (although simplified for easier animation!), the artists often take great care in lovingly depicting the outfits—even in simpler art styles—with colours and styles often unique to each character. I thought it would be fun to share some of my favourite shoujo outfits, for inspiration or even just for fun! I'll also include some characters from works aimed at other demographics, since there can be cute characters with sweet outfits, even in works geared at boys, young children, and general audiences too, especially if there's a shoujo influence to the character or style, like Lillie from Pokemon, who is portrayed as an elegant ojou (young lady) type of character.

Pixel art of a vanity with a mirror.Pixel art of a girl with brown hair in two braided pigtails, wearing white pjyamas.Pixel art of a pink dress on a mannequin torso.Pixel art of a red dress on a mannequin torso.

Princess Luna (Angel's Hill by Osamu Tezuka)

She has a LOT of outfits and also seems to reuse different articles of clothing to make different outfits (like people do in real life!), she was originally the inspiration for starting Shoujo Wardrobes! Unlike the others where I group pictures of the same outfits, here, I'll just keep them together when they're a similar size, since it's sometimes hard for me to tell if she's wearing the same outfit or not because she'll have very small additions or changes... many of these are Kusahara Akemi's clothes, as she spends a large portion of the story living in the Kusahara mansion and posing as Akemi. Akemi's school doesn't seem to have a school uniform, but she usually wears the plaid skirt to school. It's funny, Tezuka-sensei first noticed female readers complaining that poor Pinoko in Black Jack only seemed to have one dress, so he's been very particular after that to give her different outfits.



Lillie (Pokemon Sun & Moon + Pokemon Journeys)


Animated gif by soldieroflandb of Lillie opening a window, while wearing the dress she wore under her winter clothes when searching for her father.
Lillie opening a window in her ruffled white and sky blue mock neck dress, gif by soldieroflandb on tumblr.

Lillie in the dress worn under her winter clothes while searching for her father. A white ruffled mock neck dress with sky blue accents and a high neck. A dark blue sash around her waist, tied at the back, the ends of which are decorated with white stars. Long white sleeves underneath with sky blue cuffs. The dress flares out a little and has a scalloped hem, similar to the cuffs and high neck. The hem of the dress has a sky blue accent with white star decorations. Underneath, she wears white tights and knee-high dark blue boots with white pom-pom strings. Lillie's two side braids are gathered at the back of her head, tied with a dark blue ribbon with white pom-pom ends.
Lillie in her first winter outfit, dark blue frock coat with white fur-trim along the hem and sleeves. A matching dark blue capelet with white fur-trim. Pink strings tied into a bow, with pom-poms hanging from the ends, adorn the collar (or hood?) of her capelet. She wears a dark blue ushanka hat. Pink mittens, white tights, and white fur-trimmed dark blue boots nearly knee-high.

Moriya Ririka (Nurse Angel Ririka SOS)





Licca (Wondrous Yunia Story)



Sprites above are from Cherish (now defunct) and the gingham background tile is by Rotferkel.

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