17 Times Villains Were The Best Dressed Characters on TV

Barbara Kean is a classic character in the Batman cannon verse. She is best known as being Jim Gordon's wife, and that is how she started out on the show. In Season 1 when she was simply Gordon's fiancé (not yet his wife), she was seen in muted blues and perfect blow outs, features that were easily overlooked. In her evolution into the underworld's baddest crime boss, her outfits became increasingly eye catching. Oversize furs and glam sequins were a staple in season 3, only adding to the 1920's mob mol aesthetic that was her overall attitude.

So the Grounders on CW's the 100 aren't exactly villains, but they are the primary antagonists to the Sky People who are the main focus of the show. Wild and savage where the Sky People are orderly and militaristic, they serve as the darker, animalistic and more emotionally driven heart of the show. Octavia Blake starts out as what could be the spunky little sister character in Season 1. Anyone who has followed the show from the beginning remembers her joyful "We're back bitches!!" from way back in the pilot episode.

When we first see her she's all jeans, hoodies and stick-straight hair. Basically what you would expect from any Freshman in high school. By the time she becomes a full-fledged Grounder, it's hard even to imagine that she ever looked so clean cut. The leather separates and Mad Max overtly inspired mohawk-styled braids and the muddy black eye makeup makes her look almost demonic. They accentuate that she has firmly separated herself from the stubborn humanity of her former Sky Crew companions.

One might argue that Cheryl was always a villain on this show. One might also argue that she was never villain and simply misunderstood. However, I think we can all agree that Cheryl has never been darker than in the Season 1 Riverdale final when she burnt down her family's mansion. Cheryl has a very specific aesthetic on this show. Vaguely preppy, very sexy, and almost always garbed in red. At this moment, however, in her modest white church dress, she looks part avenging angel and part angry spirit. This is, of course, entirely purposeful on the part of the showrunners. At this moment, Cheryl isn't supposed to look like a bitchy high school girl. She's supposed to look like a monster. Even if the said monster is entirely in the right with her anger.

There is a surprising amount of fashion on the show Altered Carbon, considering it is set in a Dystopian Society. The fashion serves to show the stark divide between the classes in this morally compromised universe. We see the character of Red dressed mostly in rags and ragged military fatigues, highlighting her place as cannon fodder within the class hierarchy. In the finale episode when she is shown to have thrown in her lot with a gang of money-minded assassins we see her in a metallic colored flowing gown with a plunging neckline. Though she is still completely deadly, she is clearly no longer afraid and supremely self-confident in her own survival, much more so than she is shown to be in Takeshi's flashbacks.

Rikki Carter isn't shown in detail until the final of Season 2 on Dear White People. And even then she is never clearly shown only by herself. She is almost always displayed next to the main protagonist Sam White. And this is on purpose. As Rikki Carter mainly exists on this show as a dark shadow to Sam's light. Sam White on this show is a consistent force for radical change within the racial politics of her Upper-Class Ivy League school as well as the world beyond.

Rikki Carter is powerful Right Wing voice, a self-made tool which allows the 1% to virtually ignore the increasingly severe racial violence happening in the country. Sam White is almost always shown clothed in quirky accessories and vibrant patterns, with hair big enough to match her iron personality. Rikki Carter when we see her in the finale is bland in comparison. Hair flattened into submission, with a crisply ironed ivory blouse and sensible skirt. The metaphor is obvious. Rikki has been lowered into submission for ages. Sam won't allow herself to be.

Season 1 sees Will Graham mostly in lumberjack plaid and messy hair. He's meant to be presented as a man who prefers simplicity above all else despite his dark and complicated line of work. In Season 3 after supposedly being brought over into Hannibal's darkness, his dress begins to reflect that of his nemesis. More button downs and blazers and shorter haircut. Male characters don't often get the same wardrobe treatment as female characters, but even their clothing must make logical sense for where there character is at in his arch.