Superman will give you the cape right off his back.
A person's naked body is considered private in most settings. So, if someone finds themselves rendered naked in public, be it The Nudifier, Shameful Strip, or something more horrific, it is typically a source of great embarrassment and/or shame.
However, in some cases, someone will step forward to offer a piece of their clothing to shield the other person, usually a young woman, from the view of others. It could be a coat, cape, shirt, or some other piece of clothing.
It may be accompanied by the person offering the concealing garment turning their head to avoid looking, while sporting a Luminescent Blush. Some may actually still look, but focus on the eyes of the person needing the garment. The Stoic may even show they are not Distracted by the Sexy, only offering a concealing garment as an afterthought.
Interestingly, even a Chivalrous Pervert might do something like this, especially if the experience was particularly traumatic to the person on the receiving end.
While it is possible for this to be done for a Love Interest, doing this for someone does not inherently convey romantic feelings. It could simply be a display of basic decency and morality. Indeed, the person offering the covering garment could be romantically involved with someone else, and is merely showing that they're a decent person, or at least a case of Everyone Has Standards. Indeed, it is just as likely a female character will offer the covering out of a sense of sympathy, even if the person she's offering it to would ordinarily be her worst enemy.
If it was a malicious act that deprived the woman of her garments, and the assailant is still present, the man who donates his shirt will now have a Shirtless Scene where he can demonstrate his badass credentials further by engaging in a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown of the guilty party.
May overlap Naked on Arrival, Naked on Revival, Fetal Position Rebirth, Naked Freak-Out, Forgotten State of Undress, and Naked People Are Funny (depending on whether the situation is Played for Laughs instead of drama).
Compare Please Put Some Clothes On and You Must Be Cold.
Contrast Sexy Shirt Switch, when the parties swap clothes after (typically) consensual sex.
While this is more likely to happen to a female character, given that Most Writers Are Male, it's not an Always Female trope, and male examples do crop up.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, REALLY Love You: In Chapter 11, Hakari drinks Kusuri's "makes-you-sexier" drug, which causes her to literally sweat all of her clothes off. Rentarou promptly offers his jersey for her to wear.
- Beastars: Legoshi does this to Haru a few times. Once, when he went to talk to her about joining the Garden Club, she assumed he was just another guy who wanted a go at her, so she closes the door and windows of the garden shed, and happily strips down to her underwear and comes on to him. However, Legoshi really wanted to join the club so he could get to know her better and covers her small body with his shirt and nervously runs away. Later, when Haru gets kidnapped by the Shishigumi gang, she's forced to disrobe so the Chief Lion can eat her without stripping her himself, and after Legoshi and Lois rescue her by fighting and killing the Chief, Legoshi gives her his shirt, and with her small size, it covers her just as much as a dress someone of her stature would wear allowing them to walk into the street without attracting too much attention.
- Castletown Dandelion: At one point Akane is suffering a "breakout" and her gravity powers end up shredding her blouse. However, her brother's Love Interest Hana was having lunch with her, and knowing that anyone would find it humiliating, as well as knowing that Akane is a Shrinking Violet, covers her with her coat and then tells her to run into the restaurant from the outdoor tables they were dining at, and then Hana directs attention to herself by declaring her intention to marry Akane's brother, Prince Shuu.
- A Certain Scientific Railgun: During the Daihaseisai Arc, Mikoto Misaka forcibly undergoes the Level 6 Shift, where at one point the transformation vaporizes her clothes, with her modesty protected by energy coating her body. When Touma undoes the transformation, she is left naked, and he quickly lends his jacket to cover her body.
- Chained Soldier: After Mira is released from Kuusetsu, Kyouka covers up her unconscious naked body with her jacket.
- Chainsaw Man: After defeating Reze, Denji covers her almost naked body with his shirt and revives her.
- Fairy Tail: Lisanna was kidnapped by Tartaros and stripped naked. After she frees herself, she uses her Take-Over magic Cat form to stay decent. Until Tartaros activate The White Legacy: Face. That removes all Magic in the Kingdom of Fiore, including Lisanna's. This renders her naked again in front of her friends. However, Doranbolt gives her his jacket to save her from a Naked Freak-Out.
- FLCL Progressive: In the final episode, after Aiko's plant form destroys the Medical Mechanical "factory", she is reborn naked. Mori catches her as she falls, and then he gives her his oversized-shirt to preserve her modesty.
- Full Metal Panic? Fumoffu: In the final episode, Sousuke is sent the wrong item, and brings it to school while he calls his weapon dealer to complain. It turns out the container he was sent contained a strain of bacteria that fed on oil-based synthetic fibers, aka the clothing of Jindai High's class. Ren Mikihara had gone to the student council room to have a last cup of tea, believing that the virus was a fatal bioweapon. Her outfit deteriorates in front of her Love Interest, Student Council President Atsunobu Hayashimizu. However, as luck would have it, Hayashimizu wears all natural fabrics, and chivalrously drapes the coat to his uniform over Ren to preserve her modesty.
- Ghost in the Shell (1995):
- The Major strips down to her thermoptic camouflage gear in order to chase down and eventually subdue the hacked garbageman. Batou arrives and puts a coat over her shoulders while they wait for Section 9 to arrive.
- When Batou meets up with the Major in the third act, she's inhabited the body of a naked Gynoid doll. He puts a vest around her, both a sign of affection and Call-Back to the first movie, and to tell her apart from the aggressive Gynoid dolls that were about to attack.
- Goblin Slayer: The eponymous character is all too familiar with the nature of goblins, such as abducting women and using them as Sex Slaves to breed more goblins. He keeps modesty blankets ready to cover naked hostages he rescues, showing that he cares about the victims' dignity.
- Gurren Lagann: After the Anti-Spirals leave Nia naked, Simon drapes his Badass Longcoat around her, and continues to fight the Anti-Spirals as a bare-chested badass.
- The Kingdoms of Ruin: When Adonis resurrects Doroka, she is completely naked, though it takes her a moment to realize it. Upon becoming aware, however, she has a Naked Freak-Out, backing well away from Adonis and begging his forgiveness for showing him "something so filthy". He averts his eyes and tosses a shirt over her.
- One Piece: After the battle at Little Garden, Nami's shirt got burned off, showing off her bra. So Sanji takes off his jacket and puts it on Nami.
- Outlaw Star: When Melfina is discovered naked in a box and revived, Gene Starwind covers her with his jacket.
- Ranma ½: In the "Moxibustion" story arc, Akane, trying to help Ranma learn the Hiryū Shōten Ha, ends up burning her own shirt off trying to handle fire with insulated gloves, not realizing her attempts at martial arts moves would quickly spread the flames. She manages to douse the flames before being seriously hurt, but is now in the ragged remains of her blouse. Ranma drapes his own shirt over her, and she's crying about the situation. Unfortunately, Ryōga finds them this way, and misreads the situation of Akane in tattered clothes and crying as Ranma having forced himself on Akane.
Comic Books
- Alix: In "Iorix the Great", Iorix is unhappy that Ariela (the Girl of the Week) refuses his advances, and spitefully rips off her tunic as he kicks her at Alix. Alix forces Iorix to give her a cloak at swordpoint.
- The Supergirl from Krypton (2004): When the Post-Crisis storyline decided to restore the concept of Supergirl as Superman's cousin, she arrives on Earth completely naked. She runs into three dock workers, two of which attack her and are taken down but the third one gives her his jacket. Batman takes her down with kryptonite and takes her to the Batcave, removing the jacket while examining her. Superman, upon finding her, quickly ascertains that she's Kryptonian, and when she reveals she knows his Kryptonian name, she tells him in their native language that she's his cousin. He wraps his cape around her to preserve her modesty.
- X-Men (Chris Claremont): In Uncanny X-Men issues #233-234, Madelyne Pryor has a dream-vision where her husband Cyclops abandons her, takes her baby Nathan and recreates Jean Grey, Cyclops's first love, from Madelyne's hair and face, leaving her as a mannequin. In the next sequence, a naked Madelyne wanders off under a hot sun in the desert which causes her faceless head to melt back to normal. She then trips over a rock and falls into a pond. Still naked, Limbo demon Sym, who has infiltrated her vision, appears to cover her with a black cloak that hides her nakedness.
- X-Terminators: Issue #5 sees Jubilee finally cut loose with the full range of her powers, vaporizing The Collector's spaceship. In the process, she also vaporizes all of her body hair and clothes. After Magick teleports them to safety, Boom Boom covers the now naked (and bald) Jubilee with her hooded sweater and knit cap.
Boom Boom: You look like a naked mole rat who was given super-soldier serum, Jubilee.
Jubilee: Sick
Boom Boom: You look like a cursed doll that an evil wizard animated and then irradiated.
Jubilee: Badass!
Boom Boom: You look like my big toe.
Jubilee: Ha Ha Ha!
Fan Works
- Duran and Kiyohime's Omake Theater: In one chapter, Natsuki, ever The Chew Toy to the universe, loses her bikini, top and bottom, to a powerful wave while at the beach. She is in a secluded place, crouched down to shelter from view. Shizuru wants to help, but has no clothing to offer, as they drove to the beach in their swimwear. However, they did bring their pets, their Childs from the original My-HiME, and Shizuru's hydra, Kiyohime, offers her services by wrapping her body and heads around Natsuki in such a way as to shield her from view long enough for her to race to the car.
- The New World: A My-HiME fanfic set in a Colonial AU, Natsuki is part of a hunting party with colonist Takeda and a Native-American named Sokanon. John Smith, looking to stir up trouble, hires a trio of men to murder the hunting party and make it look to each side like the other had turned on them. Takeda is knocked unconscious on the initial assault. He wakes to find Sokanon dead and Natsuki stripped naked and tied up. He manages to get the upper hand on the assailants, and is met by men from Sokanon's tribe. He asks them to take the trio prisoner and return them to the colony, while he covers Natsuki in his coat and carries her to her cabin, and her lover, Shizuru. Shizuru, seeing Natsuki in such a state, flies into a murderous rage, and goes to deal with the assailants herself.
- Vow of Nudity: In A Changeling's Tale, an elven guard meets Spectra for the first time. He harasses her for walking around naked and won't believe her when she says she is under a nudity curse. He tries to cover her with his cloak, only to shocked when it bursts into flames.
Film — Animated
- AKIRA: When members of the Clown bike gang spot Tetsuro and Kaori on their own, they attack, beating Tetsuro and ripping Kaori's blouse off before punching her in the face. Before things can get much worse though, Kaneda and his friends show up to the rescue. We cut to a view of a bloodied Kaori leaning against a wall with Kaneda's jacket over her while Tetsuro beats the crap out of one of the Clowns who attacked them.
- A third-party variation in Gen¹³: The Movie; when Caitlin's powers manifest, her expanded muscles and bust quickly shred most of her clothes. Roxy makes Grunge turn his face away and give her his shirt without looking.
Film — Live-Action
- Babe: Pig in the City: After Esme's dress splits open from the back after the glue it was drenched in dries up, she asks the Landlady if she has any spare clothes she can borrow before the two of them search the city for Babe and the other missing animals. However, the only clothes available are the clown costume of the Landlady's uncle Fugly Floom, which Esme reluctantly wears during the film's third act.
- A male variant in Blue Beetle (2023). Because his civilian clothes burn off whenever he transforms, Jaime always appears naked whenever he reverts back to normal. Following his first fight against Carapax, his uncle Rudy hands him a shirt to wear while Jaime's Love Interest Jenny gives him her father's old tracksuit when they arrive at his now abandoned mansion.
- Body Weapon: In the final battle, after Miriam Ling performs a Honey Trap/Full-Frontal Assault by stripping down to her undergarments to intimidate the film's Depraved Homosexual Big Bad, enough to distract the villain who's about to finish off her wounded ally Officer Wu. The distraction allows Miriam to take down said Big Bad by way of Groin Attack, allowing Officer Wu to recover in time and deliver a finishing blow by way of Neck Snap. After the fight is over Wu then picks up his jacket (whom he ditched aside in a The Coats Are Off moment) and places it on the nearly-naked Miriam.
- A Cinderella Story: Once Upon a Song: When Luke finds Katie after she was locked out of her house naked and wearing a welcome mat, he covers her with his jacket. Hilariously, she then demands his pants, and he actually starts taking them off before she says she was kidding.
- King Kong (1976): After Dwan has been rendered topless, Jack covers her with his own shirt.
- The Myth: Jackie and Samantha, on the run from enemy mooks, gets into a fight within a factory that makes sticky mouse-traps, inevitably leading to Jackie, Samantha, and a few of their pursuers landing on a conveyer belt coated with glue. A fight scene with plenty of Giving Them the Strip ensues until Jackie and Samantha managed to escape, Samantha becoming topless in the process; luckily Jackie is still wearing a t-shirt that he quickly removes for her to put on.
- Re-Animator: When Dan and Herbert interrupt Hill molesting Megan, Dan gives her his comparatively oversized shirt for some sense of modesty.
- Stardust: A variation. Yvaine ends up on Captain Shakespeare's sky ship still in her bathrobe from the witch's inn. Shakespeare offers to give her some of his clothes, but since he is a closeted Wholesome Crossdresser, the clothes offered are all beautiful gowns.
- Superman (1978): When Kal-El arrives on Earth he is stark naked and has grown from infant to toddler. He is discovered by Jonathan and Martha Kent, who witnessed his space capsule crash. Jonathan Kent provides his coat to wrap around the boy while he attempts to fix a flat and they figure out what to do about the situation. Kal returns the favor by catching the truck when the jack slips and keeping it from falling on his benefactor. The Kents decide to adopt him at that point, and name him Clark.
Literature
- Chillin' in Another World with Level 2 Super Cheat Powers: When Fenrys first takes human form in front of him, Flio is flustered that she's naked. He drapes his cape over her to cover her while asking her to Please Put Some Clothes On.
- Farming Life in Another World: When Hiraku first meets Lulucy she's depleted her magic trying to fight the inferno wolves and demon spiders, and as her clothing was magically generated, is naked. Hiraku loans her his coat for modesty until she has drunk enough of his blood to restore her adult form and clothing.
- It: After confronting It in werewolf form in the house on Neibolt Street, Beverly's shirt is ripped open. She asks for the other members of The Losers Club to loan her a shirt. Bill offers up his.
- The Last Unicorn: After Schmendrick transforms the Unicorn into the human girl that would come to be known as Amalthea, Molly Grue takes Schmendrick's cloak and wraps it around the sleeping form of the girl. When she awakes and tries to stand, she sheds the cloak, initially, and as it becomes clear that the once immortal Unicorn is now terrified of inhabiting a mortal body, Molly once again covers her with the cloak, though the narration notes that it is no longer a matter of modesty, but almost as if Molly were trying to keep the girl from seeing much of her own new form, lest it terrify her all the more.
- Release That Witch: Anna incinerates her clothes when she first shows her fire powers to Roland, since she's Immune to Fire, but her clothes weren't. After the fire dies down, Roland gives her his coat to make her decent.
- A Song of Ice and Fire:
- A Clash of Kings: Sansa is a hostage in King's Landing while her brother Robb and their mother Catelyn are in open rebellion against the Iron Throne. When Joffrey is angry that Robb has won a battle against the Lannister forces, he orders his Kingsguard to beat and strip Sansa in front of the royal court. Thankfully, Tyrion steps in and orders it to stop, and Sandor throws Sansa his Kingsguard cloak to preserve her modesty.
Sansa clutched it against her chest, fists bunched hard in the white wool. The coarse weave was scratchy against her skin, but no velvet had ever felt so fine.
- During Aegon's Conquest, the garrison of Storm's End sends out the last living Durrandon, Argella, bound and naked in an attempt to curry favor with the Targaryens. However, Aegon's Hand and rumored bastard half-brother Orys Baratheon decides to protect Argella's modesty by draping his cloak around her. Orys would later marry Argella, and in exchange for becoming the new lord of Storm's End decides to adopt his wife's house's motto and sigil.
- A Clash of Kings: Sansa is a hostage in King's Landing while her brother Robb and their mother Catelyn are in open rebellion against the Iron Throne. When Joffrey is angry that Robb has won a battle against the Lannister forces, he orders his Kingsguard to beat and strip Sansa in front of the royal court. Thankfully, Tyrion steps in and orders it to stop, and Sandor throws Sansa his Kingsguard cloak to preserve her modesty.
- Zero Damage Sword Saint: Sumire is introduced uncontrollably spraying fire everywhere, which destroys her clothes. Eugene is able to approach her and wrap her in a fireproof cloak.
Live-Action TV
- Call the Midwife: In one of her first moments in Poplar, Naïve Newcomer Nurse Jenny Lee comes upon two women brawling in the street, caught in a Love Triangle, while others gather around them to cheer them on. It's broken up by policemen and Sister Evangeline, whose patient is one of the combatants. She quickly and deftly takes hold of the situation, making her Establishing Character Moment as a Battleaxe Nurse by scolding her patient, commandeering the policeman's coat to help cover her ripped shirt, and then warning the woman not to get blood on it. Jenny, at this point, has quietly backed away from the fight, disturbed by what she's seen.
- Charmed (1998):
- In "A Witch's Tail Part 1", Mylie is turned from a mermaid to a human and is naked. Leo covers her with his jacket.
- In "A Witch's Tail Part 2", Phoebe is turned from a mermaid to a human and is naked. Cole covers her with his jacket.
- In "The Bare Witch Project", Lady Godiva is summoned to the present when she was about to do her naked ride and is surrounded by a bunch of horny boys. Mortified, she wraps herself in a flag. Paige takes a jacket from a bystander lady, promising to clean it later, then shoos the boys away and covers Godiva with it.
- Firefly: River Tam is introduced naked in a box. Inara covers her with her robe.
- Fuller House: While DJ is facing Stephanie in the latter's Twister challenge, she accidentally splits her pants. Steve, who'd been on a day-long date with her, quickly removes his jacket and ties it around her waist to cover the rip.
- Game of Thrones: In "Garden of Bones" Tyrion puts a stop to Joffrey's mistreatment of Sansa (which included a beating and having her dress ripped) and orders someone to give Sansa something to cover up. The Hound wraps his cloak around her.
- Red Dwarf: In "Entangled", the Dwarfers use a Devolution Device used by Irene, who had accidentally used it to devolve into a chimpanzee, to turn her back into a human. She is naked upon her transformation, and Kryten elects to go get her a sheet to cover her. Rimmer, who is enamoured by her appearance, tells Kryten to get the sheet as slowly as possible, and is annoyed when Lister decides to give her his jacket to hide her nudity.
- Smallville:
- In "Skinwalker", Kyla Willowbrook is naked after transforming back from a wolf, so Clark Kent covers her with his jacket.
- In "Ageless", Evan is a little boy who instantly ages into an adult and destroys his clothes. Clark covers him with his jacket.
- Teen Wolf: In "Omega", Lydia stumbles out of the woods naked after a shapeshifting mishap, right in front of the search party that's looking for her. After a beat where nobody moves, she invokes this trope by wondering if anyone is going to give her a coat. Stiles tries to walk up and give Lydia his jacket, but he is so Distracted by the Sexy that he falls down while trying to take his coat off. His dad walks up to her and offers her his instead.
Webcomics
- El Goonish Shive: In "Shade, Part 1", Shade Tail/Grace shows up at the Verres house in just a stolen trench coat, having escaped from the experimental facility she was raised in by transforming into her full squirrel form. Tedd, while flustered, offers her a set of his clothes, which "fit surprisingly well" since he is slight for a teenage boy.
Tedd: Uh... Listen, putting clothes onto a girl goes against all my instincts, but if ya want you can wear some of my clothes for now so you won't be stuck just wearing that.
- Hetalia: Axis Powers: In this strip
, a teenage Hungary's tunic is ripped to Navel-Deep Neckline levels after fighting Turkey — not that she cares. Instead, it's Prussia who blushes intensely and hands her his own cape to cover up.
- Of Mice and Mayhem: After Chip discovers a believed to be dead Gadget trapped in a cage in the government lab the Rangers were raiding, he offers her his turtleneck to cover up. Gadget then points out she's covered in fur, so there's nothing to cover up.
- Wilde Life: Subverted; Emily's (stolen) clothes were shredded in her abduction attempt (as she is reminded when a gust of wind threatens to whip off what's left of her T-shirt), but she refuses to let Oscar lend her one.
Western Animation
- Ben 10: Ultimate Alien: Eunice is Naked on Arrival when she lands on Earth. For a few minutes after her space pod opened, Ben gave her his iconic green jacket to cover herself with while he, Gwen, and Kevin try getting answers as to who she is and why she was in space.
- Gargoyles: In one episode, Fox turns into a werefox, destroying her clothes. Of course, upon transforming back, she's naked. Elisa (dressed as Belle for Halloween) takes off her outer skirt to cover her with.
- Samurai Jack: In "Episode XCIX," Ashi's leaf dress gets eaten by leech monsters during a fight, but she continues fighting and is not bothered by it. Jack hastily throws his robe on top of her and she is confused why he's embarrassed to see her naked, as she doesn't have typical standards of modesty due to her heavily isolated upbringing.
Ashi: Jack, what are you doing?!
Jack: Um...you need protection...from the creature!
Ashi: And your robe is gonna protect me?
Jack: Actually, it's a gi. And yes!
Ashi: ...You're acting weird.
Jack: Me? Weird? Me? Hahahahaha! - The Simpsons: In "The Way We Was", a teenage Marge goes to the prom with Artie Ziff instead of Homer, only for Artie to force himself on her and snap her dress's drawstring in the process, leading to her slapping him and throwing him out of her car. Later, she sees a lonely Homer walking down the road and decides to pick him up and drive him home. He sees the broken string and (probably guessing what went down) ties it back together with the corsage he wanted to give her, making Marge realize that Homer was the better man all along and decide to give her future husband another chance.
- SpongeBob SquarePants: A male variant occurs at the end of "Squid's Day Off". While trying to relax in the bath, Squidward's paranoia gets the better of him and he ends up running all the way to the Krusty Krab naked, his modesty preserved only by a cloud of bubbles. After confirming that SpongeBob hasn't burned the Krusty Krab down, he decides to give up on playing hooky and go back to manning the cash register. SpongeBob adds, "Then you might wanna put these on", and hands Squidward his square pants so he can cover himself up.