Wardrobe Malfunction is a slang term for when a person ends up nude through either their clothes getting damaged accidently, suddenly coming loose like a nip slip or unwillingly removed. While it can happen in real life, it is far more prevalent in fiction, particularly in comedy or romance works.
Generally speaking, this trope is primarily exclusively applied to men in western cartoons or other works meant for a younger/general audience, while censorship limits with these demographics mean that they do not depict any full nudity and always wear at least a pair of underwear at minimum.
For media meant for more mature audiences, both genders are subject to this trope, though due to censorship, frontal nudity is constantly obscured or cropped out (with women in particular, they tend to at least have either a bra, panties, or both on when not fully nude). Any form of nudity that does get shown, however, is from the back, given that it is universally agreed to show much less than other angles. Additionally, the underwear shown tends to be either more revealing or form-fitting, with womens' underwear in general being seen as more erotic than mens' underwear.
The methodology in a wardrobe malfunction can vary from simple and accidental to complicated and deliberate. Simple cases include people accidentally forgetting steps while dressing themselves up, not paying attention to their surroundings and getting their clothes snagged, or simply wearing wrong-sized clothes. Complicated cases tend to involve a series of unfortunate coincidences and unpredictable variables.
For deliberate cases, a common prank meant to cause this involves taking somebody's swimsuit and rethreading much of the structurally important seams with water-soluble thread, causing the swimsuit to essentially disintegrate after spending significant time submerged.
Sometimes the situation can happen when a character is walking through vegetation. For example, a lady with only a towel wrapped around her below the armpits walks through the undergrowth and she comes out completely naked, unaware that it got caught on one of the branches earlier on.
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- A number of liminal species' biological physiques make them particularly prone to having wardrobe malfunctions.
- Mermaids naturally secrete a layer of mucus to retain moisture needed to maintain their health. As a result, garments such as a standard bra will slip off. Due to this, they are limited to clothes that are naturally water-resistant and slip-proof. However, for certain garments, the water rushing over the wearer as they swim will still occasionally find its way between the fabric and the skin, causing the fabric to lift off slightly. At worst, the garments come off completely, though at best, the garments are barely moved from the original position. Women additionally experience what is referred to as a "nip-slip", where a swimsuit is forced down just enough to expose the nipples, as Mero experienced during Kasegi's visit. Other aquatic liminals such as scyllas and krakens also experience this problem, though to a much less manageable extent. Competitive swimwear for women is universally made to be skintight largely to prevent such occurrences.
- Centaurs, Ogres, and Minotaurs have much larger breasts than most other species, and as such, finding clothing that fits them is a real challenge, as wearing an undersized garment means that any excessive stress they receive from intense activities will cause them to tear or fail. Centorea's reluctance to admit her exact breast size is also a hinderance in this regard, as it means that she constantly gets undersized garments that fail once she does anything remotely intense. In the case of Dairy Breed Centaurs like Meamil, they wear extremely low-cut clothes which enable their breasts to slip out easily so the momentum from rigorous actions like running or jogging will cause their nipples to be exposed as a result.
- Certain species such as Monoeyes and Harpies have very small breast sizes, meaning that any garments that are too big for them will fall off if any intense activities are done.
- Certain shapeshifting species such as Kitsune can change their body and shape, but not their clothes, which is why their clothes can tear if they turn into a shape that is too large or they can slip-off their bodies if they become too small.
- Another form of accidental exposure is white garments turning see-through when wet. Slimes and other aquatic liminals are prone to having this happen constantly with non-waterproof garments, given that their skin is moist by nature. Since Centorea only wears white blouses, she is also prone to having her nipples visible through her blouse when wet, as seen in Chapter 4 and Chapter 46.
- Unlike their male counterparts, female Mummies do not wear much in traditional clothing, usually topping out at shoes and other accessories. The vast majority of their clothing is instead composed of bandages, which when placed sparsely like with Sekhmeti, are easily shiftable from their original positions, as seen in Chapter 82.