Dressed Up Dean: SPN meta-picspam
Some time ago, in one discussion I said the following: “Dean once in a while tries on some fancy outfit. Sam once in a while tries on some fancy bonds.” And then I thought it deserves a picspam. Two, in fact. (Yeah, the second one’s coming.)
Dean Winchester dresses up a lot. Sam does too, but first, Dean’s outfits are more diverse, and second, he enjoys it more. :) Well, at least in some of the cases. And I can’t help thinking it must have something to do with Jensen’s lifelong modeling experience, especially in scenes when it involves a particularly fancy attire and a big mirror…
DISGUISE ON JOBThe most often reason to dress up is playing a role of someone who has the right to be on the site and ask weird questions or do otherwise suspicious things. Usually it involves the both Winchesters wearing the same costumes. Funny thing is, at such cases it actually helps they haven’t really that much family likeness, since they pose for job partners. (You remember that time in 10.05 Fan Fiction when Sam says they’re agents Smith and Smith, no relation? ;)
The most often costume is FBI (also CDC, Sheriff’s officers, journalists, etc.) ‘monkey suits’, as Dean puts it. As you know fine, they’re in approximately every other episode, so let’s list only the first time they use it.
1.04 Phantom Traveler
Homeland Security officers. It does show it’s the first time… *g*
OK, maybe another one, to show the practice makes perfect. ;)
8.06 Southern Comfort
Interestingly, the only(?) time when Dean uses a suit to pass for someone he isn’t not for job’s sake, but for private advantage - 7.13 The Slice Girls, where he tells a woman he works in finances - he gets punished for this, when later turns out hitting on that particular beauty was a very bad choice, and he was being hunted rather than hunting.
And then goes uniforms and working dress codes galore.
1.14 Nightmare
Priests. Yeah, you’d never guess, right?
Priest!Dean comes back also in 4.03 In the Beginning.
1.15 The Benders
Sheriffs.
1.16 Shadow
Operators of a security alarm company. Notice the customized badges!
2.12 Nightshifter
Security service technicians again. Aw, not customized this time? *sniff*
2.15 Tall Tales
Electricians. Super economical costumes made of badges only. You know what this all means? Lots and lots of Winchester sewing time. *g* And ripping off, later. Come on, it needs a fanart! Or a fic. Or both.
7.11 Adventures in Babysitting
Phone technician. One of rare cases when it’s Dean only, without Sam. (Though with Frank instead here.)
7.20 The Girl with the Dungeons and Dragons Tattoo
Airport workers or how to go unnoticed by wearing things meant to avoid going unnoticed.
10.04 Paper Moon
Park rangers.
I ACTUALLY WORK HEREThere are times when sneaking on the site and looking convincing is not enough. You need to actually get the job to do the, um, other job. Unfortunately, the Winchesters tend to finish the other job too soon to get the paycheck for that first one… Especially when there’s property damage as side effect. And most certainly don’t count on any paychecks when you gank your employer.
2.02 Everybody Loves a Clown
Circus backyard staff. Some say Sam likes hoodies and Dean prefers jackets. As you can see, it’s rather that even uniformed uniforms become respectively hoodie-shaped or jacket-shaped on them.
2.18 Hollywood Babylon
As you may notice, if you employ Dean Winchester, you can pay him in food. I wonder if he kept the T-shirt…
4.13 After School Special
…or the Red Shorts of Doom. Dean making full use of a rare chance to be your childhood nightmare rather than fighting one. It’s also one of those when the Winchesters have different disguises, Sam being a janitor.
8.14 Trial and Error
The rich are stingy - working in a huge mansion you clean the stables, serve to the table and man the grill, and all this in your own clothes. You get an apron, though.
9.13 The Purge
They both get to be hired, but not exactly how they expected it. And when YogaInstructor!Sam lands looking cool (and smug of that), KitchenHelp!Dean… not so much (and unhappy of that). At least he has plenty of food to keep him company. *g*
WHEN IN ROME…This is actually a subtrope of Disguise on Job, only here they rather make effort to look not like professionals, but like everyone else on the site to not stand out. (Which at times means professionals.)
1.22 Devil’s Trap
Especially convenient in the hunter’s line of job, for (holy) water extinguishers. Maybe they should have kept them?
2.12 Nightshifter
2 or 3 SWATs vs 1 Winchester resulting in the score 0:2 or 0:3 is nothing special in comparison to the truly supernatural (and, sadly, unshown on the screen) process of transfer of these fancy garbs in presumably less than five minutes. BTW, it’s one of few episodes with more than one or two changes of costumes, from FBI to security service to SWAT.
2.19 Folsom Prison Blues
A case with a side of the ‘I Actually Work Here’ trope. Or rather, Belong Here… Admit it, Dean, you agreed for this ‘cause orange emphasizes green.
3.06 Red Sky at Morning
Bela ‘Refined Taste’ Talbot herself decided this sight is worth a second glance. Nuff said.
5.09 Real Ghostbusters
The irony of being taken for costumed when actually being not (same as later in 6.15 The French Mistake). It's also the reverse of the scheme: the Winchesters remain their own true versions, when everyone around them is costumed (again, same as later in 10.05 Fan Fiction).
5.11 Sam, Interrupted
Similar as in Folsom Prison Blues, legally admitted again. And they didn’t even need to lie for it! As you may or may not noticed, Dean wears his robe tied all the time, as opposed to Sam. I’m sure you’re able to draw numerous profound and convoluted theories from this fact. I believe in you, fandom.
6.18 Frontierland
This is what happens when Dean goes shopping frenzy. He’s sooo excited, poor thing. *g* And again, practice (and a bit of local experience combined with trial and error method) makes perfect. Third time’s a charm. And how. ^^
WHEN IN ROME… with a little bit of adviceA subtrope’s subtrope: one or both Winchesters find themselves standing out unexpectedly, and someone belonging on the site decides something should be done about it. You can’t look like that!
7.12 Time After Time
…or Dean's Mirror Time. It's as non-Dean-ish outfit as possible, and yet, when he gets a one-time opportunity to be oh-so-dashing (if less comfortable), he's delighted and enjoys it openly. If ever was a scene that seems in equal parts Jensen and Dean, it’s this one.
Well, maybe the gun is more Dean. *g*
8.11 LARP and the Real Girl
This time Charlie dresses Dean. Later, in 8.20 Pac Man Fever, it’s vice versa: Dean is the expert and Charlie is the one being dressed and advised. A funny detail is the askew chainmail piece, clearly too little and showing that Dean is somewhat broader than your average LARPer. We have also the second Dean's Mirror Time.
Also, Dean, say one word more about Sam’s hair. I dare you. *very firmly holds herself from saying anything about the ‘ears’*
BE A GOOD LITTLE KEN DOLLCostumes being forcibly put on the Winchesters or Dean only, who then have to play roles in someone’s theater. Most often ‘put on’ means ‘magicked on’ or ‘imagined’.
2.20 What Is and What Should Never Be
Clothes that never really been Dean’s, though they could be, in theory. In a way they’re his own if subconscious choice, but also the part of a dream he didn’t consent to, and which he rejects in the end. This is why they aren’t so unlike of Dean’s usual, with one distinct exception - the Samulet swapped for an unspecified, generic looking pendant.
4.05 Monster Movie
When you're hunting a Transylvanian vampire, you are expected to look like a proper Transylvanian hunter, lederhosen and all. Or victim, in this case. Tsk, really, does the poor vampire need to personally take care about everything? Is a little artistic cooperation too much to ask? The only case of (presumably) literal dressing, without any ‘magicking on’ involved. Dean would probably appreciate the result better if not for those iron bands… Or still not. *g*
4.17 It’s a Terrible Life
Clothes that are, technically speaking, not exactly ‘magicked on’, since the Winchesters dress themselves every morning, but it’s not that they have any choice in it. This time their all life is a costume. Though Sam got a considerably smaller wardrobe. *g*
5.08 Changing Channels
Doubly horrible - being not only dressed with no choice, but also subjected to Gabriel’s taste at that…
5.16 Dark Side of the Moon
A particularly twisted situation. Dean is being doll-like dressed again by another angel, but the clothes are actually his own. They are pulled out from the happy past and used as a mind-bending tool of the Heaven.
8.20 Pac Man Fever
A specific case where the show and costumes’ owner hasn’t any conscious control over them, since it’s Charlie dreaming.
So, doll-dressing is done without malicious intention, and one can suppose Dean doesn’t really mind. Still, looks like he thinks a doc smock is too much.
10.12 About a Boy
Are these Dean’s actual old clothes brought from the past? If not, why the witch cared at all what the meat is wearing? Probably dinner with a cold is less appealing, but in such case why not to shrink the original clothes too? Maybe the spell could use some work on it. The real mystery, though, is why these ones grew together with Dean.
WINCHESTER’S DAY OFF
(Unbelievably, it happens…)
2.01 In My Time of Dying
Winchester’s day off more often than not means hospital. I wonder, does a barefoot ghost feel the cold stone floor?
6.01 Exile on Main St.
Winchester’s year off. Are they costumes if it’s real? Depends on how much real Dean considers it…
7.03 Girl Next Door
Winchester hospital time is usually either interrupted too soon, or not really that off. Or both.
7.08 Season Seven, Time for a Wedding!
An opportunity more rare than an apocalypse: to see Dean Winchester not only in a suit for a private occasion,
but also wearing flowers!!!
8.13 Everybody Hates Hitler
Also in 8.16 Remember the Titans and 9.03 I’m No Angel. Dead Guy’s Robe, complete with slippers!
10.04 Paper Moon
Day off can be very tiring if you try really hard to make it a day off.
AND THE OUT-OF-ALL-CATEGORIES CASE…
8.14 Trial and Error
…of costume as a hunter’s tool. Too bad Sam was too busy to take pics (and vice versa). But you can tell them I’m open to bribes. ^^
MENTIONED UNMENTIONABLES
AND
UNSHOWN SHOWTHINGSOnes we never actually got presented, for our sanity’s sake, no doubt, ahem. However, a list like this cannot omit certain panties recalled (fondly!) in 5.04 The End. Also, in 7.16 Out with the Old Dean is dangerously close to trying on a pair of pointe shoes. For the record, the items in question in both cases are satiny and pink.
~*~*~*~
So far, the worst season for Dean was the 9, where he had only one opportunity (besides the usual suits) to try on something new (9.13 The Purge), and he didn’t like it. The best for him was Season 6, where he was wearing only things he chose. Current situation: Season 10 keeps coming off not much better than 9 in this department, in spite of suits in almost every episode (and recently also overcoats). Dean is in urgent need of something fancy again, the sooner the better! :)
If you are interested in further studies, obviously for scientific reasons, you may find these interesting:
Costumes & Disguises
Clothing Catalogue (notice also the links there).
All photos come from homeofthenutty.com, caps.swannees-place.com, screencapped.net and supernaturalfansonline.com. Also Supernaturalwiki.com was a big help.
Dean Winchester dresses up a lot. Sam does too, but first, Dean’s outfits are more diverse, and second, he enjoys it more. :) Well, at least in some of the cases. And I can’t help thinking it must have something to do with Jensen’s lifelong modeling experience, especially in scenes when it involves a particularly fancy attire and a big mirror…
DISGUISE ON JOBThe most often reason to dress up is playing a role of someone who has the right to be on the site and ask weird questions or do otherwise suspicious things. Usually it involves the both Winchesters wearing the same costumes. Funny thing is, at such cases it actually helps they haven’t really that much family likeness, since they pose for job partners. (You remember that time in 10.05 Fan Fiction when Sam says they’re agents Smith and Smith, no relation? ;)
The most often costume is FBI (also CDC, Sheriff’s officers, journalists, etc.) ‘monkey suits’, as Dean puts it. As you know fine, they’re in approximately every other episode, so let’s list only the first time they use it.
1.04 Phantom Traveler
Homeland Security officers. It does show it’s the first time… *g*
OK, maybe another one, to show the practice makes perfect. ;)
8.06 Southern Comfort
Interestingly, the only(?) time when Dean uses a suit to pass for someone he isn’t not for job’s sake, but for private advantage - 7.13 The Slice Girls, where he tells a woman he works in finances - he gets punished for this, when later turns out hitting on that particular beauty was a very bad choice, and he was being hunted rather than hunting.
And then goes uniforms and working dress codes galore.
1.14 Nightmare
Priests. Yeah, you’d never guess, right?
Priest!Dean comes back also in 4.03 In the Beginning.
1.15 The Benders
Sheriffs.
1.16 Shadow
Operators of a security alarm company. Notice the customized badges!
2.12 Nightshifter
Security service technicians again. Aw, not customized this time? *sniff*
2.15 Tall Tales
Electricians. Super economical costumes made of badges only. You know what this all means? Lots and lots of Winchester sewing time. *g* And ripping off, later. Come on, it needs a fanart! Or a fic. Or both.
7.11 Adventures in Babysitting
Phone technician. One of rare cases when it’s Dean only, without Sam. (Though with Frank instead here.)
7.20 The Girl with the Dungeons and Dragons Tattoo
Airport workers or how to go unnoticed by wearing things meant to avoid going unnoticed.
10.04 Paper Moon
Park rangers.
I ACTUALLY WORK HEREThere are times when sneaking on the site and looking convincing is not enough. You need to actually get the job to do the, um, other job. Unfortunately, the Winchesters tend to finish the other job too soon to get the paycheck for that first one… Especially when there’s property damage as side effect. And most certainly don’t count on any paychecks when you gank your employer.
2.02 Everybody Loves a Clown
Circus backyard staff. Some say Sam likes hoodies and Dean prefers jackets. As you can see, it’s rather that even uniformed uniforms become respectively hoodie-shaped or jacket-shaped on them.
2.18 Hollywood Babylon
As you may notice, if you employ Dean Winchester, you can pay him in food. I wonder if he kept the T-shirt…
4.13 After School Special
…or the Red Shorts of Doom. Dean making full use of a rare chance to be your childhood nightmare rather than fighting one. It’s also one of those when the Winchesters have different disguises, Sam being a janitor.
8.14 Trial and Error
The rich are stingy - working in a huge mansion you clean the stables, serve to the table and man the grill, and all this in your own clothes. You get an apron, though.
9.13 The Purge
They both get to be hired, but not exactly how they expected it. And when YogaInstructor!Sam lands looking cool (and smug of that), KitchenHelp!Dean… not so much (and unhappy of that). At least he has plenty of food to keep him company. *g*
WHEN IN ROME…This is actually a subtrope of Disguise on Job, only here they rather make effort to look not like professionals, but like everyone else on the site to not stand out. (Which at times means professionals.)
1.22 Devil’s Trap
Especially convenient in the hunter’s line of job, for (holy) water extinguishers. Maybe they should have kept them?
2.12 Nightshifter
2 or 3 SWATs vs 1 Winchester resulting in the score 0:2 or 0:3 is nothing special in comparison to the truly supernatural (and, sadly, unshown on the screen) process of transfer of these fancy garbs in presumably less than five minutes. BTW, it’s one of few episodes with more than one or two changes of costumes, from FBI to security service to SWAT.
2.19 Folsom Prison Blues
A case with a side of the ‘I Actually Work Here’ trope. Or rather, Belong Here… Admit it, Dean, you agreed for this ‘cause orange emphasizes green.
3.06 Red Sky at Morning
Bela ‘Refined Taste’ Talbot herself decided this sight is worth a second glance. Nuff said.
5.09 Real Ghostbusters
The irony of being taken for costumed when actually being not (same as later in 6.15 The French Mistake). It's also the reverse of the scheme: the Winchesters remain their own true versions, when everyone around them is costumed (again, same as later in 10.05 Fan Fiction).
5.11 Sam, Interrupted
Similar as in Folsom Prison Blues, legally admitted again. And they didn’t even need to lie for it! As you may or may not noticed, Dean wears his robe tied all the time, as opposed to Sam. I’m sure you’re able to draw numerous profound and convoluted theories from this fact. I believe in you, fandom.
6.18 Frontierland
This is what happens when Dean goes shopping frenzy. He’s sooo excited, poor thing. *g* And again, practice (and a bit of local experience combined with trial and error method) makes perfect. Third time’s a charm. And how. ^^
WHEN IN ROME… with a little bit of adviceA subtrope’s subtrope: one or both Winchesters find themselves standing out unexpectedly, and someone belonging on the site decides something should be done about it. You can’t look like that!
7.12 Time After Time
…or Dean's Mirror Time. It's as non-Dean-ish outfit as possible, and yet, when he gets a one-time opportunity to be oh-so-dashing (if less comfortable), he's delighted and enjoys it openly. If ever was a scene that seems in equal parts Jensen and Dean, it’s this one.
Well, maybe the gun is more Dean. *g*
8.11 LARP and the Real Girl
This time Charlie dresses Dean. Later, in 8.20 Pac Man Fever, it’s vice versa: Dean is the expert and Charlie is the one being dressed and advised. A funny detail is the askew chainmail piece, clearly too little and showing that Dean is somewhat broader than your average LARPer. We have also the second Dean's Mirror Time.
Also, Dean, say one word more about Sam’s hair. I dare you. *very firmly holds herself from saying anything about the ‘ears’*
BE A GOOD LITTLE KEN DOLLCostumes being forcibly put on the Winchesters or Dean only, who then have to play roles in someone’s theater. Most often ‘put on’ means ‘magicked on’ or ‘imagined’.
2.20 What Is and What Should Never Be
Clothes that never really been Dean’s, though they could be, in theory. In a way they’re his own if subconscious choice, but also the part of a dream he didn’t consent to, and which he rejects in the end. This is why they aren’t so unlike of Dean’s usual, with one distinct exception - the Samulet swapped for an unspecified, generic looking pendant.
4.05 Monster Movie
When you're hunting a Transylvanian vampire, you are expected to look like a proper Transylvanian hunter, lederhosen and all. Or victim, in this case. Tsk, really, does the poor vampire need to personally take care about everything? Is a little artistic cooperation too much to ask? The only case of (presumably) literal dressing, without any ‘magicking on’ involved. Dean would probably appreciate the result better if not for those iron bands… Or still not. *g*
4.17 It’s a Terrible Life
Clothes that are, technically speaking, not exactly ‘magicked on’, since the Winchesters dress themselves every morning, but it’s not that they have any choice in it. This time their all life is a costume. Though Sam got a considerably smaller wardrobe. *g*
5.08 Changing Channels
Doubly horrible - being not only dressed with no choice, but also subjected to Gabriel’s taste at that…
5.16 Dark Side of the Moon
A particularly twisted situation. Dean is being doll-like dressed again by another angel, but the clothes are actually his own. They are pulled out from the happy past and used as a mind-bending tool of the Heaven.
8.20 Pac Man Fever
A specific case where the show and costumes’ owner hasn’t any conscious control over them, since it’s Charlie dreaming.
So, doll-dressing is done without malicious intention, and one can suppose Dean doesn’t really mind. Still, looks like he thinks a doc smock is too much.
10.12 About a Boy
Are these Dean’s actual old clothes brought from the past? If not, why the witch cared at all what the meat is wearing? Probably dinner with a cold is less appealing, but in such case why not to shrink the original clothes too? Maybe the spell could use some work on it. The real mystery, though, is why these ones grew together with Dean.
WINCHESTER’S DAY OFF
(Unbelievably, it happens…)
2.01 In My Time of Dying
Winchester’s day off more often than not means hospital. I wonder, does a barefoot ghost feel the cold stone floor?
6.01 Exile on Main St.
Winchester’s year off. Are they costumes if it’s real? Depends on how much real Dean considers it…
7.03 Girl Next Door
Winchester hospital time is usually either interrupted too soon, or not really that off. Or both.
7.08 Season Seven, Time for a Wedding!
An opportunity more rare than an apocalypse: to see Dean Winchester not only in a suit for a private occasion,
but also wearing flowers!!!
8.13 Everybody Hates Hitler
Also in 8.16 Remember the Titans and 9.03 I’m No Angel. Dead Guy’s Robe, complete with slippers!
10.04 Paper Moon
Day off can be very tiring if you try really hard to make it a day off.
AND THE OUT-OF-ALL-CATEGORIES CASE…
8.14 Trial and Error
…of costume as a hunter’s tool. Too bad Sam was too busy to take pics (and vice versa). But you can tell them I’m open to bribes. ^^
MENTIONED UNMENTIONABLES
AND
UNSHOWN SHOWTHINGSOnes we never actually got presented, for our sanity’s sake, no doubt, ahem. However, a list like this cannot omit certain panties recalled (fondly!) in 5.04 The End. Also, in 7.16 Out with the Old Dean is dangerously close to trying on a pair of pointe shoes. For the record, the items in question in both cases are satiny and pink.
~*~*~*~
So far, the worst season for Dean was the 9, where he had only one opportunity (besides the usual suits) to try on something new (9.13 The Purge), and he didn’t like it. The best for him was Season 6, where he was wearing only things he chose. Current situation: Season 10 keeps coming off not much better than 9 in this department, in spite of suits in almost every episode (and recently also overcoats). Dean is in urgent need of something fancy again, the sooner the better! :)
If you are interested in further studies, obviously for scientific reasons, you may find these interesting:
Costumes & Disguises
Clothing Catalogue (notice also the links there).
All photos come from homeofthenutty.com, caps.swannees-place.com, screencapped.net and supernaturalfansonline.com. Also Supernaturalwiki.com was a big help.