Fashion Report: Ranking All the Gang's Outfits

The gang has had a lot of different looks throughout the 52 years of the franchise, some better and more iconic than others. I thought it might be fun to rank all the different outfits the gang has had over the years, from my least favorite to my favorite. Note that I'm specifically ranking outfits for this article, not the same outfit in a different animation style (i.e. the gang has the same outfits in Where Are You and SDMI). I'm also only including outfits that were present for entire series (or films). This article would be ridiculously long if I included every single outfit the gang has ever worn, so thus I'm keeping it to the main ones.

To no one's surprise, Shaggy & Scooby-Doo Get A Clue! is the worst of the outfits, IMO. I know Fred wasn't really in this series much, but I am including him as well. Daphne and Velma essentially had the same outfits they did in What's New, so I am not including them. In the show, Shaggy wears green pants, black sneakers, and a green and white striped shirt. Fred wears a blue collared shirt, a white undershirt, and blue jeans. My reason for putting these last is that neither Fred or Shaggy's outfits look particularly good on them, at least not as well as any of the others. It just seems like they slapped a random design together and called it good. Particularly Shaggy's outfit does not look like something that fits his style as a character.

There isn't anything particularly wrong with Daphne and Shaggy's outfits in The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo, I just have never enjoyed them as much. Switching Shaggy's shirt from red to green didn't really seem to have any purpose, and I personally feel the green shirt looks better on him. While I like Daphne's purple jumpsuit better than Shaggy's green shirt, it's not my favorite of her outfits. I feel pretty indifferent to it, whereas I like some of her other outfits. It's important to note that Daphne actually had two more outfits in this series, the second one being just a purple jacket over her jumpsuit. She also has a purple sleeved skirt with lavender stripes on the sleeve seams, which looks more like her classic outfit (though still a bit different). The sleeved dress was okay, but to me, it just seems like a slightly worse version of here classic outfit. I admittedly didn't rewatch the series for this article (as it would have been too time consuming to rewatch every single series I'm ranking outfits from), but I believe she wore the jumpsuit in episodes 1-6 (and she wore the purple jumpsuit with a jacket in episode 3), and then they switched her outfit to the purple sleeved skirt for episodes 7-13. In all the outfits, Daphne's shoes also look more boot-like than they do in other series. Personally, I'd rank these in the following order: the purple jumpsuit, then the sleeved dress, then the jacket over the jumpsuit (all of them are in order between Get a Clue and the next outfits, WNSD). I thought the jacket really added something to the look. I didn't forget about Daphne's outfit in Curse of the 13th Ghost with these rankings, and will return to that later.

The gang's revamped outfits in What's New, Scooby-Doo? are one of my favorites. While Shaggy and Velma's outfits are pretty much the same, Fred's white sweater with a blue stripe and collar looks excellent on him. I liked Daphne's purple sleeved dress as well. Both feel like just slight adaptions on the original that give Fred and Daphne an updated look, but doesn't change the way they look so much that it no longer fits their characters. I wouldn't mind it if these outfits returned at some point in the franchise (though I doubt they will).

We now return to Curse of the 13th Ghost, where the rest of the gang's look stays the same, but Daphne is given a more updated look. In the film, Daphne wears a maroon collared jacket, along with some unique-looking fingerless gloves. She also wears purple pants and dark purple boots. Personally, this is one of my favorite looks ever for Daphne. The jacket and boots in particular make her look so much more mature and empowered, and the fingerless gloves looks so cool on her. If they ever choose to make a series with the gang as adults, I hope they go with a look like this for Daphne, because it looks great on her.

While Shaggy and Velma look the same, Fred is given a new light blue (gray?) collared shirt. Out of all the gang's outfits, this one is next-best to the classic. My favorite outfit, however, is Daphne's purple suit coat, green shirt, and purple skirt. Like her ​Curse of the 13th Ghost outfit, I love this more mature, updated look for Daphne. While I love her classic look the most, I honestly wouldn't mind having Daphne wear this outfit for a full series or another era of films, as I think it's an excellent look for her.

Of course, my favorite of the gang's outfits is the classic look: Shaggy with a green shirt, black shoes and red bell bottom pants; Fred with an orange ascot, brown shoes, a white shirt with a blue collar, and blue jeans; Daphne wearing a green ascot, a purple headband, pink tights, purple Takamoto shoes (named after Iwao Takamoto, the animator who designed Scooby) and a purple shirt with lavender stripes on the bottom and cuffs; and Velma with an orange sweater, red skirt, orange socks and red heels. These will always be the gang's most iconic outfits to me, simply because they've been used in the majority of series and films thus far. While the gang's outfits have changed somewhat throughout the years, the original outfits will always be the most core to the characters' designs in my opinion.