How did Vlad Plasmius manage to look like THAT? (Danny Phantom)

Ok, so if you've seen Danny Phantom then you'll know an important episode is "Memory Blank" (Season 2 episode 1), where Sam wishes she never met Danny, resulting in him never getting his ghost powers. This episode is important mainly because of one small thing: Danny's suit. This is the episode where he gets his logo (which Sam geniusly came up with), the iconic P imbedded into the D with the three swooshes at the side. She was able to do this only because he had to regain his powers. She puts the emblem she created on his chest before he goes and gets electrocuted, giving him his ghostly abilities. The reason why he's wearing a hazmat suit when he's Danny Phantom is because it's the hazmat suit he was wearing when he went into the portal for the first time. 

So someone, for the love of Pete, tell me why Vlad's suit looks like that?

That, being a weirdo vampire costume with boots, gloves, and a cape. And his hair - why is it spiked up like that?? Obviously when he was hit with the ecto blast from the mini-portal, he wasn't wearing any of that stuff (and he wasn't wearing his hair like he was trying to be the next Satan). Of course, he didn't immediately transform when he was hit. In the episode "Masters of All Time", we can see that the hit simply gave him ecto acne, and later he found out about the other side effects. 

So was he going to some kind of costume party when he transformed for the first time? Well, maybe, but only if Jack was going to the same one dressed as the same thing. See, in the very same episode, it shows what would've happened if Jack had been the one who ended up with ghost powers. And, would you look at that, his ghost form is the exact same as Vlad's (well, with the addition of a few pounds and for some reason lack of pure red eyes). So clearly the caped fit isn't a stylistic choice. 

Logically, the only real reason why Vlad looks like he crawled out of the latest episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer is that he was designed to look like that with no care for the plot or canon. He was made to look scary, like a vampire (which he was originally but Butch decided ghosts and vampires would be too much. Take notes, Supernatural!). After all, a college-aged kid with a bad mullet and a lab coat would be kind of underwhelming to have as your main villain. 

In other words, there probably isn't a valid reason as to why Vlad dresses the way he does. No tangible theory is able to come of it because at the end of the day, it's just an error of plot. No shade to the writers, of course. They did a wonderful job on the show and I can't blame them for something so small such as Vlad's ghost costume, which the designers wouldn't even have thought of at the time. So in full conclusion, Vlad looks how he does because he was designed that way. 

What, not the answer you were expecting? "Oh, but Danny, that's obvious!". Well too bad, if you want to spend hours researching Vlad's bad fashion choices then be my guest, but I have homework to do.