Cape

Capes (previously known as cloaks) are extremely rare vanity items and are worn in addition to the player's skin.

Obtaining
There is currently no way to obtain a cape on one's own, although there are various mods that allow players to obtain one, only visible to that player (or in some cases, other users of that mod).

In the Legacy Console Edition and Bedrock Edition of the game, some skins from various skin packs include capes.

Players on Java Edition who legitimately have one or more capes can choose which to wear (including no cape) by going to their Minecraft profile.

Players on Bedrock Edition can equip or unequip capes for their skin via the Character Creator. However, at the moment capes cannot be added onto custom skins, likely due to a glitch.

Trail

 * The cape texture model is the same as the Elytra texture model in the resource pack. However, using the texture model for a cape does not make it a cape, as the Elytra entity itself is different from a cape.

Unused Capes
These capes were featured in a poll where MINECON 2011 attendees could vote for their cape of choice. The red creeper cape won MINECON 2011, and the blue cape with the pickaxe was for MINECON 2012. These following capes are still unused though may appear in the future.
 * MINECON 2011