Discover more from Back Row
Succession Season 4 Episode 5's Best Fashion Moments
Did Shiv just kill white sneakers or was her leather blazer so sharp it slayed everything else in sight?
While influencers may be at Coachella wearing bra tops, the Roys are in Norway wearing jackets. So many jackets! Given a choice between the two, I’d rather be on the top of that mountain witnessing Roman making sassy comments about “cool tweets” with his loose hair and his, like, hundredth outerwear rotation than amongst Leonardo DiCaprio’s dating pool. The fifth episode was one of the best this season, no? And the looks were served up warm and fast, like apple cider donuts to orchard tourists in October.
The setting of Matsson’s Norway retreat allowed the Roys and their team to move into brown tones and outerwear in attempt to project a patina of ruggedness their inner city slickers do not at all possess. They either had trouble calibrating for the weather, necessitating more jacket changes than an influencer at February fashion week, or just couldn’t quite match Matsson and his team’s intimidating mountain slob vibe. Here are the best fashion moments from the episode.
The CE-Bros’ Grand Office Entrance
Kendall rolls up to work for his first day as co-CEO blasting Jay-Z, blazer buttoned, tie absent, sunglasses on. He walks into the building holding nothing because, as Tom explained in the first episode, actual rich people don’t need bags. Many of us were probably distracted by his white shirt blaring through the jacket at the navel area. Today, CE-bros everywhere are surely pondering if their suits are supposed to fit like that. While we’re used to seeing Kendall in a nice suit with no tie and slick shades, we are definitely not used to seeing Roman in a tie, which is the shocking fashion moment Ken arrives to upstairs. This may be the first time in his life that Roman doesn’t know quite how to dress. Perhaps to add heft to his presence as a CE-bro, his hair looks a little tighter and crispier than usual. But it may be reading less “executive” than “middle-aged single man goes to a nightclub.”
Shiv’s Vest
Shiv has a bit of a Le Smoking moment in her white blouse and Max Mara pinstripe vest and trousers. The vest was likely intended to hide her pregnancy, but also perhaps intentionally masculine given her position as one of the few women in the executive suites. She certainly doesn’t want to look anything like Kerry in her audition tape.
Everyone’s Plane Outfits
I love how these characters dress for air travel. While many commercial fliers purposefully dress as dumpily as possible, many of these people probably haven’t had to lay eyes on a neck pillow in decades, and dress for their private plane rides like they’re spending a Saturday afternoon at the office. Gerri trades in a hard blazer for a softer corduroy one by Bruno Cucinelli and hard pants for soft-hard pants. The male village elders trade their dress socks for compression socks and top their dress shirts with knitwear. And the poor comms people, Hugo and Karolina, look much the same as they always do, perhaps because they’re the most freaked out about being compared to the “really impressive, very serious young people” they’re about to be forced to party with in Norway. Only, their formality makes them look even less hip and more vulnerable than they already feel.
Tom’s Turtleneck and White Sneakers
I never thought I’d look at a man and think, “He really should have worn a brown half-zip.” But Tom really should have worn a brown half-zip. The turtleneck knit and blazer combo was clearly an overthought attempt at fitting in, but looked uncomfortably “father of the bride at the rehearsal dinner.” Early in the episode, the cinematographers lingered ever so slightly on Tom’s white sneakers, allowing us to note them before Shiv tells him the morning after the party that people are coming down from molly and their eyes are still dilated and his shoes look like the sun. “This is why people don’t take you seriously — because your shoes are too fucking white,” she tells him.
Tom makes another grave fashion misjudgment when he sits down with Matsson and his team and tries to get one of them to fondly remember the time they shared a laugh at “that guy’s cargo shorts at Sun Valley.” Tom has failed to recognize that he is now in the land of cargo pockets and mud that sticks to Kendall’s “sneaks” — mud that is surely coming for his footwear next. Cousin Greg recognizes that Tom is deeply out of his element and misreading the room. This emboldens him to disagree with Tom about France, declaring, “The baguette might be mightier than the bagel.” Likewise, the cargo pant might be mightier than lily white sneakers.
The Juxtaposition of the Roys’ Team with Matsson’s
The contrast between the easy casual clothes of Matsson’s team and the stuffy tailoring of the Roy team was just perfect, down to their help. The Roys roll up in slick black sedans with body guards/servants/assistants in suits, only to be shepherded to their Instagram-perfect, Scandanavian-severe accommodations perched above a raging river by young people in brown aprons, who look like their duties also include harvesting salad ingredients. The whole episode looked like a YouTube promotional video for a Tom Ford-REI collab.
The Gigantic Duffels
H/t to my husband who noticed that the luggage was mostly oversized duffels you wouldn’t choose if you had to carry it yourself. I think I caught one bag with wheels? This obviously would belong to Gerri, who has practically made her lack of presumption a corporate art form.
Greg’s Surprisingly Appropriate Shacket
While Greg usually looks woefully out-of-place in every setting, he actually fits into the Norway scene fairly well with his plaid shacket (shirt-jacket). While Tom looks way too dainty in his $3,000 puffy cashmere Bruno Cucinelli vest and light sneakers, Greg looks like he could plausibly take a walk in the woods, maybe even catch a fish.
Matsson
It’s funny how looking like a slob is a huge detriment unless you’re one of the world’s richest people, at which point it becomes an asset. Matsson not only wore an anorak, hoodie, T-shirt, and objectively unsexy cargo pants, he didn’t pull a Kendall and wear the most expensive versions of these that his personal shopper could find. His anorak and turtleneck were by Fjällräven, and cost $200 and $149 respectively. The first pair of cargo pants he wore were $155. This is a man who dresses not for other people, but for random mountainside pees. He comes off like a guy who grew up killing his own breakfast every morning, while the Roys come off like nepo-babies whose maids ordered them $18 gluten-free granola from Daniel every morning. This gave Matsson the upper hand, since the Roys in their fancy clothes seemed thirsty by comparison. His clothes also made clear how much he respects them and their company well before he came out and plainly stated that ATN is nothing more than a “parts shop.” The one person who could truly go toe-to-toe with him was not any of the men — but Shiv.
Norway Shiv
Matsson postures as a sexist prick who delights in calling his female comms person-slash-ex-girlfriend the “estrogen air freshener we keep around to try to keep us smelling clean,” and asking Shiv, “Am I going to get a lawsuit if I hug you?” However this is just a cover for the reality that he actually has no idea how to act with women, which is why when he was dating Ebba, he sent her frozen bricks of his blood. This is also presumably why he ended up revealing this potentially hugely damaging piece of information to Shiv. Either Shiv is much cannier than her brothers or wants to get a better look at Matsson’s abs, maybe both, because she finds a way to actually sort of bond with him, thereby being the only one from the Roy delegation who can assert the upper hand with him.
Though she didn’t look like she dressed for the woods, she also didn’t look tryhard in her jeans, turtleneck, and various jackets (the $2,00 leather one was by Altuzarra and the $2,500 houndstooth one was Ralph Lauren Collection, per the Succession Fashion Instagram feed). She looked like Shiv in the Woods in Norway, instead of Shiv Trying to Look Like She Belongs in the Woods in Norway.
Kendall Trying to Look Rugged
If Kendall’s opening sunglasses were his listening-to-Jay Z shades, his wire-frame $600 Jacques Marie Mage shades were his what — jamming-to-Mumford and Sons shades? In his jacket with the fuzzy lining, knit beanie, and signature logo-less baseball hat, he looked like someone who has a styling team on his payroll to pack him for a business trip to the mountains of Norway that is likely to involve roasting animal carcasses on spits outside and may or may not entail traversing rugged terrain. He also looks like someone who travels with a team of assistants who can fetch a warmer or lighter jacket or hat whenever he needs it. And thus he looks like he cannot truly handle any of this — a potential sale, negotiating with Matsson, riding a cable car — by himself. Which is to say, he really can’t handle it all without his dad.
FYI, the long plaid coat Shiv is wearing with the orange hood is Mackage. I tried it on this fall and it's surprisingly warm and waterproof.
Shiv’s getting her mojo back