Dress the rich on Showmax: from Industry to Bel-Air

The super-rich and corporate elites have deep pockets when it comes to dressing for the job. So when it comes to dressing the 1%, wardrobe departments have to give 100% to the details – whether characters are dressed for the office, or dressed down in jeans and T-shirts. With the arrival of Industry Season 3, it’s a perfect opportunity for a wardrobe audit.

Industry Season 1-3

Costume designer: Laura Smith

Industry Season 3 takes us back into the viciously competitive world of British investment banking at Pierpoint & Co. The graduates who were clamouring for work in Season 1 have now either found their feet or blown it, and there are new challenges ahead, including family embezzlement scandals, working with arrogant tech CEO Sir Henry Muck (Kit Harington), and, in Harper’s (Myha’la Herrold) case, setting out to impress venture capitalist Anna Gearing (Elena Saurel) and portfolio manager Petra Koenig (Sarah Goldberg) after the truth about her academic record came out at the end of Season 2. With some characters like Sir Henry coming from old money in a new industry, others toying with millionaire budgets, and a few just desperate to get their foot in the door, wardrobe is doing the heavy lifting this season. It’s all about the details. 

Costume designer Laura Smith spent time in London’s high financial district making notes about what people wore daily before breaking down Industry’s men into three basic groups: Sir Henry Muck and Yasmin’s father Charles (Adam Levy) are the titled and entitled ones who were born into privilege and instinctively dress to reflect this. As most of their money is tied up in property, though, some of their clothes will be older and repurposed. Henry’s uncle Viscount Norton (Andrew Havill) has both old and new money and can shell out for the highest quality in public, while also wearing his leisure clothes into the dust. But both groups will always have the perfect outfit, whether it’s for a club, a country house, an office or a press conference. 

In contrast, CPS MD Eric Tao (Ken Leung) is a rock star at Pierpoint but a nobody in high society and has to dress conservatively, in the correct brands, to deflect unwanted or negative attention – the way a butler has to dress more formally than the owner of the house. So while Eric’s suits are all about sharp, precise lines and expensive newness, the Henrys and Nortons of the world embrace their worn-in suits with casual privilege.

Binge Industry Season 1-2 now. New episodes of Industry Season 3 each Monday.

Succession Season 1-4

Costume designer: Michelle Matland 

Succession is a study in snobbery and social markers through fashion. And the wardrobe journey started with costume designer Michelle Matland and her team stalking Manhattan’s 1% on the streets and in shops to see what and how they bought, as Laura Smith did with Industry. 

Succession Season 4 is all about how and when people can break the rules in the billionaire world. It gives us tech disruptor Lukas Matsson (Alexander Skarsgård) communicating his contempt for the establishment and his security about his own wealth, power and influence by wearing eye-gouging, garish outfits when he isn’t slouching around in jeans and a casual crewneck pullover (from Acne Studios and priced at  a chilling $250, or R4 400). It’s a deliberate taunt, with Alexander once referring to Lukas’s Needles brand metallic velvet bomber jacket (originally priced at around $520, or R9 200) as the “golden hand grenade”.

One of Succession’s most pointed discussions about dressing rich comes from Season 4, episode 1 at Logan Roy’s (Brian Cox) birthday party, as Tom Wambsgans (Matthew Macfadyen) picks out cousin Greg’s (Nicholas Braun) date Bridget (Francesca Root-Dodson) as a social climber. Tom mocks Bridget’s “ludicrously capacious” Burberry tote bag by asking, “What’s even in there? Flat shoes for the subway? Her lunch pail? It’s gargantuan. You could take it camping. You could slide it across the floor after a bank job”. Spoken like a man who’s never needed the foresight to carry anything with him at all. But also, this comes from Tom, who’s been called out for his own flashy style blunders. Roman Roy (Kieran Culkin) laughed in Tom’s face when he saw Tom wearing a glossy, branded Moncler puffer vest to a media conference in Season 2, episode 6, and observed, “It’s so puffy. What’s it stuffed with, your hopes and dreams?” 

In contrast to Lukas’s studied breach of social dress protocols, neither Tom nor Bridget seemed aware of their faux pas. So the fact that it’s Tom calling it out even while he leans into his own flashiness is a marker of how far he has come in the series. It all feeds Succession’s ongoing conversation about quiet vs loud luxury and how the super-rich recognise each other based on things that you’d only spot if you were super-rich (or a costume designer). Logan Roy, even when he looks like a cosy grandpa, is a woolly wolf in sheep’s clothing. That comfy grey jersey with a three quarter zip that might as well have come from Woolies? That’s a $1 500 (R27 000) cashmere sweater from Loro Piana, peasant!

Binge Succession Season 1-4.

Billions

Costume designer: Eric Daman

Like Lukas in Succession, hedge fund manager Bobby “Axe” Axelrod (Damian Lewis) declares his outsider status and his positioning as an industry disruptor by wearing a heavy metal band merch T-shirt to a meeting with an old money family, sneakers in the office, and comfortable henleys under his tailored office suits instead of collared shirts. His clothes proudly assert his roots, coming from nothing to billionaire status. 

The billionaire touch comes in with the fact that those seemingly casual clothes are now all tailored to his body, and his office T-shirts cost $300 (R5 300), while his “casual” sweaters are from the notoriously expensive Loro Piana (a favourite with Succession’s Roy family). It’s a style that Eric Daman has called “aggressively casual”. 

Bobby’s suits, when he does wear them, come from impeccable brands like Cifonelli, clocking in around $8000 (R141 500). And he wears them to meetings where he’s out to intimidate the opposition. Suited, booted, and seen side-by-side with his nemesis Chuck Rhoades (Paul Giamatti), you might mistake the sleek, whippet-figured Axe for the self-assured, old money man, while Chuck, in his stiffly formal three-piece suits with padded shoulders (a deliberate choice by Eric Daman to give Chuck a top-heavy, looming silhouette echoing the body of a literal bull), seems the image of a stocky self-made man with a chip on his tailored shoulder. It’s a brilliant reflection of Chuck’s discomfort with his own background as he works on his mission to take down the crooked 1% that he was born into, head down, horns up. 

Binge Billions Season 1-7 now.

Big Little Lies

Costume designer: Alix Friedberg

Madeline Martha Mackenzie (Reese Witherspoon) is the perfect little rich man’s wife and terror of the PTA in her bougie Monterey California enclave in Big Little Lies. The words “very cutesy, very demure” are doing the rounds right now, and that’s so Madeline! Impeccable, floral femininity with a soft knit cardigan coverup is Madeline’s disguise. Her power in this world stems from performing easy-breezy femininity as a wife and mother, so you’ll seldom see her wear black or anything with masculine tailoring. When she does want to throw her weight around, watch the leather boots and blazer come out of the wardrobe as Madeline dresses in a different kind of preppy uniform. Nothing flashy, nothing daring. But Madeline’s choice of labels, including Dolce & Gabbana, Burberry, and Carolina Herrera, hint at her highly competitive nature. The more Madeline can rub people’s nose in her “perfection” the better she feels about herself and her role in life. 

While Madeline’s cardigans and tea-length dresses appeal to a traditional vision of femininity going back to the 1950s, Celeste Wright’s (Nicole Kidman) long-sleeved cardigans cover up her bruises. Like Madeline, Celeste also dresses in designer gear from labels like Max Mara, Chloe, and The Row, which specialise in the soft, feminine and romantic. In her case, though, above all, her function is to be a reflection of her husband’s wealth and status…and the fact that he likes a woman he can control. 

Now contrast both Madeline and Celeste’s softly feminine clothes with the power-dressing Renata (Laura Dern), who makes her family’s wealth while dressed in structured, eye-catching Gucci, a label that advertises her success to the people who need to be told. Renata is the queen of the castle, and she’s dressed for battle, where Celeste and Madeline are dressed to please, tease, and appease. 

Binge Big Little Lies Season 1-2

Bel-Air S1-3

Costume designer: Blair Levin in Season 1 and QueenSylvia Akuchie from Season 2

A steep step down the financial ladder, you’ll find the Banks family in Bel-Air. Their wardrobes draw on the personal millions that Uncle Phil has raked in through his skill as a lawyer, and that Aunt Viv has brought home from being a college professor. The Banks family is at the start of their journey of being rich.

The Banks children have an agenda for dressing. Carlton (Olly Sholoton) is desperate to be accepted by the conservative white elite he goes to school with or hangs out with at the country club or on the political circuit with his father. So he starts the series imitating their look as a kind of protective armour. 

In contrast, his sister Hilary (Coco Jones) is trying to make it as an influencer, which means dressing as bougie as she can on daddy’s bank card as she fulfils an obligation to serve looks, 24/7. From a dazzling coral, belted Versace “Cady” two-piece crop top and mini-skirt, to a two-tone tweed coat dress by Paco Rabanne (Season 2, episode 8), the lady loves a label, and a sherbert-bright splash of sunshine in her colours. Unlike Sucession’s Roys, Hilary will be carrying a ludicrously capacious Louis Vuitton Monogram Duffle Bag (priced at $1795 or R31 777), please and thank you. The Roys’ “normcore” dressing wouldn’t cut it in Hilary’s online space, where that level of detail isn’t visible the way it would be in person, but an image search is just a click away. She might primarily be a culinary influencer, but she’s aware of the power of a striking visual and aspirational dressing to grow her follower base and extend her reach beyond the world of cooking, into the world of fashion. Hilary uses her iconic style not just as self expression, but as strategy. 

For more 1% wardrobe moments, also watch:

The White Lotus Season 1-2 to see how the rich dress on holiday

Suits Season 1-9 to see how lawyers have to dress to lure in super-rich clients

Sex and the City Season 1-6 and And Just Like That Seasons 1-2 to see what chic single women on the prowl wear to land a rich husband