It’s easy to think that all bankers dress the same. (The @midtownuniform Instagram account once went viral and hilariously admitted as much.) But if you pay close attention, you might start to notice subtle markers of hierarchy. “It’s the little things that really tell a story about your position in a company and how you interact with your co-workers,” says the costumer tasked with a wardrobe upgrade for this season of HBO’s sleeper hit “Industry.” says designer Laura Smith. The story of a group of ambitious bankers navigating the cutthroat world of high finance. “Everyone has very little element of status in their clothing.”
So what are these? Sure, it could be a certain Swiss brand watch or a designer wingtip, but those are obvious. What really matters in this world (and many others) is having the right product. Things that money can’t buy. Something only available to those who reach certain rungs on the ladder, like a psychologically twisted version of Super Mario Bros. that unlocks new levels.
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Ken Leung plays Pierpoint partner Eric Tao, who wears a company sweater.
It’s a concept that Smith was able to have so much fun with this season, thanks to showrunners Mickey Down and Conrad Kaye, that the inner workings of Pierpoint, the fictional London investment bank at the center of the show, It took us deeper into the sanctuary. As the agency celebrates its 150th anniversary, the possibilities for custom merchandise are virtually limitless.
In the first episode, Eric Tao (played by Ken Leung), a longtime corporate employee and managing director of the CPS desk, is finally promoted to partner. Gift from my boss: Gold cufflinks with the Pierpoint logo. These are original designs that Smith created from scratch for these scenes. “Then the merchandise just grew from there,” she told T&C. “We based the Pierpoint hoodies from previous seasons on the different types of product packaging each employee receives.”
So the fleece and quarter zip given to Eric and, say, Rishi Ramdani (Sagar Radia), another MD on the trading floor, is the same as the T-shirt and sweatshirt given to Yasmin (Marisa Abela). It’s clearly different and of higher quality. ), Robert (Harry Lortie), and their friends. “The idea behind it is that people will look at each other and say, ‘How did you figure that out?'” Smith says. “And that question immediately becomes a starting point for jealousy.” And then, of course, there’s the gilet, and the obvious status difference conveyed by a simple vest. “We were keen to make sure there was always a gilet, from the standard one that Robert would have but probably never wear, to the high-end one with the Pierpoint logo for executives,” she says. says.
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Kit Harington plays Henry Mack, a hot-blooded technology entrepreneur.
It’s all a vicious ecosystem, and that’s what matters. And then Eric realizes that the shiny new level he just unlocked only leads to more levels, and he hasn’t gotten the key to it yet. Or as Pierpoint CFO Wilhelmina Fassbinder (Georgina Rich) puts it more bluntly to him: But in reality, you are just breaking new ground. ”
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The brilliance of Season 3, which ends on Sunday, is that it not only peels back the layers of Pierpoint, but takes us out of the building and into a richer tapestry (just kidding) of financial factions doing crazy things. It’s about introducing us. crazy money. Examples include Lumi, the doomed tech startup founded by hot-blooded entrepreneur Henry Mack (played by Kit Harington), and Future Dawn, a female-led hedge fund specializing in socially responsible investing. Get a glimpse into the world of British aristocracy and the private clubs and country mansions of historic industrial titans.
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Sarah Goldberg plays portfolio manager Petra Koenig.
For Smith, it was important to clearly differentiate each area, both visually and sartorially. “One of the ways we did that was through color,” she says. If Pierpoint’s palette dictates the banker’s wardrobe’s requisite blues, navy and gray, Future Dawn’s feminist portfolio manager wears luxe separates in soft neutrals of beige, olive, cream and rust But the energy of Rumi’s tech buddies, with their saturated hues and iridescent corporate T-shirts, serves as a sharp nod to Henry’s cult of personality and short attention span. As for the Old Money Old Boys Club, headed by financier Otto Mostyn (Roger Barclay) and media mogul Lord Norton (Andrew Havill), they have a pan-European flair to their looks. “There’s a whole different kind of coding in that world,” Smith says. “For Otto’s character, we adopted a more sophisticated, more Italian style.”
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Roger Berkeley plays Otto and Myhara plays Harper.
Smith also played with subtle codes when dressing women in industry. You can see it in the way Yasmin hides from her dads in an oversized coat and baseball cap as she deals with the aftermath of her father’s embezzlement scandal and the evaporation of her trust fund. Unsurprisingly, the logo on that cap is incredibly #IYKYK (‘Cresta Run ’09 St. Moritz’) and says more about her privilege than a Burberry coat or a Van Cleef & Arpels pendant.
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Harper, Petra and Yasmin.
And then there’s Harper (Myhara), who is always hungry for power. If last season we saw her quietly imitating Yasmine’s season 1 camel coat, this season we see her new boss Petra (Sarah Goldberg), her sharp wit, He appears to be dressed like a master Scandinavian portfolio manager. An inspired wardrobe to match. And the representative of Generation Z is Pierpoint’s newcomer Sweet Pea (Miriam Petsce). She livestreams her first morning at work, keeps a ring light at her desk, and confidently wears the banker’s dress code with a little black dress, lace cardigan, and gold layers. jewelry.
So where do they fall on the scale of wealthy to ultra-wealthy to ultra-wealthy? Smith has devised a unique metric to understand everyone’s place in the food chain. I did. “I imagined each character in Burlington Arcade, a big shopping district in Mayfair, and thought, ‘Are they going to ask for a price for something or not?'” “They decided how they bought clothes and how they wore them,” she says. “That’s the dynamic. It’s a world where Robert always has to ask for the price when he walks into a store. And Otto would never do that.”
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Leena Kim is Town & Country’s editor, covering travel, jewelry, education, weddings, and culture.
