The Fashion Power Plays of the ‘Succession’ Women

“Clothing is one way to express power and strength in whatever tale you’re trying to tell,” said Michelle Matland, the show’s costume designer.

For the female characters on “Succession,” their paths to power—and what they wear to achieve it—are not always as clear as their male counterparts. Because the HBO show takes place in male-driven corporate America, it’s one of the rare shows where the men’s luxury fashion takes center stage, from Kendall’s obsessively try-hard discretion to Logan’s now-legendary Loro Piana hats. In this world, men still rule, and their uniforms to do so are more prescribed. 

If the women’s costumes can feel harder to pin down, it’s because the characters are still figuring out how to appear powerful. 

Sometimes the women on the show nail it—and sometimes, their choices cleverly show they don’t. When the patriarch’s only daughter, Shiv Roy, wears an Alexander McQueen houndstooth blazer with a black turtleneck and black pumps, she conveys winning, self-possessed energy. But her sartorial missteps—from the much-maligned floral Ted Baker sheath for her mother’s wedding to this season’s drab brown elastic-waist Max Mara suit—are dissected by fans and critics. 

As soon as an episode airs, social media sleuths such as the @successionfashion Instagram account use tactics including reverse Google image searches to track down the exact pieces. Whether fans give thumbs-up or thumbs-down to the characters’ outfits, the inconsistencies of Shiv and the others go a long way in making the characters three-dimensional. She’s not Business Barbie; she’s a real person who occasionally gets it wrong.

When female characters fail to get the memo on how to dress, they’re sacrificial lambs. One of season four’s indelible moments involved Greg bringing a hapless date to Logan’s funeral. Tom’s line about her “ludicrously capacious” Burberry bag instantly became a meme. Her cluelessness was made evident by her gauchely humongous tote. She may have tried her best to look polished, but the most polished move would be to carry no purse at all, like the nonchalant Naomi Pierce.

In “Succession,” true luxury is not buying designer things, but avoiding drawing attention to yourself in the wrong way. “It’s about using clothing to show that they don’t care that much about clothing. In this world, that’s the power move,” said Amy Odell, the author of the “Back Row” newsletter and creator of weekly “Succession” fashion-recap videos. 

Here are a few of the ways the women of “Succession” use fashion to leverage their positions.

Shiv Roy’s Puzzling Pantsuits

It’s no surprise that Shiv, played by Sarah Snook, gets it the most right—and the most wrong. The maneuvering, complex heiress to the Roy fortune is quite simply trying to do the most: to seduce, to blend in, to stand out, to look powerful, to remain feminine, to avoid her femininity, to seem liberal, to be neutral, to be businesslike—but also cool. It’s an exhausting motive-medley. 

Mostly, Shiv plays the conquering hero in a wardrobe of tailoring from designers including Ralph Lauren, Alexander McQueen and Gabriela Hearst, with accents of delicate, unidentifiable gold jewelry and a Cartier Panthère watch. She is, as we’ve all noticed, the queen of a certain kind of divisive paperbag-waisted pant that accentuates the waist over a tight knitted top. (It remains to be seen how the show will accommodate both the character and the actor’s pregnancies, which Ms. Matland admitted was a challenge.)

We’ve also seen a radical evolution. Lest we forget, in season one Shiv had long, wavy hair and wore Fair Isle sweaters. She “has changed very dramatically…going from trying to be antifamily to being corporate,” Ms. Matland said. Over four seasons, the bob has become sharper, the looks more graphic. Midway through season four, there’s a fierceness to her femininity as well, including blazers with no shirt in Sunday’s episode six.

Ultimately, she’s trying to prove her mettle through each pinstripe pantsuit and smooth Skims bodysuit. Ms. Odell said that Shiv is “trying to project seriousness and show that she’s not frivolous,” pointing to her father’s damning line that she and her brothers were “not serious people.” She continued, “She knows in the back of her mind that her dad sees her that way, and she has to compensate for that.”

Gerri Kellman’s Pelosi Power Dresses

Gerri Kellman, Waystar Royco’s general counsel, one-time interim CEO and often its highest-ranking woman, is of “The Good Wife” and Nancy Pelosi school of fashion—that lawyers and executives can wear feminine clothing and still be taken seriously. She wears form-fitting jackets; pearls; “power dresses.” The Pelosi connection was underlined when the character, played by J. Smith Cameron, wore a red coat exactly like the former speaker’s famous Max Mara piece.

Gerri, like Mrs. Pelosi, is such an anomaly in her environment that she is unafraid of drawing attention to it. There’s no hiding that she’s an older woman in a younger man’s world, so she might as well dress the way she wants to, whether that be a low-cut dress with a serious necklace, or a jaunty off-kilter hat (like the one she wore to Connor’s wedding in season four).

When asked about how she imagines that the executive shops, Ms. Matland said she thinks Gerri has a stylist who sends things to her apartment. 

“But I think on her weekends,” she said, “she enjoys going out with a girlfriend, perhaps. Having lunch and going to Saks or Bergdorf.”

Willa Ferreyra’s Stepford Style

Willa Ferreyra, the sex worker turned playwright turned political wife, is still learning how to leverage her considerable personal power into more far-reaching clout. But she’s learning. As played by the actor Justine Lupe, Willa has evolved from wearing bohemian dresses, chokers and Bambi-shaky heels to her own polished version of a first wife. 

Even when Willa’s life is spinning out of control, as when she drunkenly leaves her own rehearsal dinner in this season, she seems to be learning the Roy art of control in her spotlessly white blazer. Some have noted the “Ivankification” of Willa’s hair as it becomes blonder and straighter. Ms. Matland said that was intentional, noting, “She lost a lot of her wild woman to be the wife on the arm of a possible politician.”

But Willa is not quite White House-ready yet, with her miniskirt sets from French high-street brand Sandro.

Naomi Pierce’s Spot-On Sophistication

Media heiress Naomi Pierce, sometime-girlfriend of Kendall, may have less airtime than other characters, but is often described as the most fashionable woman on the show. Her style hews true to the coastal-elite wardrobe, with shades of simple sophisticates like Sofia Coppola or Gwyneth Paltrow. She usually wears black-and-white separates by designers including Proenza Schouler and Marina Moscone. 

Annabelle Dexter-Jones, who plays Naomi, describes the character’s style as a collaboration with Ms. Matland. Ms. Dexter-Jones said she took a page from the book of Jeremy Strong, the notorious Method actor who plays Kendall, by thinking deeply about her character’s choices on a granular level. She used a pair of her own restrained Sophie Buhai pearl earrings for the character. And she decided that Naomi doesn’t use a phone case—because who cares if she drops her phone?

“Sometimes when the world around you feels very out of control, and when things feel very messy,” Ms. Dexter-Jones said, “we turn to the things we can control.” Like phone cases, handbags and blouses—or deciding to go without.

Write to Rory Satran at [email protected]