Want to know how Succession might end? Look to the clothes for clues

This story contains spoilers for the fourth season of Succession.

There can’t be too many instances in popular culture where a generic black hair tie can rival a $100,000 watch for headlines. But Succession isn’t like most television shows.

In the final season, the main characters have dealt with the grief of losing their patriarch Logan Roy (Bryan Cranston), the power struggle with tech billionaire Lukas Matsson (played by Alexander Skarsgard) and their own personal maelstrom. And, often, their costumes do as much talking as the razor-sharp dialogue, from Kendall’s $800 baseball caps, to Shiv’s suits and that scrunchie.

And it all seems to be building up to one event: Logan’s funeral, which will take place some time before the show’s finale. So, how did the show’s head costume designer, Michelle Matland, design for an event with such anticipation? Without giving away too much, she says it was her team’s “biggest stretch” of the series.

“It takes a lot of homework to find out what these [events] really look like, to make them authentic, [from] the right cassock and the right headdress, to the choir boys, the whole nine yards … The pomp and circumstance of it was great fun, it was a great learning curve, and I think it will be super beautiful to look at [on screen].”

Matland, whose credits include Cold Mountain and The Stepford Wives, says each character’s arc has resonated through their wardrobe, but Shiv’s wardrobe has carried particular weight as the show nears its finale.

The ups and downs of her wardrobe through the season show “she’s not a quitter; she is going to battle this to the end”, Matland says. “Just like any of us, you have good days and bad days … we have to balance the humanity of these characters with the tales we’re trying to tell about them.”

In earlier seasons, when Shiv was pursuing her Democratic political aspirations, she chose “very middle-American, mainstream clothing”. But, after she returned to the family business, Matland says Shiv had to abandon labels such as Theory and Ted Baker.