Succession’s gorpcore is Lukas Matsson’s mental games 2023
Rich people did shady things before Succession season 4 episode 5, and the Hamlet-like 1 percent psychodrama is in its final act. In a world of ever-diverging riches, the privileged elite is under intensive scrutiny that enrages and fascinates.
The Roy family—a dynasty of arseholes drunk on power and really, really, really good cocaine—has become The Culture’s favorite punching bag and soap drama.
The upper class has never been so visible.
Roy-types are now visible. The Succession costume department educates the 99%. Media heiresses shiver in oatmeal blazers and soft roll-necks.
Their brothers wear well-cut suits in forgettable colors from the best Italian brands. Even the off-duty clothes—baseball caps, sweatpants, quilted puffer-blazers—are excessively expensive and subtle. Old money rarely wears logo-stacked hoodies.
Nothing gold-plated lasts. A media company run by the Roys has collapsed. A self-driven, green energy model is outspending them. Lukas Matsson, represented by Alexander Skarsgård, represents Elon Musk, Daniel Ek, and other heterodox tech bro billionaires.
He wears neither buttery Milanese tailoring nor Manhattan hedge fund manager overcoats. Slubby grey T-shirts, Adilette sliders, cargos, and roll-necks comprise his Loch Ness-like attire. No polishing is attempted.
No Loro Piana simplicity or Brunello Cucinelli elegance. Technical, choppy. On season four episode five, Jeremy Strong’s Kendall Roy wears a neutral Fucking Loaded puffer jacket and well-fitted knits for a Norwegian team-building weekend. Mattson wears Fjällräven’s blue-and-black “Keg” trousers. They work. Also £215.
Gorpcore before fit tests. Don’t be deceived. Not “quiet luxury.” “Money talks, wealth whispers” is revived.
That’s it. Quiet luxury works for the workplace and the Zoom call from Panama, not cargos or boiled wool roll-necks. Tech bros sew financial safety nets for old money dinosaurs, making them both a threat and a savior.
In a program where small details matter, Matsson’s look conveys his identity, actions, and beliefs. The aspiring CEO starting kit has Shiv. Kendall’s midlife crisis coolwear. Lukas Matsson in cargoes and T-shirts gives the management consultant class the middle finger and proclaims himself the next-gen giant. He’s superior. His kind made new money by ignoring the old ways, and old money worries.
