Dressing the Part with Hunter Harris

When Industry returned for its fourth season this month, Harper Stern (Myha'la) departed a black SUV in an immaculate suit and trench coat the color of ash. Did she just burn something down, or was she preparing to emerge? Her pixie cut had grown out and was braided into a bouncy half ponytail; she seemed to arrive in her office through a cloud of her own sensual smoke.

Harper is running a “fund” now, managing “money,” “shorting stocks.” Or something. But there’s a hollowness to how empirically she’s dressing these days—the exquisitely draped necklines, thigh high boots, and onyx cocktail dresses all seem to hold her up as much as they hold her down. Harper is not dressing like a control freak. She’s dressing like a freak cosplaying control. Money talks, wealth whispers, and super wealth is just exquisitely tailored. While the moneyed family on Succession dressed in muted tones and conventional silhouettes, Industry’s characters hew closer to Blair Waldorf and Nate Archibald on Gossip Girl or even Bethenny Frankel and Ramona Singer on Real Housewives of New York. They dress like they have money, but it’s never as much as they want.

Landman’s milieu of drillers and mechanics all wear various shades of brown that camouflage their sky-high ambitions. Angela (Ali Larter), the partner of oil exec Tommy Norris (Billy Bob Thornton), couldn’t be further from the layer of dust that coats everyone else’s light-wash denim. She dresses in animal prints and wrap dresses and deep Vs. She leads with her chest, her cleavage framing a diamond cross dangling from a chain. She towers over everyone not just because she’s Ali Larter, but because she chooses platforms over cowboy boots. Angela’s bright colors, loud prints, and form-hugging shapes inject a bit of Dallas into Landman’s desert landscape. She wants the very best out of life, and she’s going to dress like it.

The Studio, too, has a character who dresses so flashily it becomes its own character detail. Studio Marketing Head Maya Mason (Kathryn Hahn) is peak retail. Her style is defined by a powerclashing of brands and logomania. She looks a mess, but that’s part of the point: of course, there’s a gaudy locket on the neck of an exec unafraid to dash Martin Scorsese’s dreams.

All are people who dress hungrily, greedily, like they are casting themselves in a version of their life without all the perfunctory self-loathing. The worlds of Industry (finance), Landman (oil), and The Studio (Hollywood) couldn’t be more different, but their characters are all rapacious and excessive in the same way. These are the shows—and closets—of strivers, people who think about dressing the part before they think about how they’ll get to the audition.

Plus, subscribe to Hunter’s Substack below...