'Succession' Costume Designer Michelle Matland on Shiv’s Style Evolution: It's 'Interesting People Are So Taken' (Exclusive)

Siobhan Roy's wardrobe on 'Succession' was a topic of much discussion throughout the series' run. Here's what costume designer Michelle Matland had to say about her style evolution, the Internet's theories and the quiet luxury trend

Warning: This post contains spoilers about Succession.

Between the death of Logan Roy, the shuffle within Waystar Royco and Shiv’s complicated pregnancy, the fourth and final season of HBO's Succession was a doozy.

And though the series has come to a close, one of the many topics that still has fans talking days after that dramatic finale is the wardrobe, particularly that of Siobhan “Shiv” Roy, the lone daughter in the fictional media dynasty.

To get the low down on her ever-evolving yet subtle wardrobe, we spoke to Michelle Matland, the show's Emmy-nominated costume designer, to give us the meaning behind some of the clothes.

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Long before she was the harbinger of quiet luxury, Shiv — played by Australian actress and new mom Sarah Snook — was the outlier of the Roy family. In season 1 of the show, we saw her as a progressive political consultant who's not only dissociating herself from the family business, but actually has no interest in it at all.

“She started off being part of this democratic process and she didn’t want to come off as tremendously affluent,” Matland told PEOPLE. “She did not want the folks to feel like she was part of the Roy regime. And so her clothing reflected her wanting to be of the people.”

For Matland and the rest of the styling team, that meant putting Shiv in clothes that were more accessible, nothing too fancy. “We began with Theory suits and things that came from Bloomingdale's, not things that came from Bergdorf's or super high-end boutiques,” Matland shared.

As Shiv’s position began to change within the family and she inched closer to the business, so too did her wardrobe. Her look became more structured and severe, featuring neutral colors and sophisticated silhouettes that reflected her new boss era.

In season 2 of the show, looks like the above ensemble — a simple turtleneck, high-waist pants, delicate gold jewelry — got a lot fanfare.

“It was not expected at all. We were very shocked to have people look at the clothes the way they did and appreciate them for what they were,” Matland said. "It's very interesting, obviously, that people are so fascinated with her clothes because in many respects, they are not exciting or glamorous. They're not sequins and glitter ... so it is interesting that people are so taken."

It also helped that viewers were a lot more invested in the series by that point, so Matland felt the costuming was another avenue on which to track Shiv's story.

Related: ‘Succession’ Series Finale: How It Ended and Who Came Out on Top

“Our job is to be part of the storyteller," she explained. "And so our costumes were reflections of the written word that [series creator Jesse Armstrong] had created and the characters that the actors wanted to become.”

Even more fascinating were the fan theories floated from watching how Shiv dressed as the chaos and competition increased on Succession. One particular theory suggested that as Shiv got closer to her father, her color palette changed.

Matland agreed, but only in the sense that the clothes often changed to reflect any big shift in the character’s life, not just in that one instance.

“Her color palette reflects Shiv’s journey in her life. So we also see it as we move into the third and the fourth season as her story changes so dramatically,” Matland explained. “During the times that we see her flirtations, and her finding her femininity, and finding her sexuality, all of the clothing then becomes part of that — the backless sweater [in season 2] for example.”

She continued, “When she's not necessarily in a turtleneck, she's in a silk blouse instead of being completely covered from head to toe. We definitely tried to help tell that story of the arc of her personal life.”

Other ensembles, like the turquoise halter dress she wore to her mother's bachelorette party in season 3, got mixed responses, with some viewers feeling as though the look's revealing nature was out of character for her.

But for Matland, it was all about the character’s mentality at that moment in time. “At that point in her life, she was trying to show her true spirit and her freedom of choice," Matland explained.

"She was in a very strong place with the family, with her father. So her expectations of where she was able to go in terms of the family tale [were high]," she continued. "She took on certain strengths. She took some serious chances and choices about what she was willing to wear.”

At the season 4 premiere back in March, Snook revealed she was expecting her first child with her husband, comedian Dave Lawson. Naturally, fans began wondering how the baby news was handled during filming and it turns out, Matland and the rest of the crew didn't even know Snook was pregnant until well into filming.

“We had to adapt [not just] the storyline, but also what we were going to do with the character and her costumes,” Matland shared.

Related: 'Succession' 's Shiv Roy Perfects the Art of Quiet Luxury – What You Need to Know About Fashion's Latest Trend

Adding the pregnancy to the storyline meant Snook could wear clothes that were comfortable, but also appropriate for Shiv — no insanely huge purses or awkwardly standing behind large vases. “Jesse decided to create a storyline that would accommodate [the pregnancy] instead of trying to fabricate shots so [the audience] wouldn't notice," Matland shared.

As such, adding the pregnancy added to the heaviness of this season's plot, which in turn influenced the choices the costume department was making for Shiv.

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“We definitely had to adjust our thinking as the storyline started to darken and her conflicts with Tom, the infidelity and her flirtation with Matsson,” Matland said. “There's a lot of conflict and a lot of complications at this point, so we adjusted her costumes to help [tell that] without foretelling anything. [We wanted] to kind of accommodate this new journey that she's taking, because it is a very dark time, obviously.”

So, as Succession comes to an end, what does Matland think of the quiet luxury trend she's catapulted into the zeitgeist?

“I certainly did not invent it," she said. "I didn't even know it existed in terminology. I don't think when we started the show, the term ‘stealth wealth’ or any of those new luxe catchphrases were really being used."

She concluded, “I think that something that happened as we became more intrigued by it, I thought that maybe it had something to do with the COVID situation because we were trapped in our homes and looking out of our own lives into somebody else's. Certainly that kind of wealth, I think, became very intriguing.”

Succession is streaming now on Max.

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