Brian Cox as Logan Roy on Succession, Episode 4.01 (“The Munsters”)
Vitals
Brian Cox as Logan Roy, media mogul and domineering patriarch
New York City, Fall 2020
Series: Succession
Episode: “The Munsters” (Episode 4.01)
Air Date: March 26, 2023
Director: Mark Mylod
Creator: Jesse Armstrong
Costume Designer: Michelle Matland
Background
Succession fans welcomed the premiere of the fourth and final season on Sunday night, setting up the pieces for our final chapter with the profane and power-hungry Roy family.
As in the first episode, this installment centered around a birthday party in honor of Logan Roy (Brian Cox), the misanthropic head of the Waystar RoyCo media conglomerate. However, unlike that first episode, Logan is now alienated from all but one of his children—the eldest son, Connor (Alan Ruck), who has progressed from gifting his father a container of goo to now depending on his father’s goodwill to back his bid for the presidency… for which he’s polling at a tenuous 1% with less than two weeks to Election Day, despite the fact that Connor Roy was interested in politics at a very young age.
Surrounded by revelers of differing degrees of sycophancy, Logan grumbles to his friend-assistant-and-advisor Kerry (Zoe Winters) about the “little piggies stuffin’ their mouths… why is everybody so fuckin’ happy?” before fucking out for a lonely bite at a diner with his stoic bodyguard Colin (Scott Nicholson). Colin may have effectively hidden his surprise at Logan declaring him to be his “best pal”, but he’s understandably unprepared to meaningfully contribute to Logan’s existential explorations asking “what are people?”
Logan returns home and demands that everyone fuck off aside from his closest team of advisors: his tactful general counsel Gerri Kellman (J. Smith-Cameron), pragmatic chief operating officer Frank Vernon (Peter Friedman), affably blockheaded chief financial officer Karl Muller (David Rasche), and his obsequious son-in-law Tom Wambsgans (Matthew Macfadyen)… and thus by extension, the Roys’ cousin Greg Hirsch (Nicholas Braun).
After willingly making his deal with the devil at the end of the previous season, Greg has willingly embraced being Disgusting Brothers with a less-willing Tom, whose separation from Logan’s ambitious daughter Shiv (Sarah Snook) has clearly taken its toll on the man who once told Greg he’d castrate and marry him in a heartbeat. Luckily, the terms of our 21st century Sporus’ deal didn’t include that castration, allowing him and his disliked date to rummage each other to fruition in Logan’s hallowed halls.
“Who wants to smell Greg’s finger, eh? Guess the scent… win a buck!” Logan gruffly teases while trying to turn the group’s anxious waiting during a business bidding war into a roast. Whether he’s being horrible or merely being “fun” the fun stops after Logan suffers the rare professional defeat at the hands of his now-allied trio of youngest children, retreating into a darkened corner of his apartment to spend the waning hours of his 82nd birthday grumbling at the TV.
What’d He Wear?
“Logan’s clothes are part of his power play,” Brian Cox explained in an InsideHook interview with Caroline Reilly. “He wears his wealth on his back, especially those cardigans. I love Logan’s cardigans. The very fabric of his clothes gives him power.”
Logan pulls one one of these cardigans for his birthday party, but rather than an ordinary sweater, it’s uniquely styled and detailed like a double-breasted blazer, right down to its gold crested buttons. The choice smartly suggests a man knowledgable enough of social mores to know that he should try to match the formality of his guests in their suits and sport jackets, balanced with Logan’s wealth-informed BDE that he’s going to emphasize dressing for comfort, especially in his own home.
Logan’s cardigan is a product of Polo Ralph Lauren, who describes their Cashmere Blazer Cardigan as an effort to “reinterpret the silhouette of our iconic Polo blazer as a knit cardigan.” The cardigan is made of 100% Italian cashmere in a vivid shade of dark blue the brand designated “aviator navy”.
Logan and his assistant-with-benefits Kerry stand united in their shades of blue.
Ralph Lauren describes the cardigan’s Regular Fit as “wider at the chest while still maintaining a modern silhouette,” providing comfortable allowances for Cox, who described his own physique to InsideHook as having become “more physically robust … [with] this tendency to look like a bulldog standing on his hindquarters.”
The blazer-like details include notch lapels and a 4×2-button configuration of the gold-toned crested shank buttons over his midsection. The cardigan also has a patch pocket over the left breast and one positioned on each hip. The rest of the sweater follows the traditional conventions of knitwear, with a straight hem (sans the vents you may see on a blazer) and set-in sleeves that are left plain at the cuffs, without buttons or other adornment.
Polo Ralph Lauren Cashmere Blazer Cardigan in "aviator navy" ($698)
Price and availability current as of March 28, 2023.
Logan wears a white cotton shirt with a blue graph-check, which @successionfashion reports was made by Paul Smith. The shirt has a semi-spread collar, breast pocket, front placket, and button cuffs.
Logan watches a ballsack in a toupee deliver the news.
Logan’s trousers appear to be dark navy cotton flat-front slacks, detailed with side pockets, back pockets, and turn-ups (cuffs). He holds them up with a black leather belt that closes through a rectangular gold-toned single-prong buckle.
His belt coordinates to the leather of his black calf cap-toe oxford shoes, worn with black socks. Black oxfords are among the most formal shoes a man can wear, complementing the elevated cardigan.
Logan’s impromptu roast doesn’t go as anyone would hope.
When he abandons his party for a quiet dinner with Colin, Logan layers up for a solitary walk through the park in a navy field jacket, also from Ralph Lauren as etched on the large black horn buttons.
The distinctive Ralph Lauren logo on the left sleeve appears to have been replaced for the screen with a silver cross that, to my knowledge, has never represented a Ralph Lauren brand. I can’t tell the specific model either, though it incorporates some of the same design as seen in the Ralph Lauren Hartridge Cotton 4-Pocket Jacket, Ralph Lauren Troops Utility Jacket, Polo Ralph Lauren Nylon Utility Jacket, and the Ralph Lauren Water-Repellent Field Jacket. Apropos Logan’s position, the Hartridge jacket is made from a shade of cotton that Ralph Lauren calls “classic chairman navy.”
Made from a water-resistant navy-blue polyester, the jacket recalls classic American military field jackets like the M-1943 and M-1951, right down to the martial shoulder straps (epaulets), sewn at each set-in shoulder and with a pointed end that buttons down to the coat closer to the neck. The coat has four bellows pockets—two on the chest, two on the hips—with pointed flaps that each close through a single button. An internal drawstring cinches the waist. The thigh-length coat has a double closure system with a straight zip covered by a four-button fly that extends up to the large Prussian collar, supplemented by a throat-latch that extends from under the left side of the collar.
Logan wears the coat’s top button undone to show his black foulard scarf, tied like a day cravat. The scarf is printed with a repeating field of blue-and-slate shadowed squares.
For added anonymity and warmth, Logan wears one of the navy cashmere baseball caps that inspired a Wall Street Journal article after viewers took notice of characters on Succession and The Morning Show sporting these plain-looking caps that actually cost around $600. Taking queues from real-life jet-setters, costume designer Michelle Matland explained in the article that “the absence of a logo says there’s ‘no relevant team but…team Me,’ making the hats fitting accessories for the show’s ego-centric characters.”
Production photo of Brian Cox in Succession.
Even in the world of the Roys, with its endless wardrobes and shifting watches and sunglasses, Logan continues wearing what appear to be the same reading glasses as we first saw in the first episode. The frames are a modernized browline-style, with straight black rectangular semi-frames across the top of each lens and flush with the wide arms, while the narrow lenses themselves are silver-rimmed. The temples are detailed with squared silver panels on the sides, and there are two vertical rivets on each end of the front. Logan occasionally wears them attached to a black cord around his neck.
Logan enjoys an existential moment with his “best pal” Colin.
“Logan wears a Jaeger-LeCoultre, always,” prop master Monica Jacobs explained in in an interview with Esquire last week. “My understanding of his character is that he is not really a watch guy. There are a few things that he likes. He knows what he likes, and that’s why we’ve kept him in the Jaeger. Every season, he’s been in a very similar Jaeger. He knows that’s his style. He has a Carl F. Bucherer for a couple episodes here and there. But he knows his style. Even with his costume, you don’t see him deviate very much.”
We get only a brief look at the gold wristwatch that Logan wears on his left wrist, having been hidden under his cardigan’s left sleeve until the end of the episode. Likely his latest Jaeger-LeCoultre, the automatic watch has a gold case and a white dial with a blackened 6:00 sub-register, strapped to a black leather band.
How unfortunate for Tom that, even after all he sacrificed for Logan, Logan still won’t wear that Patek Philippe he gave him for his birthday two years earlier.
What to Imbibe
Logan slumps through his party drinking from a rocks glass of presumably some sort of whiskey garnished with an orange peel that suggests a cocktail like an Old Fashioned. However, per his Dundee-born heritage, Logan is said to prefer Scotch, with Tom telling Greg that Logan drinks a dram each night while reviewing that day’s CCTV security footage of his home.
There’s not enough whisky in Scotland to make Logan Roy’s birthday party enjoyable for him.
If you’re looking for something to drink for the next Succession episode, we can compromise with a recipe for a Scotch Old Fashioned that substitutes the venerated cocktail’s usual bourbon or rye with Scotch whisky.
Though there are a few recipes for Scotch Old Fashioneds out there—and I know I’ve seen a few on cocktail menus out in the wild—this one from Kelly Tesoriero and Jordan Hughes for Vine Pair has been BAMF-tested and approved, for whatever my word is worth:
- Mix two ounces of blended Scotch, a teaspoon of Demerara (or simple syrup, if necessary), two dashes of aromatic bitters, and two dashes of orange bitters in a mixing glass and stir with ice
- Pour the concoction into a rocks glass over a large ice cube
- Garnish with a “nicely manicured” orange peel
According to Tesoriero, “the flavors inherent in Scotch give this variation a smokier and oakier flavor than the original, along with a more matured flavor profile.”
How to Get the Look
Brian Cox as Logan Roy on Succession, Episode 4.01 (“The Munsters”)
Rote formality meets comfort as Logan Roy “welcomed” guests into his home for 82nd birthday party, clad in a distinctive Ralph Lauren cardigan that balances knitwear’s comfortable qualities with the handsome gilt-buttoned aesthetics of a classic navy blazer.
- Navy cashmere double-breasted blazer-cardigan with gold 4×2-button front, patch breast pocket, patch hip pockets, and straight hem
- White (with blue graph check) cotton shirt with semi-spread collar, front placket, breast pocket, and button cuffs
- Dark navy cotton flat-front trousers with belt loops, side pockets, back pockets, and turn-ups/cuffs
- Black leather belt with rectangular gold single-prong buckle
- Black calf leather cap-toe oxford shoes
- Black socks
- Black rectangular browline-framed reading glasses on black neck-cord
Do Yourself a Favor and…
Check out the series, currently streaming on HBO Max.
For fans of the show’s style, I recommend following the great Instagram accounts @successionfashion and @successionfits.
The Quote
Nothing tastes like it used to, does it? Nothing’s the same as it was. Do you think there’s anything after all this? Afterwards? I don’t think so, I think this is it, right?
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