Nicholas Braun as “Cousin Greg” Hirsch on Succession, Episode 1.05: “I Went to Market”
Vitals
Nicholas Braun as Greg Hirsch, mild-mannered media conglomerate underling and family outsider
Canada to New York City, The day before Thanksgiving 2018
Series: Succession
Episode: “I Went to Market” (Episode 1.05)
Air Date: July 1, 2018
Director: Adam Arkin
Creator: Jesse Armstrong
Costume Designer: Michelle Matland
Background
Ahead of Thanksgiving tomorrow, one of the things I’m grateful for is that—if Succession had to end this year—the fact that it did so perfectly when the series finale ended in May. To commemorate the final year from this landmark series, let’s flash back to the first season as we joined the Roys for their annual Turkey Day celebration.
From the start of Succession, the anxious Greg Hirsch (Nicholas Braun), aka “Cousin Greg”, aka “Greg the Egg”, initially served as an audience surrogate as we were all collectively introduced to the world of the extremely wealthy and highly dysfunctional Roy family, led by domineering patriarch Logan (Brian Cox) as his children Connor (Alan Ruck), Kendall (Jeremy Strong), Roman (Kieran Culkin), and Siobhan (Sarah Snook) wrested for their withholding father’s favor… and the keys to control his media conglomerate, Waystar RoyCo.
The outsider Greg had never been part of their circle, thrust into it during Logan’s 80th birthday party when his mother—Logan’s niece—dispatched him to New York for a job after he was fired from one of a Waystar amusement park for getting high inside a mascot costume. Within a month, he’s got a job with the company that pays himself just enough that he needn’t sneak food out of the Waystar break room in doggie-doo bags anymore, and he can afford enough gas to power his three-year-old Hyundai to Canada (“with the healthcare and the ennui!”) and back to transport his grandfather Ewan (James Cromwell) to New York for Logan’s Thanksgiving dinner.
Greg: Happy Thanksgiving!
Ewan: Not for the Indians.
Greg: No sir! Nope… that is still true.
While Ewan seems to share his younger brother’s misanthropy, he’s a Bertrand Russell-quoting, anti-capitalistic environmental crusader who appears to be the moral and philosophical opposite of the avaricious Logan. That doesn’t make Ewan’s disposition any warmer; in fact, he seems considerably more restrained in his emotions than Logan, who frequently uses emotion as a manipulative tool, whether it’s a small smile directed at his children or barking at a subordinate to “fuck off!”
Poor Greg was already anxious about the drive, and Ewan’s desire to get on the road before the snowfall doesn’t help Greg’s “old rumblin’ tum.” Waze informs Greg that their drive will be about 12 hours, which he hopes to break up with music or conversation, but Ewan barks, “No music. No chatter. Keep your mind on the driving,” at least until Greg can find “an economics podcast [Ewan] liked to shout at.” Greg also gets a call from his boss, Shiv’s husband Tom Wambsgans (Matthew Macfadyen), who’s cooking his own string of conspiracies reliant on passing the buck down to Greg… who is a bit too slow to inform him that he’s kept his iPhone on speakerphone through their call:
After arriving in the Upper East Side for Thanksgiving the following day, Greg’s actual holiday isn’t much better as Tom swiftly taps him as the expendable colleague who takes the risk of destroying sensitive documents that could put the family and company in legal jeopardy, despite Greg’s concern that “this feels like a Watergate-sorta scenario, and I never studied that specifically, but I feel like—um—I’m correct in saying they all got fucked?”
What’d He Wear?
Before his full immersion into the Roy family, Greg still often dresses in a budget-minded stoner/slacker style. He anchors his road trip gear in a tan zip-up puffer vest from Abercrombie & Fitch, as clearly identified by the white-embroidered “ABERCROMBIE” lettered in the black rectangular logo over his left breast. (The accompanying red “EST. 1892” tag appears to have been removed.)
Likely dating to the late 1990s or early 2000s, this vest is one of my favorite pieces from Greg’s wardrobe, both for its practicality and how it symbolizes that he hasn’t [yet] been compromised by the Roy family’s “stealth wealth” sartorial values.
Assuming that Cousin Greg is around my age (Nicholas Braun is only a year older), this Abercrombie vest had likely been lining his closet since his high school years, when A&F epitomized status dressing for mid-2000s teens. Unlike that era’s popped-collar polos—which I was guilty of wearing—and expensive jeans whose price only seemed to increase with their distress, this well-made vest recalls Abercrombie’s heritage as a favorite brand for 20th century outdoorsmen. (Much to the company’s credit, it overhauled its overpriced and over-sexualized brand image following CEO Michael Jeffries’ resignation in 2014 and now offers comfortable, decently made, and often retro-minded staples! Way to go, Abercrombie!)
The vest’s tan shell is a weather-resistant blend of 72% cotton and 28% nylon, lined in a navy-blue satin-finished nylon aside from the gray fleece lining the inside of the standing collar. Each side of the vest is split into five air pockets, filled with goose down feathers that provide warmth in a lightweight package. The straight front zipper has a black woven zip pull and a khaki tape that matches the nylon trim around the armholes and waist (which has a black drawcord to cinch the fit.) The slanted, zip-up hand pockets are also welted in khaki nylon.
Greg layers the vest over a dark gray zip-up hooded sweatshirt, detailed with a white zipper and zip pull to match the white woven drawstrings hanging from each side of the hood. Under his hoodie, Greg wears a white sweater with a high, gray-banded crew neck.
Rather than the $600 Italian cashmere baseball caps famously worn by Kendall Roy, Greg keeps his head warm with a gray ribbed-knit beanie, trimmed with a wide dark-navy band around the opening that presumably continues inside the hat to serve as lining.
Despite his casual top half, Greg dresses up his bottom half. His brown flat-front trousers are likely a cotton chino-style cloth, styled with a slim tapered leg, side pockets, back pockets, and plain-hemmed bottoms. He wears black leather cap-toe derby shoes, incongruously dressy for the outdoorsy outfit, but he may still be smarting from when Tom insulted his deck shoes two episodes prior and sent him in search of Crockett & Jones cap-toe oxfords. (While I’d recommend boots—chukka, Chelsea, or work boots—with an outfit like this, Greg’s brown moc-toe boat shoes could also work for a preppier look.)
The next day, Greg dresses for Thanksgiving dinner in a tasteful mixed brown woolen cable-knit sweater over a mini-checked shirt and khakis, but his plans unfortunately get upended when Tom sends him on a shredding mission.
How to Get the Look
Nicholas Braun as “Cousin Greg” Hirsch on Succession, Episode 1.05: “I Went to Market”
Not yet overly influenced by (or able to afford) the “stealth wealth” style of the Roy family, Cousin Greg smartly layers for a pre-Thanksgiving road trip in a classic Abercrombie puffer vest with fall-friendly layers like a knit cap, hoodie, seater, and tonal trousers.
- Tan cotton/nylon zip-up puffer vest with gray fleece-lined standing collar, slanted zip-up pockets, and black draw-corded waist
- Dark gray zip-up hooded sweatshirt
- White sweater with high gray-banded crew-neck
- Brown cotton chino-cloth flat-front tapered-leg trousers with side pockets, back pockets, and plain-hemmed bottoms
- Black leather cap-toe derby shoes
- Dark-gray ribbed-knit beanie with dark-navy edge
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 post Succession: Cousin Greg’s Pre-Thanksgiving Puffer Vest appeared first on BAMF Style.