As winter finally ebbs away, the wise words of one of TV’s most unlikely style icons come to mind. “People like me. I look like a matador, and everyone wants to fuck me.” It is, apparently, short king spring, and Succession’s Kieran Culkin is reigning supreme.
You’ll have seen the Cos campaign all over town, on walls, billboards and even public transport. You might even have seen the TikTok of a girl singing “and if the Kieran Culkin bus, kills the both of us…” to the tune of The Smiths’ There Is A Light That Will Never Go Out. So as the fourth and final series of the world-beating show nears, it seems society has deemed its most stylish star to be… Romulus?
The order of most stylish men in the Roy clan goes like this: Logan first, for all the Loro Piana layering and cosy knitwear. Then, for the presidential beard and salt-and-pepper bangs, Connor. Then Kendall, who deserves at least a little respect for his evolution from trading floor doppelgänger to trading floor doppelgänger in a Gucci bomber and Lanvin trainers. Then it’s Tom Wambsgans, who shot up the rankings with that cream linen number from the last ep of the last series, and then Cousin Greg, who barely deserves inclusion but has a boyish, preppy charm you can’t ignore.
And finally, Roman. The tight, lettings-agent shirts; the aviator sunglasses, the reversible business belts… the winkle pickers. Need I go on? The poor lamb is lost in a desperate sartorial quest for papa’s approval, and it’s getting him nowhere. (The only saving grace being the Rolex Oyster Perpetual he has worn on occasions – the marque's ‘entry level’ piece, and perhaps its most stylish.)
But here we are, Culkin’s face plastered all over town, and it’s soon to be joined with another cache of content, courtesy of Zegna’s new campaign for its Triple Stitch shoe, for which Culkin is the ambassador.
The Cos campaign felt like a genius act of timing, landing just as the new-series buzz takes hold of the nation. But the Zegna team-up runs much deeper. The show is known for its expert exploration of stealth wealth – the notion that the ultra-rich spend vast sums of money on clothes, just to look as low-key as possible. Only they know that their navy wool half-zip is in fact from Loro Piana, and set them back £1760. And Zegna is one of those quintessential stealth-wealth brands; supremely well made, chic, understated and exclusively priced.
Curiously, Cos and Zegna’s aesthetics are not a million miles apart. After a reported pre-pandemic dip, Cos rebranded toward the end of 2020, moving away from the minimalist, vaguely space-age vibe it had fostered (to great success, once) toward a much more classic, inclusive take accessible luxury. While At the other end of the spectrum, under the eye of creative director Alessandro Sartori, Zegna has bolstered its cashmere empire with much more ‘directional’ catwalk collections, skewed to the technical and transitional.
With that in mind, might Culkin be hinting at a shift in Roman’s style in the imminent final season…? Perhaps his arc ends with a similarly ubiquitous set of campaigns and a career on the catwalks? Yeah… na.
