Succession has sparked both amusement and a heated fashion debate after criticising a $2,900 Burberry handbag during the season four premiere.
On Sunday, the hit HBO show returned for its fourth season, during which Matthew Macfadyen’s character, Tom Wambsgans, attended a birthday party for Logan Roy. There, Wambsgans approached fellow guest Greg Hirsch, played by Nicholas Braun, to admonish him about his “enormous faux pas”.
According to Wambsgans, the faux pas in question had to do with Hirsch’s date Bridget, and, more specifically, the $2,890 Medium Title Vintage Check Two-Handle Burberry bag she was carrying.
“So, I hear you’ve made an enormous faux pas and everyone’s laughing up their sleeves about your date,” Wambsgans told Hirsch, prompting Hirsch to express his confusion over the group’s distaste of his date.
In response, Wambsgans disparaged the signature plaid print Burberry purse carried by Bridget, which he described as “ludicrously capacious”.
“Why? Because she’s brought a ludicrously capacious bag. What’s even in there, huh? Flat shoes for the subway? Her lunch pail? I mean, Greg, it’s monstrous. It’s gargantuan. You could take it camping. You could slide it across the floor after a bank job,” Wambsgans told his friend.
The scene has since gone viral on social media, where countless viewers have expressed their amusement over the attack on the large designer bag.
“I don’t know what the Succession people have against Burberry but I love it,” one person tweeted, while another said: “When I tell you I would watch an entire#Succession spin-off of Tom’s savage fashion takes, he was absolutely bang on about that garish faux Burberry tote.”
“Okay but I need an extensive oral history of exactly how that particular Burberry was selected for the scene in Succession. What other bags were in the running??” someone else asked.
Others joked about the brand’s reaction to the episode, with many questioning whether Burberry was upset by the remark.
“Do you think Burberry did an all-hands damage control meeting after that Succession episode,” one person tweeted.
The extremely specific takedown of the bag by Wambsgans was also praised, with someone else claiming it would “go down as one of the most amazing insults”.
Merriam-Webster Dictionary even joined in on the fun, with the official Twitter account tweeting Wambsgans’ remark along with a photo of the dictionary’s own large branded tote. In a follow-up tweet, the dictionary shared links to the definitions of ludicrously, capacious and gargantuan.
Although Wambsgans didn’t appear to be insulting the brand itself, but rather the size of the handbag, as some pointed out, some came to the purse’s defence on the basis that they prefer larger bags.
“If Succession actually killed huge bags I’m going to be so pissed. I’m a lawyer I need my huge bag. I have a real job. I’m middle class, it is what it is,” one person tweeted, while someone else wrote: “Tom would set me ablaze if he saw my medium Telfar.”
Others have shared photos of their own oversize bags, with one person sharing a video of themselves carrying a large tote and writing: “Ludicrously capacious bag day.”
However, according to etiquette website Beverly Hills Manners, size does matter when it comes to handbags, as the website states that “the most elegant bag is minuscule in size and is reserved for the most formal of occasions as compared to the larger tote model, which is often used for everyday”.
Surprisingly, despite concerns for Burberry’s popularity after the episode, Fashionista reports that searches for “Burberry tote bag” have jumped 310 per cent since the episode aired, according to Google Trends data analysed by 3DLook. Searches for “Burberry handbag” were also up 180 per cent, according to the virtual fitting room company.
As for how the bag was chosen, author Bolu Babalola claimed on Twitter that Succession creator Jesse Armstrong revealed during a London premiere of the show that they’d asked wealthy New Yorkers to name “the most offensive bag a woman could bring” to the event, and then incorporated the response into the scene.
As of now, Burberry has not addressed the viral scene.
The Independent has contacted Burberry for comment.
