Crime writer Harriet was not fully convinced that Rachel was a Traitor – until she saw her wear a red dress the day after a pivotal moment in the show.
“She’d gone in looking so sleek and professional… whereas before, she was dressed up more in child-friendly sort of yellows and dungarees and like a Minion,” Harriet told BBC Local.
For contestants on the reality TV show The Traitors, it is not just what they say or how they act that shapes their fellow players’ opinions of them – it is how they dress.
“What we wear says a huge amount about us,” says Carolyn Mair, a stylist and author of The Psychology of Fashion. Some of the contestants used their outfits “very carefully and very well”, she says.
“Their clothing becomes their character.”
The most recent series of The Traitors, which ended on Friday, was “the most fashionable yet”, says Mair. “Fashion has become part of the show’s attraction.”
As well as Claudia Winkleman’s extravagant gothic looks, some of the contestants’ outfits on this year’s series blew up online, from Jade’s playful cardigans and Jessie’s yellow colour palette to Stephen’s jumpsuit and Harriet’s scarves.
The outfits worn by Traitor Stephen – including knitwear, a jumpsuit and tucked-in shirts – were the focus of many of these articles and social media posts.
“He wanted to be seen,” says Mair. “He was choosing to be noticed.”
She says that his “playful” outfits made him look “open and trustworthy” and made other people feel comfortable.
In the final episode of The Traitors: Uncloaked, Stephen admitted that his outfit choices were bold an attempt to distract Faithfuls from his expressive and red face.
He told the audience: “I thought if I wore clothes that are a bit flamboyant and loud then maybe they’d just be going ‘oh Stephen you look really great today’.
“Rather than looking up here [at my face] and going ‘you’re a traitor’. So it was all kind of tactics.”
“He came across as being confident,” says stylist Sarah Thomson. “People would be quite relaxed around him.”
She describes his jumpsuit, from Palomo Spain, as a “wow piece”.
Stars including Harry Styles and Beyonce have been known to wear the Palomo Spain designs, with Styles wearing the £858 black and white jumpsuit to perform at Capital FM’s Summertime Ball in 2022.
Jade’s outfits, which included a £430 Hope Macaulay cardigan and a cherry-patterned cardigan from House of Sunny, made her look “quite young and innocent” and like “someone you wouldn’t want to hurt”, says Mair.
Although Jade appeared to be one of the quieter personalities in the castle, Thomson feels like she used some of her outfits as “a power play, like non-verbal communication, using colour and playful textures to be taken seriously and to be noticed without doubting herself”.
Traitor Rachel opted for bright coloured knitwear in the final episode of the series too, wearing a £350 pink and red cardigan, also from Hope Macaulay.
Faithful Matthew told BBC Local he carefully planned his strategy before appearing on the show, right down to his fashion choices: “I wanted to be a Traitor, so I did deliberately bring every jumper that I owned because I thought: ‘How could I be a traitor if I’m wearing nice knitwear?'”
Secret Traitor Fiona, on the other hand, wanted to portray herself as someone with a “maternal, non-threatening and nurturing persona”, says Mair. Because of this, she dressed in “soft, flowery, not particularly fashion-forward” clothes.
“Mothers are typically perceived as trustworthy, self-sacrificing and emotionally safe so this made the contestants trust her,” says Mair.
The way people dress can reflect their mood, the stylists say. When Harriet tried to bring down Rachel during a dramatic round table, she wore a red cardigan and a red scarf. Rachel also dressed in red.
“Red is a real confident ‘I mean business’ colour,” says Thomson. “Whether that was done purposely or not, I don’t know, but it was really clever.”
Matthew told BBC Local that he did not pay too much attention to what the other contestants were wearing at the time, but when he watched it back he realised that Rachel was dressed “absolutely fabulously” when Harriet accused her of being a Traitor. “That is such a telltale sign, right?”
“She thought she was getting banished, so she was dressing up to look beautiful for what she thought could be her final moment,” he said.
For Thomson, the key is for contestants to dress in a way that makes them feel at ease.
“Whether they are a Traitor or a Faithful, if you’re wearing something that you’re super comfortable in and feel really good in, it’s going to give you that self-assurance and that little bit more confidence in how you play this game,” she says. “I think it also helps people build trust if you’re super relaxed in what you’re wearing.”
Series three winner Leanne was well aware of how clothing could shape people’s perception. She decided to hide the fact that she was a soldier, and met her fellow contestants at the train station in a bright pink suit.
“People are gonna take one look at this pink suit and they’re gonna be like, ‘She’s so girly, she’s so ditsy,’ and they’re so wrong,” she said on the show.
Contestants on The Traitors bring in their own clothes and style their outfits themselves.
Anna, from the third series, said she bought the majority of hers in charity shops, including the crocheted top she wore in the show’s promotional images.
Matthew, from series four, said that he had to send pictures of the clothes he planned to bring to the Traitors team in advance.
Charlotte, who was recruited as a Traitor on the third series, tells BBC News she was not given much guidance about what to wear, other than to avoid logos, bring activewear for missions and a dressy outfit for the dinner party, and pack jumpers in case it was cold. She did not buy anything new for the show, she says.
“I didn’t pack enough clothes,” Charlotte told Digital Spy last year. “I thought I’d be out day two… I had nothing to wear.”
“I do regret wearing the dungarees quite so many times,” she added. “I literally look like a children’s TV presenter.”
Stylists on the show can provide some help, though. Charlotte said in an interview with Cosmopolitan that she brought a black jumpsuit that she wore for the final, but did not plan any shoes to go with it. The show’s stylists kitted her out with a black belt and boots to complete her look.
Although Charlotte put on a Welsh accent, which she thought would make her come across as more trustworthy, she did not change how she dressed to match her new persona, she says. “If only I had been that clever,” she tells BBC News over email.
Frankie, another finalist on the third series, told the Not Another Mummy Podcast that when she was choosing what to wear each day, she picked a Cluedo character to theme her outfit around, like a blue denim dress for Mrs Peacock, yellow shorts for Colonel Mustard and a red sequined dress for Miss Scarlett.
“It was just my way of having a little bit of control over the days that you couldn’t control, a little bit of focus in the morning rather than worrying about the day,” she said.
In this year’s series, Jessie and Jade carefully matched their makeup to their outfits – something they had to do themselves. Contestants are not given help with hair, makeup and nails, Charlotte tells BBC News.
“I had got my nails done before coming to the castle,” she says, “but they quickly vanished due to the nerves of playing the game.”
Additional reporting by Alix Hattenstone, BBC Local
Photography: BBC/Studio Lambert/Euan Cherry/Cody Burridge/Paul Chappells & David Fisher/Global/Shutterstock
Originally published at BBC News
