You don’t need an MBA – you don’t even need to know what one is – to find yourself with a finance bro fixation right now.
Surprised? You shouldn’t be. And as the blistering, brilliant third season of Industry (finally) arrives in the UK next month, promising to dominate WhatsApp groups and watercooler chats for the next few weeks, it’s only set to intensify.
Of course, the banker (yes that’s with a b!) has long been a figure of cultural fascination and vilification. Consider Gordon ‘greed is good’ Gekko (Wall Street, 1987) and Sher- man McCoy (The Bonfire Of The Vanities, again 1987). Consider Wolf-of-Wall-Street-turned-motivational-speaker Jordan Belfort (immortalised by Leonardo DiCaprio in the 2013 film) or rogue trader Nick Leeson, who brought down Barings Bank in 1995 (played by Ewan McGregor in the 1999 film). And of course, don’t you dare forget the homicidal, looksmaxxed king of them all: American Psycho’s Patrick Bateman.
This year’s banker reboot began with a lower body count, but a criminally catchy earworm. In April, TikToker Megan Boni, aka @girl_on_couch, shared the boppy refrain, ‘I’m looking for a man in finance / Trust fund, 6ft 5, blue eyes.’ It has gone on to be viewed nearly 60 million times, landing Boni a record deal and a David Guetta remix, as well as prompting a rush of parodies, tributes and (save us!) flash mobs. By June, The Wall Street Journal had declared us to be in the ‘summer of the Finance Bro’.
OK, OK, sure. But every week there is a new very online, niche internet crush/muse/ moment and April is ancient history in the jacked-up viral world. So why is the finance bro doing what, say, the mob wife (RIP) failed to do, and sticking around?
Financial insecurity has something to do with it. When we’re still being rocked by a cost of living crisis, there is a morbid fascination with the wealthy. Being intrigued by bankers and brokers is similar to cruising the £5m+ filter on Zoopla or window shopping on Bond Street. It’s escapism. And a bit like the old adage that politics is ‘showbiz for ugly people’ perhaps finance is ‘showbiz for normal-ish people’.
The idea of emulating the ‘masters of the universe’ (as Tom Wolfe dubbed the Wall Streeters in Bonfire Of The Vanities) seems more realistic – perhaps erroneously – than, say, setting one’s sights on being a pop star or Premier League footballer.
Then there is the return of prestige drama Industry – the most talking-point TV show since Succession. One that inhabits the same ultra-wealthy world of privilege, politics and Machiavellian scheming. Never mind if you hear acronyms like FX or IPO thrown around, just think WTF, you get the idea: it is a high-pressured, adrenaline-pumping, testosterone-fuelled world.
Part of the appeal of the show is the inti- mate, acutely observed insights it gives into the world of finance (co-creators Mickey Down and Konrad Kay previously worked in banking). Everything from what degree someone did at university to how and what company merch they wear – costume designer Laura Smith went big on it this season – are flashes of status, social signifiers.
‘We went deep. I walked around the City and had a good look at what people had,’ she says of the meticulously observed wardrobes of the show. She observes that Industry is about the mechanics behind ‘making 1% who they are. These people are the people on the end of the phone in Succession. Their positions are so precarious, which is why this stuff matters so much to them. It’s like passing through this invisible barrier if you get this item. You have a blue chip item that telegraphs to people that you’ve achieved a certain kind of status; in Succession they have an unassailable status because they’re family, whereas, for these people, through education and hard work they’ve achieved these things, albeit not necessarily at the best coal face.’ Put like that, it is shockingly identifiable.
The style note is another reason for the finance bro’s moment in vogue, with the A/W ’24 catwalks reinterpreting trading floor threads through a fashion lens. A trend that trades under different guises – office siren, corpcore, corporate fetish – a more succinct way to put it would be ‘banker but cool’. Look at Schiaparelli’s blazers and white shirts with ties made of plaited hair or Miu Miu’s monk strap shoes and button-downs.
See Zendaya in an archive 1992 Ralph Lauren boxy jacket with pocket square or Taylor Russell in a 1995 Galliano Dior grey skirt suit at the Venice Film Festival.
Sporty & Rich just released a Wall Street drop; resale site The Real Real’s 2024 Luxury Resale Report notes a year-on-year decline in sales for streetwear and a surge for suiting, including a spike in interest in brands typi- cally known for their ‘business-esque attire’, like Donna Karan (+216%), Gianfranco Ferré (+270%) and St John (+163%).
Steff Yotka, director of content for Ssense and a steadfast Chopova Lowena acolyte, is the antithesis of ‘corporate’. Recently, how- ever, she found herself looking at photos from 2011, taken at a party where she was dressed ‘like a young, preppy executive’ in a white button-down, mid-wash jeans and stilettos. ‘Not to say the fetishisation of corp- orate attire started in the hipster days, but I do think making a mockery of – or playing within the codes of – professional dress is something inherent to growing up,’ she says.
Why is it having a moment? ‘It’s becoming a part of the conversation now because young people have a bigger platform than ever in social media, and are testing the waters of sexiness, preppiness, appropriateness and adulthood through trends like office siren or corpcore. Subverting the codes of adulthood is always trending – and I’m all for it!’
Isn’t there something in this? We have perhaps never felt less grown up. Fewer and fewer jobs demand the ‘adulthood’ uniform of a suit and tie, the given markers of maturity and success – home ownership, marriage, etc – are completely haywire to the point, possibly, of redundancy. But for us kids of the ’80s and ’90s in particular, the banker is a caricature of adulthood, success, security; why not have fun with it? No wonder their stock is surging. Invest now.
‘Industry’ season three is on BBC One and iPlayer in October