Shiv Roy's (played by Sarah Snook) husband Tom Wambsgans is deeply infatuated with the Roy family's power and wealth, but he remains an outsider. He does his best to fit in and earn the cruel patriarch Logan Roy's affection, but is instead constantly belittled, mocked, and thrown under the bus by his in-laws and, often, his wife.
In an interview with Variety, Matland explained how Wambsgans's on-screen wardrobe reflects that outsider status. "He's just not an equal, on so many levels, to the people that he's competing with. It feels almost like a competition for him," Matland said. "And he's a very bright man. But he was not brought up in a household of great wealth. He was not educated the way they were. And so, he is a posturer. And there is a level of a facade on him where the clothes are, it's like Dressy Bessy, you know? It's laid on top of the person rather than worn organically like he owns it."
His boardroom style is, on paper, similar to Kendall and Roman Roy's, but add on his "Dress Bessy" details of polished shoes, perfectly ironed shirts, gelled hair, and matching his tie to his pocket square — and it becomes markedly different. All those subtle details become an amalgamation that telegraph his otherness. Sure, he's wearing a suit, but not like a Roy would wear a suit.
