What Do They Wear on The Traitors? Alan Cumming's Stylist, the Cast's Tartan Ban, and the Castle Look at 3 Prices
Key takeaways
- Two wardrobes, two people. Sam Spector has styled host Alan Cumming since the Peacock series began in 2023; Rikki Finlay runs the players' clothes.
- Finlay imposed a blanket ban on tartan for contestants, because they kept trying to out-dress the host. Her line on that: “You are never going to look better.”
- Nobody arrives with a stylist. Players get a Zoom call and a packing list, and their own wardrobe is curated and topped up.
- The castle palette is narrow on purpose — wool, tweed, heavy knits, capes and coats that read on camera in a cold stone room.
- The closest things you can buy today ran $24.00, $47.20 and $398.00 when we checked the sellers' own pages.
Quick answer — the host is dressed like a character and the cast is dressed like guests at a cold Scottish house party. Spector builds Cumming's looks over months, custom, per mission and per roundtable. Finlay never meets most players before they land: she takes a video call, sends a packing list, pulls from what they already own and fills the gaps. Tartan belongs to the host only. For viewers, the buyable version of the look is not a kilt — it is a plaid coat, a blanket scarf and a structured plaid blazer.
Who dresses Alan Cumming on The Traitors?
Sam Spector, his on-screen stylist since the first Peacock season in 2023. Spector has described the job as dressing a role rather than a man — part dandy villain, part camp ringmaster — which is why the looks escalate instead of repeating. The pieces are built, not shopped: hand-beaded lapels, scale-maille detailing, fur-lined sleeves, a resin corset, a hand-painted suit. Speaking to TheWrap about the fourth season, Spector credited Scottish designer Siobhan Mackenzie with one of the season's centrepiece looks and the American label Rowing Blazers with another, and said the heaviest banquet outfit was the showstopper of the run.
The method is the same one every scripted wardrobe uses, only louder — we walked through it in how TV wardrobes actually work, and the judged version of it sits in this year's Creative Arts costume winners.
Why are contestants banned from wearing tartan?
Because they kept competing with the host and losing. Finlay, who oversees the cast wardrobe, put a blanket ban on tartan after players turned up trying to match Cumming's Highland tailoring. Keeping one person in pattern is what makes the host read instantly in a candlelit wide shot.
What does the cast actually pack?
Their own clothes, mostly. Finlay runs video calls with players before the shoot, sends a packing list, then curates looks out of what they already own and supplements where it is thin. Nobody is told what the missions are, so when a challenge lands the team styles it at speed, out of layers built for any weather.
What can you buy that reads “castle roundtable”?
Three honest tiers, priced on each seller's own site on Sept. 17, 2026, at 12:40 a.m. ET. None of these are the show's clothes — Cumming's are one-offs and the cast's are personal.
| Tier | What it is | Price | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Start here | Flolae Oversized Tartan Plaid Blanket Scarf | $24.00 | Eight colourways including forest, denim and coffee. The single cheapest way to get the Highland note; worn open over a coat it does most of the work. |
| The coat | Flolae Tartan Plaid Longline Tweed Coat | $47.20 | Longline, tweed-weave plaid, S–3XL in white. This is the closest silhouette to what the players actually live in on location. |
| The tailored one | Rowing Blazers Kate Ivy Plaid Classic Fit Blazer | $398.00 | From the label Spector named to TheWrap as a source for a season-four host look. Shoulder pads, classic fit. Only M and XL were in stock at our check. |
| Not for sale | The host's own looks | — | Custom builds made for single episodes. They are not produced, sold or restocked, and the Scottish designers involved take commissions rather than stock sizes. |
Fit note: plaid coats are cut generous through the shoulder to sit over knitwear, so size to the layer you will wear under it, not to your shirt size.
For the same three-tier treatment elsewhere on TV, see the ballroom wardrobe at Dancing with the Stars, the Project Runway finale price checks and the carpet version in this year's Emmys best looks.
Does any of this change on NBC's New Blood?
The cast does, not the costume logic. NBC's edition puts 22 civilians in the castle instead of reality veterans and celebrities, with a prize of up to $250,000, filmed in Scotland earlier this year. Unknown players means no red-carpet closets arriving with them, so the packing-list system matters more, not less. Cumming stays, and so does the one-man monopoly on tartan.
The Peacock series took Outstanding Reality Competition Program at the 78th Emmy Awards on Sept. 14 — the same ceremony we covered in Mariska Hargitay's host looks. Everything else on the week's calendar is in TV Fashion Next Week.
Traitors wardrobe FAQ
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| Who styles Alan Cumming? | Sam Spector, his on-screen stylist since the Peacock series started in 2023. |
| Who dresses the contestants? | Rikki Finlay, who oversees the cast wardrobe from pre-shoot video calls onward. |
| Can contestants wear tartan? | No. There is a blanket ban on it so nobody competes with the host. |
| Do players bring their own clothes? | Yes, against a packing list, with gaps filled by the wardrobe team. |
| Are the host's outfits for sale? | No. They are custom one-offs built for single episodes. |
| Where is it filmed? | Scotland — NBC placed the New Blood shoot in the Ross-shire area. |
Where do I follow the game itself? Results, eliminations and who the Traitors turn out to be are Reality On Air's beat, not ours. We stay on the clothes: period wardrobes in Drama Style, every arrival in Red Carpet, cast dressing in Reality Looks, and the buy guides in Shop the Look. The background explainers live in Guides.
Sources
- TheWrap — Sam Spector on the season-four looks, the Siobhan Mackenzie and Rowing Blazers credits, and the weight of the banquet outfit.
- At Crafty — the Spector/Finlay division of labour, the contestant packing lists and video calls, speed styling, and the blanket ban on tartan.
- NBC Insider and Gold Derby — the 22-player civilian cast, the prize, the Scottish shoot and the Sept. 17 premiere.
- Prices: Flolae and Rowing Blazers, checked Sept. 17, 2026, 12:40 a.m. ET.