What Alan Wore on 'The Traitors' season 3
What Alan Wore: The best looks from 'Traitors' season 3Euan Cherry/PeacockIt's been an eventful season 3 of The Traitors, to say the least. In addition to twists, host (and Out100 honoree) Alan Cumming often stole each episode with wicked wit and fashion. The Emmy winner assembled them with the help of stylist Sam Spector, a former Out fashion editor. Spector also styled Cumming in his new Out cover story.
“I’ve unleashed the beast in [Spector], and I really love that,” said Cumming in the interview. “The outfits are so nuts and have become such a part of the fabric of the show.”
Below, Spector shares his inspiration for Cumming's looks in Out's What Alan Wore series.
Episode 2: Alan Cumming got cagey
Alan Cumming
Euan Cherry/Peacock
"For this look, I enlisted the brilliant Scottish designer Siobhan Mackenzie (@siobhan_mackenzie)," Spector reveals. "The outfit was inspired by the mission portion of the episode where extra players were hanging from covered cages and revealed as a surprise twist to the existing players."
"I wanted Alan to be wearing a cage, and with Siobhan's genius, we created an overlay for the petticoat with crystals and feathers," he adds. "She also brilliantly hand bejeweled the tartan and created a custom corset top with amazing details. We loved the play on femme on bottom and masc on top with the shirt and tie mixed with traditionally feminine garments."
Episode 4: 'The Traitors' references Easter Island
In the main challenge of The Traitors season 3 episode 4, the contestants were tasked with hauling pieces of statues up a hill and assembling them. These statues were inspired by the moai of Easter Island — stone monolithic statues with oversized heads. And these iconic creations also inspired Cumming's look.
“For this episode we were told, 'Think Easter Island and moai,'” says Sam Spector, Cumming's stylist. "Having been fortunate enough to have traveled to the island, I knew that I wanted to be inspired by the destination. We worked with [designer] Stephen [Mikhail] at Atelier Cillian to select a tweed fabric that was reminiscent of the rocks that the moai were made of. For the mission, we then added a tulle overlay with a moss appliqué that had custom beading on it. It’s pretty fabulous. To create this look, we were working up until the last minute — literally."
Episode 5: 'The Traitors' is blessed by a queer metal angel
On season 3 episode 5 of The Traitors, the main challenge brought the contestants to church — as did the glittering metallic ensemble of host Alan Cumming. According to Cumming's stylist, Sam Spector, the look was crafted by a designer known for wedding gowns. And there's a little Wicked inspiration in there as well.
"I enlisted the help of designer Alin Le'Kal (@alinlekal) who creates beautiful bridal looks out of Australia. They have this beautiful metallic fabric suit," Spector shares. "Originally this look came with attached sleeves, but in Traitors world we like to make the look evolve throughout the episode and create these like magical moments. But for a big reveal, we have these drapey trained sleeves, and they create this dramatic moment."
"The mission takes place in this beautiful Gothic church, and Alan looks perfectly angelic with his metallic crown. And I love his glitter slippers, which gives like a hint of Oz."
Episode 6: 'The Traitors' has sequins up its sleeves
On season 3 episode 6 of The Traitors, the main challenge saw host Alan Cumming sport a mixture of sequins and spikes. According to Cumming's stylist, Sam Spector, the look was a "dramatic" modification to suit Traitors warfare.
"On this week's episode of The Traitors, we start with Alan in a beautifully tailored suit from Suitsupply (@Suitsupply). We wanted to elevate this look a little bit and bring it into Traitors world by adding this metallic knot cover for the tie," Spector shares.
"It has the spikes on it that sort of a reminiscent of like scary armor that's in battle, so it works perfectly with Traitors to create a more dramatic moment later in the episode we changed the sleeves from the suit to this multi-colored sequin sleeve."
Episode 7: Here, Cumming's the bride
On season 3 episode 7 of The Traitors, the main challenge brought the contestants to the altar, where they paired up for a matrimonial test. (Notably for Out, most of these chosen pairings were same-sex.)
The challenge's focus was on the latter half of the promise "for better or worse," because these pairs were tasked with holding hands while plagues of insects rained down upon them.
Presiding over the unhappy occasion was host Alan Cumming, who transitioned from a white tuxedo to bridalwear over the course of the proceedings. According to Cumming's stylist, Sam Spector, the wedding look was part of "the standout moment for the whole series."
"We started with Alan in a tuxedo made by our friends at the SuitShop (@suitshopofficial), but we wanted to create a dramatic moment, and I combined a feminine skirt on the bottom with a masculine suit on top," Spector shares. "There’s these awesome flower appliqués that we worked with this designer Zero Waste Daniel @zerowastedaniel [to create]."
"We love playing with gender at The Traitors and Alan is the perfect actor and character to do that," he adds. "So I created this ambiguous gender moment with the feminine skirt on the bottom and the traditional masculine suit on top."
Episode 8: 'The Traitors' plays with baby doll heads
On season 3 episode 8 of The Traitors, the main challenge tasked the contestants with singing backward nursery rhymes from creepy baby dolls. Alan Cumming reflected this task sartorially, reveals his stylist, Sam Spector.
"On this episode of The Traitors, we were told dollhouse creepy dollhouse, so I was inspired by these creepy horror dolls," Spector shares. "We start with Alan at breakfast in a gorgeously tailored powder blue Paul Smith suit with a Gigi Burris hat. I put a polka dot tie with it because it sort of reminded me of children's wear."
"For the big reveal, we added these tiered sleeve poofy moments, and then we found these baby doll heads, cut them in half so that they would lay perfectly on the lapel, and put beaded eyes on it so that they would just sparkle the red beads again like blood. This is like sort of like a dark whimsical weird moment for The Traitors and we loved those moments."
Episode 9: Checkmate on 'The Traitors'
On season 3 episode 9 of The Traitors, the main challenge placed the contestants on a giant chessboard, à la Harry Potter, where they moved themselves in response to questions posed about the players.
Alan Cumming's stylist, Sam Spector, used this oversized game as inspiration for the host's patterned-packed ensemble. Prior to planning this week's look, "Alan had texted me that he was working with Charles Jeffrey Loverboy (@charlesjeffreyloverboy) on a different project, and that they were interested in making him a suit," Spector says. "Alan picked the suit, and it ended up working perfectly with this specific episode because it was checkerboard-themed, and the suit was this great check pattern."
Episode 10: Oh Mary!
"For this episode of The Traitors, we were inspired by Mary Queen of Scots, so I did a ton of research on Mary herself and all the different outfits she wore. I then went to the designer Michael Ngo (@imngo) and we went back and forth on sketches of what this Scottish Alan Cumming character would look like if he were inspired by Mary Queen of Scots, and there were a few different versions."
"We went back and forth on color because I wanted every episode to be a different color outfit. There was a little bit of skepticism that this was going way too overboard, but I think it worked out perfectly. The gold chess pieces we weren't even sure we would use, but at the last minute we threw it on and it worked perfectly. It's so over the top and it's a perfect penultimate outfit."
Episode 11: The Grand Finale
"On this episode of The Traitors, we reached the finale, it was originally discussed to do a black-tie moment, a traditional black-tie moment. [Instead] it's definitely a lavender velvet suit with a sequins pattern all over it. I sort of felt like it was appropriate to do a glam feminine Bond villain for this episode since there is this sort of like Bond-y theme going on. Instead of a traditional black-tie shirt, why not add a metallic chess piece that Alan can just wear on his skin and be this glam goddess."
"When Alan finally reveals who the winner is, we've decided to use the same cape every season and embellish it differently, adding more and more pieces sort of like you do on your flair if you're a TGI Friday's waitress."
"We're so excited to start thinking about next season. What can we add to this cake to make it even more exciting."
