River Cartwright's navy coat is Oscar Jacobson. Jackson Lamb's shoes — the filthiest footwear on television — are Edward Green. Both come from costume designer Guy Speranza, and the coat has an unusually solid provenance: Speranza could not remember the brand during the interview, and Apple TV+ went back and confirmed it afterwards.
That is a better sourcing chain than almost anything in this category, and it is buried in one American newspaper interview that the menswear internet has largely not metabolised. Below: what Speranza said, what each of it means for what you would actually buy, and why the most interesting costume decision in the show is a skirt with no pockets.
The source
Everything here comes from an interview with Guy Speranza in The Boston Globe, published October 2024. He is the show's costume designer. (The series has had more than one over its run — earlier seasons were designed by John Usher, who is given a tribute in the show.)
His stated brief is worth quoting because it explains every brand on the list:
"Since the beginning, I wanted it to be a very British show, and I wanted to promote British" — domestic houses rather than international labels.
Brands he names: Edward Green for Lamb's shoes, Connolly and Dunhill as sourcing houses, and Hannah Martin for jewellery.
River Cartwright's coat
Speranza describes it as "a three-button, single-breasted three-quarter-length coat" in navy, and adds: "It's quite a traditional coat, but it's cut quite nicely."
Two details make this the most useful item on the list.
It was bought off the rack. Not made, not sourced from an archive, not a bespoke commission. A coat you could have walked into a shop and bought.
The brand is Oscar Jacobson — the Swedish tailoring house — confirmed to the Globe by Apple TV+ after the interview, because Speranza could not recall it on the spot.
That combination is rare. Most screen coats are either made for production or identified by a stranger with a freeze-frame. This one is a real product from a real house, confirmed by the distributor.
The honest caveat: we have not been able to confirm that the specific style is still in Oscar Jacobson's current range, and neither the brand nor Apple has published a model name. The house trades and makes coats in exactly this idiom. Whether that coat is orderable today is a question for their customer service, not for us to assert.
What to look for if you are shopping the shape: three buttons, single-breasted, three-quarter length — meaning it finishes around mid-thigh, not at the knee and not at the hip. Navy. No belt, no epaulettes, no storm flap. The whole point is that it is unremarkable and well-cut, which is the same reason the character wears it: River is trying to look like a serious intelligence officer and is not quite one yet. The coat is aspiration in wool.
Jackson Lamb's shoes, and the joke inside them
Lamb wears Edward Green — the Northampton maker, one of the most expensive shoemakers in England.
This is the best costume gag in the series and it is entirely non-verbal. Lamb is repellent by design: the stained coat, the cigarettes, the socks. And on his feet is footwear that costs more than most people's suits.
It tells you what the dialogue never states outright — that this is a man who was once at the very top of the Service and has decided, deliberately and with some contempt, to let everything rot around him. The shoes are the last piece of the old life he has not thrown away. He simply does not clean them.
Speranza does not name the model, and Edward Green has no page about the show. So there is no reference to hunt. What there is, is a category: English welted shoes from a Northampton maker, which are built to be resoled repeatedly and to look better neglected than most shoes look polished. Which is, of course, exactly the joke.
Should you buy a pair? Only on the same logic as the character: if you will wear them for a decade and have them resoled. At that price the arithmetic works only over years. If you want the aesthetic sooner, the same city makes shoes at several price tiers, and a welted shoe from any of them will outlast a glued one by an order of magnitude.
Diana Taverner's skirts, and the best line in the interview
Speranza dresses Diana Taverner in full skirts, deliberately without pockets. Asked why, he said:
"They ruin the line, right?"
His stated intent was to convey "femininity and strength" rather than reaching for a masculine power suit — the default costume grammar for a senior woman in an espionage drama.
This is a genuinely interesting decision and worth flagging for anyone reading this as a style piece rather than a shopping list. The conventional shorthand for a powerful woman on screen is tailoring borrowed from men. Taverner is the most quietly dangerous person in the show and she is dressed in skirts with a clean line and nowhere to put her hands. She does not need pockets. She has people.
Connolly, Dunhill, Hannah Martin
Three more names from the interview, each with a different level of usefulness:
- Connolly — the London house, originally a leather firm. Named as a source. No specific garment identified.
- Dunhill — named as a source. Trades; nothing show-specific published.
- Hannah Martin — the London jeweller, named for the show's jewellery. Again, no specific piece identified.
We are listing them because Speranza did, and because knowing the houses is genuinely useful for finding the register even without a SKU. We are not going to invent product matches to make the list look more complete.
Speranza also volunteered which pieces he would take home himself: the shoes and coat belonging to Frank Harkness.
What the Slough House look actually is
If you want the aesthetic rather than a specific garment, it is unusually easy to describe, because the show's costume logic is coherent.
It is good clothing worn badly. Not cheap clothing — good clothing that has been slept in, rained on, and not dry-cleaned. Every character on the failure side of the show is wearing something that was expensive at some point and has been allowed to decay. That is the visual thesis: these are not bad spies, they are good ones who have been discarded.
The practical version:
- Buy fewer, better, and then stop caring. A well-cut navy coat and welted shoes carry an entire wardrobe. Both improve with age and neither needs replacing.
- Resist the urge to accessorise. Nobody in Slough House is wearing anything decorative. The absence is what makes it read as real rather than styled.
- Fit is the whole budget. Speranza's note on River's coat is that it is "quite traditional" but "cut quite nicely." That is not a brand statement. A £200 coat altered to fit properly beats a £1,200 coat that does not.
FAQ
What brand is River Cartwright's coat in Slow Horses? Oscar Jacobson, the Swedish tailoring house. Costume designer Guy Speranza described it as a three-button, single-breasted, three-quarter-length navy coat bought off the rack; he could not recall the brand during his Boston Globe interview and Apple TV+ confirmed it afterwards.
Can I buy the exact coat? Unclear. No model name has been published by Oscar Jacobson or by Apple, and we could not confirm that the specific style is in the current range. The brand trades and makes coats in that idiom — worth an enquiry, not worth a confident purchase from a third-party listing claiming to be "the" coat.
What shoes does Jackson Lamb wear? Edward Green, the Northampton shoemaker. Speranza names the brand but not the model, and Edward Green has published nothing about the show.
Why would a character like Lamb wear expensive shoes? That is the point of them. They signal a past at the top of the Service that he has deliberately let go to ruin. It is characterisation the script never has to state.
What other brands are in the show? Speranza names Connolly and Dunhill as sourcing houses and Hannah Martin for jewellery. He did not identify specific pieces from any of them.
Why does Diana Taverner wear skirts without pockets? A deliberate choice by Speranza — "They ruin the line, right?" — intended to convey femininity and strength rather than defaulting to a masculine power suit.
Is any of this confirmed by the brands? No. The confirmations come from the costume designer in a published interview, plus Apple TV+ on the coat specifically. None of the named brands has published a Slow Horses page.
What is the cheapest way to get the look? Fit, not labels. A properly altered navy three-quarter coat and a welted shoe from any Northampton maker will read correctly. The show's aesthetic is good clothing left alone, which costs patience rather than money.