Wait, is the underwear in ‘Heated Rivalry’ really Uniqlo?

Fans of Heated Rivalry have spent the past few months debating many things: Shane and Ilya’s emotional damage, the nightclub scene, if the strings on the tuna-melt pants should’ve been tucked in or left hanging out. But they (read I) have become invested in something else too—the underwear. Obviously, with the number of shirtless scenes, there had to be very good briefs. Hanna Puley, the show’s costume designer, confirms the speculation: Uniqlo Airism was definitely in the mix.

When you’re dressing two professional athletes who spend 80 per cent of the series taking their clothes off, the briefs become an important costume piece. “We had a lot of underwear, for sure,” Puley laughs. Because the show was made on a relatively small budget and didn’t have brand partnerships, the goal was to find basics that just looked good on camera. Uniqlo’s seamless Airism briefs made the cut, as did brands like Muji. “We used anything we could find that was unbranded, fit really well, and the actors felt good in,” she recalls. “I’m very sure each actor actually had a different brand.”

Of course, underwear is just one part of it. The intimate scenes also required a surprisingly elaborate wardrobe toolkit. For simulated nudity, Puley says the costume department worked closely with the show’s intimacy coordinator, Chala Hunter. “She’s really like an erotic choreographer,” she says. Depending on the shot, actors wore pouches, strapless thongs that cup and stick to the body, dance belts or protective padding. “At this point, it’s been done enough that we have all the tools and there’s such a wide variety of products now. It depends on the comfort of the actors and what the shot’s going to be,” she explains. “As long as you’ve got options to manoeuvre, it’s not too complicated.”

For a show that spans nearly a decade of the characters’ chemical romance, Puley’s approach to costume design wasn’t about trends or what was popular at the time but something subtler: emotional maturity. “I think for people who live in a world like professional sport or things that are really niche that are not fashion-focused, it’s more about pragmatism and practicality than about the trend of the time. And so, it was just leaning into what you actually see people that age wear. I did some research by looking at what athletes and those kids look like at these events.”

Shane Hollander’s wardrobe skewed soft and neutral, greys and lighter shades that are meant to feel ordinary and uncontrived. “He just felt very Canadian and very familiar to me, where there’s not a lot of thought that goes into what he wears. The boundaries of his looks are very tight. And I think it speaks also to his focus and where he puts his energy—the fact that he’s not thinking about what he wears and how he looks.” Ilya Rozanov’s closet, by contrast, leaned darker and had a stronger point of view. “I wanted a contrast to exist between Shane and Ilya for the whole thing,” she explains. “Ilya’s a little bit of the Bad Boy archetype.”

Within that framework, the wardrobe operated within a tightly defined palette of elevated basics and athletic gear. Puley designed all the hockey uniforms herself and sourced Whitesville and Merz b. Schwanen tees—two iykyk brands beloved by clothing obsessives—precisely because they’re subtle. “They’re beautifully made and a little bit higher-end. I just wanted to have elevated basics for them, because I really don’t see them as being super—in season one, anyway—fashion-forward. It’s just having them look really good in stuff that is really normal.”

Still, the show had a few breakout fashion moments. Chief among them: the vintage Jean Paul Gaultier shirt Ilya wears to the nightclub scene that had everyone on the edge of their seats—along with the “tuna melt pants” (“If I can use Rick Owens in everything, I will,” she admits) and the Team Canada fleece. When Puley first saw the leopard Gaultier top, the choice was instantaneous. “I was like, oh, it has to be this shirt because I couldn’t really imagine him wearing anything else after I saw it. It’s so good. It feels so in-your-face and confident and, at the same time, kind of sad,” she says. “[It was one of those] pieces that evoke so much when you see them and then they fit well. They’re just meant to be.” Puley laughs when I ask her if she thinks Ilya shops on Grailed. “I think it’s fun to let the audience imagine where these pieces come from. Maybe Svetlana found it for him. I don’t think she shopped on Grailed, though. She’d be going to the stores like ‘What do you have in your archive?’ because she’s rich.”

Even the smallest costume details carry emotional weight. Ilya’s cross pendant, which appears throughout the series, isn’t acknowledged explicitly on the show but comes directly from the source material: it belonged to the character’s mother. “The chain is a little bit shorter because it’s a woman’s necklace. Connor [Storrie] wore it throughout the shoot. We had multiples, but I don’t think we ever used any because he never took it off—even off set.” Artefacts like these, she adds, often help actors inhabit their characters more fully.

When the series returns for the second season, Puley suspects the characters’ wardrobes may begin to evolve along with their relationship. After all, couples inevitably influence or mirror each other’s style. “Maybe Shane and Ilya will start dressing more alike,” she says. “Clothing is such a marker of your environment, your community, and how you see yourself. When I was designing for those characters, I liked the idea of each of them having someone: Kip has Elena, Ilya has Svetlana, and Shane has Rose.” She admits she hasn’t read the script yet as it’s still being written but is hopeful that the popularity of the show will translate to a bigger costume budget and interest from brands when they go to floors this August. For instance, Shane has a Rolex ambassadorship in the first season, and we don’t see one on his wrist. “Maybe for season two they’ll be more willing to lend us one,” she smiles. Will they keep Shane’s stylist? “Maybe Ilya would be like ‘You don’t need a stylist if you’ve got me’. I don’t think Ilya needs a stylist. He’s doing okay,” she laughs.

For now, though, Puley is pleasantly surprised that fans went rabid for the Team Canada fleece and have zoomed in so closely on the wardrobe details—right down to the undies. Then again, when half your show involves hockey players stripping down, perhaps that level of scrutiny is inevitable.