Susan Granger’s review of “The New Look” (Apple TV+)
A provocative new series “The New Look” delves into what Christian Dior and Coco Chanel did during the Nazi occupation of Paris in W.W. II – and it’s not about ‘haute couture’ (defined as ‘high sewing’).
In 1955, shy, sensitive Christian Dior (Ben Mendelsohn) was the first fashion designer ever invited to speak at the Sorbonne in the French University’s 700-year history.
When he takes the stage, a student demands to know whether he – like Coco Chanel – ever collaborated with the enemy. His response to that question ignites flashbacks to what life was like under the Germans.
From 1940 to 1944, swastika flags flew as the French Vichy regime deported more than 70,000 Jews to Hitler’s concentration camps.
Dior was one of several designers working for the elite fashion house of Lucien Lelong (John Malkovich), who refused to close his business, even though his customers were Nazis or their collaborators.
Meanwhile at home, Dior was harboring heroic French Resistance fighters like his feisty younger sister Catherine (Maisie Williams), who was captured by the Gestapo and sent to Ravensbruck work camp.
Although Coco Chanel (Juliette Binoche) closed her atelier, she continued to live at the Ritz Hotel – a.k.a. Nazi headquarters – and used ‘Aryan Law’ to eliminate her Jewish investors, the Wertheimer brothers.
Conflicted Chanel became romantically involved with SS Officer Hans Gunther von Dincklage (Claes Bang), known as ‘Spatz,’ and participated in a botched espionage mission with British aristocrat Elsa Lombardi (Emily Mortimer) to deliver a secret message to Winston Churchill.
After Allied forces liberated Paris, Lelong organized “an exhibition of hope” at the Louvre, enlisting designers – like Cristobal Balenciaga (Nuno Lopes), Pierre Balmain (Thomas Poitevin) and Dior – to create a miniature fashion show since there was not enough fabric available to fit human models. More than 100,000 people admired the exquisite French craftsmanship and opulence.
Soon after, Dior launched his legendary salon; his dazzling postwar 1947 collection of fitted jackets and full skirts was christened “The New Look” by Harper’s Bazaar editor-in-chief Carmel Snow (Glenn Close).
After Germany’s surrender, Chanel was interrogated about her Nazi collaboration, eventually cleared, and her iconic business thrived.
Inspired by ‘real events,’ it’s adapted as a star-studded fashion fantasy by director Todd A. Kessler (“Damages,” “Bloodline”), who favors style over substance; each of the 10 episodes concludes with a 1940s song performed by a contemporary artist.
If you’re in Paris before May 13, you can see Karen Serreau’s costume replicas at La Galerie Dior, museum space adjacent to Dior’s atelier at 30 Avenue Montaigne; Dior is now chaired by Delphine Arnault.
On the Granger Gauge of 1 to 10, “The Total Look” is a shallow, quasi-historical 7, streaming weekly on Wednesdays on Apple TV+ with the final episode dropping on April 3rd.
