Apple TV: “The New Look” with Juliette Binoche

Christian Dior claimed the only thing he wanted to do was make the most beautiful women’s clothes that ever existed. But how do you do this when you’re working in a country under wartime occupation? Can fashion really be apolitical?

These questions are explored in “The New Look,” a superb, semi-historical series focusing on two designers, Christian Dior (Ben Mendelssohn) and Coco Chanel (Juliette Binoche) both of whom not only survived Nazi-occupied France but lived to tell. However they survived in very different ways.

The story is told in flashback, as a university student publicly confronts Dior in 1947 about his having designed gowns for wives and girlfriends of Nazi officers. “There is the truth, but there is always another truth that lives behind it,” he responds.

Flashback to 1943, when Dior, a talented young designer working for Lucien Lelong (John Malkovic speaking with a dreadful French accent), is faced with the odious task of dressing the aforementioned GFs and collaborationistas. He is also stressed out by his sister Catherine (Maisie Williams from “Game of Thrones”) who is active in the Resistance and living with BF Herve (Hugo Becker)—under Dior’s roof.

Meanwhile, Coco closes her business. Her anti-Nazi nephew is arrested and in order to save his neck, she decides to throw in with the Germans. Chanel proceeds to have a grand old time in the Ritz Hotel, unofficial Nazi HQ, chatting up the likes of Heinrich Himmler (Thire Lindhardt). The Nazis convince her to “Aryanize” her business by shedding ties with her Jewish partners, the Werthheimers. She also gets unwittingly involved in a harebrained scheme to negotiate an end to the war by meeting with Churchill (a friend in earlier times) in Madrid, a nominally neutral country during WW II.

This effort involves enlisting the aid of a daft childhood friend Elsa (Emily Mortimer), who was once married to an Italian fascist. She also develops a romantic relationship with Spatz (Claes Bang),a Nazi sympathizer.

The show portrays the two designers’ lives in parallel; rarely do the twain meet. Dior’s sister is eventually captured by the Gestapo and sent to Ravensbruck; Dior becomes obsessed with rescuing her. Meanwhile Marcel Boussac (Patrick Albenque), a rich businessman impressed by Dior’s talents, offers him the chance to leave Lelong and go out on his own.

As the war winds down and the Germans flee, Chanel, fearful of being accused of treason, escapes to Switzerland but is nevertheless informed her that her name is on a list of Nazi collaborators. Sacre Bleu!

Mendelssohn is wonderful as the shy, diffident Dior. Perpetually sporting a hangdog face, he has long been told by his father and older brother that he won’t amount to anything in life. Emily Mortimer gives a career-defining performance as Elsa, carefully balancing the lines of tragedy and comedy. And Bang is perhaps the most dashing Nazi propagandist you will ever see (if such a creature can ever be considered dashing.)

Binoche has a hard row to hoe as Coco, and I am not sure she is entirely successful. Can the woman who changed the face of fashion really be so clueless? Only in the series finale does she convey the steely spine the real Chanel must have had.

Other outstanding performances: Glenn Close as Carmel Snow, the American editor of Harper’s Bazaar, who coined the phrase “The New Look,” which is closely associated with Dior’s bold, fabric-rich dresses post-WW II. Williams is excellent as Dior’s unfortunate niece, as is Elliot Marugeron who plays a young, vibrant designer named Pierre Cardin (Eliott Margueron). In his initial interview with Dior, Cardin actually takes off his pants to show off his tailoring skills.

The series tends to emphasize politics over fashion, but redeems itself in the finale where we finally see the dresses that shook up the world. Perhaps too little, too late? Minor nit.

Lusciously scored with era-appropriate music by Jack Antonoff, “The New Look” comes to the conclusion that one must do what one can to survive during horrific times. It’s also a series that dares to portray Coco as she was: a voluntary Nazi collaborator. But right to the end she knows no remorse. “The rich and sexy always comes out on top!” she boasts. And history showed that she has.

Dior on the other hand expresses a different philosophy of fashion. Explaining his “new look,” he says, “it’s the only way to turn this heartbreak into a return to joy. People need to feel again. They need to dream again. They need to live again, and we can create a new world for them.” I’m with him. You should be too. On Apple TV.

Like this review? Follow me at “What Does Aug Think?” at acsntn.substack.com. Thank you!