Christian Dior died of a heart attack when he was still a relatively young man while spending a vacation in Italy, 67 years ago. However, his name is still as relevant today as it was then, and the same is true of many of his contemporaries in the exciting world of haute couture in post-war Paris. New look, the new Apple TV series that finally arrives on that platform on Valentine's Day, although its filming concluded in 2022, aims to recover the man behind the myth, with the help of a brilliant Australian actor, Ben Mendelsohn, who has already won an Emmy for Bloodline, a series for which he was also nominated for a Golden Globe.
Although the objective is to tell how Dior conquered that world in those difficult years with his meticulously crafted dresses, the first three episodes are dedicated to the Nazi occupation of the city of lights, when Coco Chanel was still the undisputed queen of fashion and Dior was beginning to stand out for their designs. Juliette Binoche plays Chanel seduced by a handsome German businessman, Baron Hans Von Dincklage (Claes Bang), without imagining that he is a secret agent whose mission is to convince him to work for Nazi intelligence in exchange for protection for a nephew. in trouble.
Without ever showing ideological sympathy towards the invaders, Coco finds herself entangled by events and ends up accepting the Nazis' proposal to travel to Madrid to try to contact her old friend Winston Churchill, and propose an armistice.
Christian, on the other hand, suffers the occupation firsthand. His younger sister, Catherine, played by two-time Emmy nominee for Game of Thrones, Maisie Williams, actively participates in the resistance, and when she is arrested by the Gestapo and sent to the Ravensbrück concentration camp, a nightmare begins for him. personal in which he will get even closer to those who participated in the guerrilla against the invaders.
Obviously, everything changes when the Allied forces approach Paris and each person must question what their attitude towards the Nazis has been. Despite her last-minute efforts, Chanel will not be able to shake off the nickname of collaborationist, while Dior's sister will be consecrated as a hero of the resistance, which will not hurt at all when Christian decides to strike out on his own with the company that to this day remains synonymous with haute couture.
Created by Todd A. Kessler, also responsible for Bloodline and co-creator of the multi-award-winning Damages, it is not surprising that he has reserved an important role for the winner of the Golden Globe for this latest series, Glenn Close, who plays Carmel Snow , the influential editor-in-chief of Harper's Bazaar magazine. The presence of John Malkovich stands out, as Lucien Lelong, the man who employs Dior in the beginning and helps him in the dark days of Nazism.
Logically, Cristóbal Balenciaga is not missing from the story, but although the Basque designer has earned his own series on Disney starring Alberto San Juan, (in which Christian Dior appears briefly played by Patrice Thibaud) here he is a supporting figure in charge of the Portuguese Nuno Lopes.
Conceived as an anthology series, filming has just begun on a second season, suspended in November due to the actors' strike, which in theory will deal with a different designer, but whose plot there are no details.
