TV series explores the dark origins of French fashion

The fashion world makes for eye-catching TV, but the makers of The New Look, about the origins of Dior and Chanel, show there were dark moral challenges behind the glossy facade.

Fashion-based dramas are a trend right now. Disney Plus is showing Balenciaga and will soon release Kaiser Karl, a lavish series about Karl Lagerfeld, adding to a glut of films such as House of Gucci, Saint Laurent, Phantom Thread and Mrs Harris Goes to Paris.

The New Look, streaming on Apple TV from Wednesday, may seem a sombre addition to the genre. Focusing on Christian Dior and Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel, played by Ben Mendelsohn and Juliette Binoche, it tracks the grim years of the Nazi occupation of Paris.

Chanel’s behaviour during the war is an ongoing source of debate among historians, with many accusing her of collaboration. She closed her business when the Nazis took over but continued to live in luxury at the Ritz Hotel, took a German officer as her lover and used anti-Jewish laws to try to wrest control of her company from Jewish business partners.

“It’s easy to believe you would do the right thing in that situation, but these characters were terrified for their lives and I think it’s very hard to judge them,” says producer Todd Kessler.

“Dior, Chanel, Balenciaga, Balmain – [they] were making decisions of how they could possibly survive. Maybe audiences will feel one way about a character halfway through an episode and feel very differently by the end. But that’s inspiring for storytellers.”

The makers say they were nervous about asking Binoche to play Chanel. “We wanted a French icon to play a French icon but we didn’t know how a French actor would react given France’s mixed feelings about Chanel,” says co-producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura. “It was very gratifying how quickly Juliette embraced it.”

Meanwhile, Dior suffers through the trauma of his sister being taken to a concentration camp.