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WHEN MURDER WAS IN FASHION
Post-war Paris, couture dresses... and skulduggery. Amazon Prime’s ambitious new thriller The Collection is as glossy as it is grisly
The clothes are exquisite and many of the central characters are just as easy on the eye. But don’t be fooled into thinking The Collection is a gentle meander through the fashion world of post-war Paris.
The ambitious eight- part series from Amazon Prime is actually a thriller in which late 1940s haute couture sits alongside dastardly deeds committed in the dead of night. Meryl Streep’s daughter Mamie Gummer, Coupling star Richard Coyle and veteran actress Frances de la Tour lead the cast, while the brains behind the show is an American, Oliver Goldstick, a producer and writer on Ugly Betty and Desperate Housewives.
‘Most people regard the fashion world as fatuous and a vain pursuit, but context is everything,’ says Oliver. ‘I thought by adding murder and a thriller element to the piece, and setting it in a dangerous, secret-riddled city like post-war Paris, it would hold more appeal for the watching public and provide it with more validity and credibility.’ Among Oliver’s inspirations for The Collection was an exhibition at London’s V&A Museum in 2007, and its companion book The Golden Age Of Couture, celebrating the launch of Christian Dior’s New Look in 1947. The New Look marked the beginning of a landmark decade in fashion, one that Dior himself called the ‘golden age’.
The Collection’s fictional version of Dior is Maison Sabine, a Paris fashion house run by the matriarchal Yvette and her two sons. Their designs are brilliantly inventive and they seem destined for the top. But there are hints that at least one member of the family collaborated with the Nazis during their wartime occupation of France, and that another’s racy lifestyle could compromise Sabine’s work. Their road to global acclaim could be rocky...
SO WHAT’S THE PLOT?
It begins in February 1947 with a murder under cover of darkness in the countryside just outside Paris. A body is secretly being dragged to a grave. Then the contrast: stunning dresses on show at Maison Sabine, the bustling workshop specialising in the very latest in Parisian fashion. A secret meeting takes place, in which the ambitious Paul Sabine is given a chance to really put his fashion house on the map and design clothes for Paris’s elite. Oliver’s skill is to combine the most stylish post-war Paris has to offer – lovingly recreated drawing rooms and hotel suites – with the seamier side of the city: sparse attic apartments and bullet-ridden streets.
WHO ARE THE MAIN PLAYERS?
PAUL SABINE (Richard Coyle) A ruggedly handsome couturier with a keen eye for business but not necessarily for the finer points of fashion. Those he leaves to his brother Claude – at least when the latter isn’t indulging his fun-loving, alcohol-fuelled lifestyle. CLAUDE SABINE (Tom Riley) A brilliantly talented designer and the real artistic brain behind the Sabine label. He fought alongside the French Resistance during the war and has a soft spot for the underdog. But how long is he prepared to live in the shadow of his less gifted brother? HELEN SABINE (Mamie Gummer) A slim, beautiful expat American who, in an almost imperceptible way, has become the driving force behind the business, a woman subtly exerting her influence over her husband Paul and other members of the family. YVETTE SABINE (Frances de la Tour) Raising her two sons on her own, lives her life vicariously through them and takes great delight in the rise of the fashion house. Posh enough to wear her pearls to the beach. NINA (Jenna Thiam) The daughter of the Maison’s chief seamstress, Nina’s life is transformed when she’s asked to model for Paul. But she has inner struggles to deal with – the war continues to haunt her and she’s without a father. Her life is rife with complications – she’s in love with two men, one she can’t completely have, and another who may never understand what she’s been through. MARJORIE SUTTER (Sarah Parish) A super-rich American heiress who finds comfort at Maison Sabine and an escape from an empty private life. Unhappily married, she’s a great champion of Paul Sabine and has the high-profile connections to boost his business empire. BILLY NOVAK (Max Deacon) A New York photographer who’s decamped to Paris. Segments of the first episode are captured through his camera lens, as he snaps away at the sights of a city ravaged by war but slowly getting back on its feet.
WHERE CAN I WATCH IT?
The Collection is available from Amazon (£79 a year, free for the first 30 days, or £5.99 a month for Prime Video only) from Friday, with further episodes released weekly. Visit amazon.co.uk/piv.