The Apple TV+ show, aptly named The New Look, which is set to premiere February 14, 2024 seeks to offer viewers a fresh insight into Christian Dior’s career. Against the backdrop of World War II, after Dior left the French army in 1942, he joined the house Lucien Lelong in Nazi-occupied Paris before creating his own namesake label in 1946. His first, 90-piece collection was a hit, dubbed “the new look” by Harper’s Bazaar editor-in-chief Carmel Snow.
“It’s a story that hasn’t been told,” says executive producer, writer, and director Todd A. Kessler. “Monsieur Dior’s personal story inspired people that it was ok to dream once more and it inspires me that he did it through creation, that creation is survival.”
Starring Ben Mendelsohn as Christian Dior, the show follows the fashion juggernaut’s career through World War II, and centers his rivalry with Coco Chanel (Juliette Binoche), whose loose silhouettes were diametrically opposed to Dior’s accentuated waists and dramatic, structured separates. But the two were weren’t only rivals when it came to business. Chanel closed her doors at the onset of the war and became a Nazi intelligence operative, whereas Dior’s sister, Catherine, was arrested, tortured, and interned in the Ravensbrück concentration camp for her work with the French Resistance.
The series also stars Michael Carter as his father Maurice Dior, Maisie Williams as his sister, Catherine Dior, and John Malkovich as designer Lucien Lelong, among other notable figures throughout the early days of the House of Dior.
