“On 59th Street between 5th and Madison, there’s the Dior store, the Balmain store, the Balenciaga store, the Givenchy store, and Chanel is not far away,” The New Look series creator, writer, director, and executive producer Todd A. Kessler shared during a TCA Winter Press Tour panel for the new Apple TV+ Original, which premiered today. “If one watches this show, those brands’ names all of a sudden become personified and you realize, oh, these guys are all hanging out on this street, 59th Street, like they hung out in the show. That experience of not walking through an airport again and seeing all those names as just brands, you’ll see them as people. And then hopefully, if one is so inspired, to read even more about them because there is so much more information out there in their lives than we were able to fit in this first season.”
(Apple TV+)
The series follows fashion icons Christian Dior and Coco Chanel as they navigate the horrors of World War II in Paris. “It's at the very heart of his hope and his desire, a burning desire, to bring back something beautiful for him, for the world,” actor Ben Mendelsohn said of the driving force behind his character’s actions. Mendelsohn plays Christian Dior in the series, who tried to lift spirits in dark times through fashion. “I think he did it. And I think it was core to him. They both changed the world and this world of fashion in such huge ways and in very distinct ways to each other.”
“She really changed women’s behaviors and the way of seeing women,” added Juliette Binoche, who plays Coco Chanel. “During World War I, she actually got rid of the corsets, made the dresses a little shorter, cut her hair. Pants were a big thing for her. She changed women’s behavior because, during the first war, women had to be the active ones because the men were at war with the Germans. So she really took that occasion in order to make a big movement. That’s why, at the beginning of the second war, she stopped everything. But she's always had a sense of elegance and behavior.”
“I didn’t know a great deal about those years of the French fashion industry,” revealed John Malkovich, who plays Lucien Lelong, Christian Dior’s boss in the series and a couture brand in his own right. “What made him noteworthy was his ability to recognize talent because so many gifted designers came through the house of Lelong, Dior being a principle one obviously, but many others as well, Balmain, Balenciaga, Givenchy, Pierre Cardin. When you have a series and you have a number of characters and a limited time, you can't do everyone’s complete life. And Lelong, I think his principle importance in the series is that he was someone very involved with keeping the French fashion industry in France, in Paris, and not in Berlin.”
“I knew about the muses of Dior, and I think learning more about Catherine and her actual story and realizing that this fashion house was born from her being an original muse was so interesting to me,” shared Maisie Williams about playing Catherine Dior. “It felt kind of removed from my idea of Miss Dior… I think she had an incredible life. And in this story, I think she becomes a person of hope in Dior’s life and someone who is sort of inherently good.I think that she was an incredible woman and it was an amazing opportunity to portray her.”
“The series starts in 1955 when Dior is speaking at the Sorbonne, and he in real life spoke on that stage where we filmed,” Todd A. Kessler shared about the series’ starting point, which it then flashes back from. “We recreated the dresses that he showed on the stage at the Sorbonne in Paris in 1955. And for at the end of the season… Dior has his first fashion show, and we recreated, as authentically as possible with the designs, the dresses that Dior showed at his first collection.” This all lends to the accuracy of the story that viewers will experience when they tune in.
The first three episodes of The New Look are now streaming on Apple TV+, with additional episodes releasing on Wednesdays.