DIOR BECOMES COUTURE

PARISIAN COUTURE REIMAGINED IN POST WAR YEARS FOR GENERATIONS

By PETER THOMAS BUSCH

Fashion has been influenced by the circumstances whether the Parisian couturiers are surviving the austerity of the Great Depression or the persecution of NAZI occupation.

Series creator Todd A. Kessler designs the story boards around the beautiful dresses made for women in The New Look (Series 2024).

Ben Mendelsohn has the title role as Christian Dior while Juliette Binoche portrays Coco Chanel in a parallel narrative. Dior is establishing himself as the leading fashion designer in Paris while Chanel is struggling to remain relevant in Switzerland.

Mendelsohn plays Dior as slightly feminine, thoughtful and ever moving forward to create beautiful fashion.

The script says just as much about the war time society split between collaborators and resistance fighters as about the designers and competing couture houses of the Parisian fashion industry.

Christine’s younger sister, Catherine Dior, is portrayed by Maisie Williams, as she fights in the resistance during the war until her imprisonment at Ravensbrück concentration camp.

Dior initially is employed as a designer for Lucien Lelong, played by John Malkovich. Malkovich augments carefully chosen words with facial gestures and body language to express heart felt sentiment.

The fashion houses, run by people with warm hearts and an eye for detail, is contrasted by Coco Chanel oscillating between submissiveness and desperation. Chanel wants to maintain her position in fashion as newly defined couture emerges from the war years.

This 10 part streaming series on Apple TV+ wends through several twists and turns as the characters become immersed in several personal and systemic issues.

Mendelsohn shows how Dior was torn between his duty to Lelong and his fear of persecution by the occupiers while gradually accepting his own personal development as a leading fashion designer.

Essentially, Parisians did what they had to do to survive the war, and certain people managed to survive a bit better than other people.

Glenn Close appears as the influential Harper’s Bazaar editor, Carmel Snow. Carmel arrives just as Dior begins to explore the possibility of establishing his own house of couture.

Binoche develops Chanel as an interesting world renowned character with eccentric traits and the stubborn determination that made her the leading fashion designer. Chanel at times becomes consumed in self interest as she struggles to remain relevant.

The New Look explains the importance of the fashion industry to culture while also underscoring the negative impact of the war on the people behind couture.

As Dior’s influence spreads, the thorough discussions of the issues throughout the series fold back in on themselves to explain that life and all circumstances are inseparable from culture and fashion.