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 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.
Kessler was inspired to tell Dior’s story to shine a light on the “extraordinary times and the extraordinary people who live in them,” he says. “The horrors of World War II brought humanity to its knees and the unknown Christian Dior, a survivor of the four-year-long Nazi occupation of Paris, helped revive spirit and the desire to live again through his creations.”
Though the mind behind one of the most transformative acts of fashion has been subject of much fascination for decades, executive producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura believes that his story will resonate with audiences now more than ever. “Christian Dior’s story is one of triumph, at its heart it’s a human story. His drive to succeed reflects what we all want, the recognition of what we are capable of and who we truly are,” he says. “It’s a journey that fascinates all of us because we all have travelled our own version.”
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But it isn’t just Dior’s innovation that makes it a story worth telling. In the darkest times, he helped breathe life back into a city that had been rocked by war. “Dior was an underdog who fought fiercely to be himself and to ultimately make the world a more colorful place to live in and that legacy endures to this day,” di Bonaventura says.