France, fashion, & feuds!
Shortly after World War II, designer Christian Dior launched his fashion house and introduced a new design referred to as the “New Look,” which led to a lot of discourse, protests, and criticisms. This early history of Dior’s work has inspired the Apple TV+ series The New Look, premiering on Wednesday, Feb. 14.
French fashion historian Caroline Bongrand, who worked as a consultant for The New Look, told Vanity Fair that it was really hard for anyone to find fabrics to make clothes in the immediate aftermath of World War II. “He managed to find fabric and made these opulent, incredibly elegant dresses to close this too-long episode of sadness for French women,” Bongrand explained. “He wanted to heal women and restore their lightness of being. Even for the women who were just looking at the dresses in magazines, he gave them joy and beauty.”
On the other hand, that optimistic ideal and new design weren’t well-received by many other people in the fashion industry, as well as high-profile feminists at the time. Namely, Coco Chanel — who had been successful in fashion long before him — threw shade at Dior quite a few times. While Chanel was creating beautiful and functional outfits for women, she commented that “Dior doesn’t dress women, he upholsters them.” And, as reported by The Washington Post, Chanel even dragged Dior’s sexuality into the discourse, saying: “Only a man who never was intimate with a woman could design something that uncomfortable.”
This timeline, and the high-profile individuals who were relevant within it, is the story told on Apple TV+’s The New Look. France, fashion, and feuds — we can’t wait!
Scroll through to meet the actors and the real-life people they’re playing on The New Look, which premieres Wednesday, Feb. 14 on Apple TV+.
