The New Look

^{Review by AJ}

Dior, Chanel, Balenciaga, Balmain… nowadays, these are names we associate with luxury fashion. But in a not-so-distant past, these were surnames belonging to real life fashion designers who pioneered haute couture as we know it. Before they were the icons of modern fashion, these people were contemporaries who rebuilt a tattered fashion industry in post-war Europe. This is their story. 

Set in Paris after the end of World War II, The New Look offers a fascinating glimpse into the lives of Christian Dior (Ben Mendelsohn), Coco Chanel (Juliette Binoche), Pierre Balmain (Thomas Poitevin), and Cristobal Balenciaga (Nuno Lopes). Crisscrossing between the height of WWII and the post-war era, the different ways the designers navigate their businesses in a Nazi-occupied Europe would play a significant part in their dynamics and future endeavours.

The series centres the narrative on the legendary feud between Dior and Chanel, who were the biggest haute couture names in 1940’s Paris. Dior is sensible and nonconformist, while Chanel is depicted as fiery and conservative. The two are constantly at odds due to their differing temperaments, principles and tastes. Anchored by Mendelsohn and Binoche’s stellar performances, their duelling characters are the centrepiece of this otherwise banal show.

While the cast boasts a lineup of remarkable thespians that count veterans John Malkovich and Glenn Close, as well as Game of Thrones’ Maisie Williams, the writing often lets them down with plodding storylines and derivative conflicts. While the show raises some grand ideas about anti-fascism and standing true to one’s principle, they are all painted in such broad strokes that it ends up feeling dull. The characters also have little specificity about them, with a really unsubtle division of right and wrong that frankly feels too comical for a show positioned as prestige TV. 

Adding to the difficulty, immersed in the story is the half-hearted treatment of the actors’ accents. The characters are either French, or French-speaking at least. However, the show never quite decides if they want the actors to sound French or use their natural accents (which are mostly British). The result is startlingly distracting because you can clearly hear dialogues imbued with French-ness but delivered in flat British tones. It would’ve been better to commit to one over the other, but alas.

For a show about fashion, it is also surprisingly thin on sartorial showcases. Of course, haute couture is present, with collections inspired by classic archives from the 40s. However, the show doesn’t appear all that interested in exploring the world of fashion at that time. Rather, it spends a lot of time on interpersonal drama and the fallout of the war, bringing the tone of the series to sombre seriousness. The show also suffers from B-plots diffusing the core storyline with uninteresting detours. 

In a departure from what its marketing suggests, The New Look focuses on spotlighting these fashion legends’ parts in the war effort: which sides they’re on, their political stances, who they choose to ally with. In principle, there’s nothing wrong with that. It’s just executed sloppily as to be pleasing to none. The fashion aspect isn’t highlighted enough, the political drama angle isn’t compelling enough.  

The only things salvaging The New Look are its high profile acting talents and the lavish production value - no doubt courtesy of AppleTV+’s enormous budget. However, without a sharp and inspired storyline to tie it all together, the series just ends up fraying at the seams.