The New Look: Everything you need to know about the new Christian Dior and Coco Chanel series
Inspired by the lives of some of the biggest names in fashion, Apple TV+ has released a new series centred around some of the star designers who lived in Paris during the Second World War.
It stars Ben Mendelsohn as fashion designer Christian Dior and Juliette Binoche as the matriarch of the House of Chanel, Coco Chanel.
The cast also includes Game of Thrones’ Maisie Williams as Catherine Dior, John Malkovich as Lucien Lelong, and Bad Sisters’ Claes Bang as Spatz (Baron Hans Gunther von Dincklage).
Haute couture is the star of the show in The New Look. Pic. Apple TV+
Juliette Binoche. Pic: Apple TV+
What’s it about?
The New Look focuses on Paris’s haute couture fashion houses during World War Two and the decisions the designers faced while under Nazi occupation.
The series was created by Todd A Keller – who previously worked on the hit shows The Sopranos and Bloodline – and centres on Christian Dior’s rise to prominence in the fashion world.
In the 1940s, Dior worked for Lucien Lelong in one of the fashion houses that remained open during the war. Staying open while under Nazi occupation meant they designed clothing for the wives of Nazi officials.
Ben Mendelsohn, who plays Dior in the series, says it’s difficult to know how you would react to the situation, without witnessing it yourself in the moment.
(L-R) Ben Mendelsohn and John Malkovich. Pic: Apple TV+.
“When morality meets reality, then there’s very often an adjustment. You can have all of the ideas of who and how you are in the world, but when reality meets, you must respond to that or walk away from it”.
The fashion designer launched his debut collection in 1947 and it was nicknamed the ‘New Look’.
Speaking to Time magazine for their 1957 cover story, Dior said he turned women into “flowers with soft shoulders” after a long period of war with “soldier-women with shoulders like boxers”.
‘A big jump into the abyss’
One of the main characters in the Apple TV+ series is Coco Chanel – the woman credited for revolutionising women’s clothing in the 20th century.
Chanel had been considered one of the most famous designers at the time and was living at The Ritz in Paris during the 1940s.
(L-R) Juliette Binoche and Emily Mortimer. Pic: Apple TV+
The series depicts her socialising with Nazi officials including Heinrich Himmler – a leading member of the Nazi Party in Germany.
Oscar-winner Juliette Binoche depicts Chanel in the show and says her scene with Himmler was shot on her first day on set.
“I have to tell you, this scene was for me a big one because it was my first scene. It was my first day of shooting and actually it was a night shoot. And to enter Chanel’s character, being with Himmler was like a big jump into the abyss and I was frightened”.
The actress says it’s important to remember that the show is “fiction inspired by real events”.
She added: “I’m just praying all the time that, you know, the showrunner and the producers, they’ve done the homework, and all the information has been verified”.
Chanel’s association with Nazi officials had previously been inspected in the 2011 biography “Sleeping With The Enemy” by journalist Hal Vaughan.
It claimed the fashion designer became a German intelligence operative, was enlisted in spy missions and how she evaded arrest in France after the war.
However, in 2023, Justine Picardie who authored Coco Chanel: The Legend and The Life, said that the fashion mogul was actually a member of the French Resistance.
Pic: Apple TV+
Where was it filmed?
The Apple TV+ series was shot completely in Paris, at the same locations where the real events occurred.
Executive producer Todd A Keller says it was imperative to shoot on location at the places the fashion designers frequented and which the Nazis occupied.
He says: “The feeling of violation and oppression, by an outside army invading essentially and imposing strict order on the French we felt like [shooting on location] would really bring that world to life and we could transport the audience into it in a way that they may have never experienced previously”.
Masie Williams. Apple TV+
Game Of Thrones star Maisie Williams
Maisie Williams plays Catherine Dior, the sister of Christian, in The New Look.
The 26-year-old actress moved to Paris for eight months to shoot the show and says the storyline made her reflect on the events that occurred in the country.
“We were bringing these banners back to the streets of Paris and it was just something I was very, brutally reminded of, just when speaking with a lot of the French crew and cast and actors, because this is something that, for me, I read in history books, but for Paris, this was like a really, really dark time that they went through”.
John Malkovich. Pic: Apple TV+
Where can I watch The New Look?
The first three episodes of The New Look are available to stream now on Apple TV+ with new episodes released every Wednesday.
The show’s finale is on Wednesday 3 April.
Angelina Jolie says although she appreciates being an artist, she would prefer for her legacy to be “a good mother” and to be known for her “belief in equality and human rights”.
The Oscar-winning actress stars as Maria Callas in the new Pablo Larrain film about the opera singer’s life.
Pic: StudioCanal
She has called Maria “the hardest” and “most challenging” role she has had in her career and put months of preparation into immersing herself into the world of opera.
Jolie, who recently reached a divorce settlement with actor Brad Pitt, told Sky News: “To be very candid, it was the therapy I didn’t realise I needed. I had no idea how much I was holding in and not letting out.
“So, the challenge wasn’t the technical [side of opera], it was an emotional experience to find my voice, to be in my body, to express. You have to give every single part of yourself.”
The biopic combines the voice of the Maleficent actress with recordings of Maria Callas.
Jolie believes it “would be a crime to not have [Callas’] voice through this because, in many ways, she is very present in this film”.
Who was Maria Callas?
Born in New York in 1923, Maria Callas was the daughter of Greek immigrants who moved back to Athens at the age of 13 with her mother and sister.
After enrolling at the Athens Conservatory, she made her professional debut at 17 and went on to become one of the most famous faces of opera, travelling around the world and performing at Covent Garden in London, The Met in New York and La Scala in Milan.
Callas’s final operatic performance took place at Covent Garden in 1965 when she was 41 but she continued to work conducting master classes at Juilliard School, doing concert tours and starring in the 1969 film Medea.
Written by Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight, Maria focuses on the artist’s final years in the 1970s when she moved to Paris and disappeared from public view.
She died on 16 September 1977 at the age of 53.
Pic: StudioCanal
Jolie on changing motivations as an actor
Maria follows the life of an artist fully consumed by the art she creates and even remarks that “happiness never developed a beautiful melody”.
Reflecting on her own life in the spotlight, Jolie said she noticed her own career motivations change over the years.
“There’s this kind of study of being human that we do when we create, and we communicate with an audience because our work is not in isolation – it’s a connection.
“I think when I was younger, I had different questions about being human and different feelings and now as I’ve gotten older, I understand some things and now I have different questions.
“It’s a matter of life, right? And so maybe that’s interesting that this now is a character really contemplating death and really contemplating the toll of certain things in life that I, of course, couldn’t have understood in my 20s”.
Jolie at the New York Film Festival in September with three of her children (L-R) Pax, Zahara and Maddox. Pic: AP
A family affair
Two of Jolie’s children, Maddox and Pax, took on production assistant roles during the filming of Maria and witnessed their mother perform opera for the first time in public.
She says the film allowed them to create new experiences together and for her children to see her approach to playing a difficult role.
“Everyone in my home, we all give each other space to be who we are and we’re all different.
“I’m the mom, but I’m also an artist and a person and so my family has been very kind and gives me their understanding. They make fun of me, and they support me and just as you’d hope it would be.”
She adds: “When you play somebody who is dealing with so much pain, it’s very important to come home to some kindness.”
Maria is in cinemas now.
Tom Holland’s dad has confirmed his son’s engagement to Zendaya – revealing how the 28-year-old meticulously planned the proposal.
Zendaya, also 28, sparked engagement rumours when she attended last Sunday’s Golden Globes wearing a sparkling diamond on her ring finger.
Neither star has publicly addressed the rumours but Tom’s comedian father, Dominic Holland, has now confirmed the pair are set to wed.
He wrote in a post on his Patreon account: “Tom, as you know by now was very incredibly well prepared. He had purchased a ring.
“He had spoken with her father and gained permission to propose to his daughter.”
“Tom had everything planned out… When, where, how, what to say, what to wear,” he added.
Zendaya arrived at the Golden Globes with a noticeable piece of new jewellery. Pic: Invision/AP
Dominic also noted that while most men worry about being able to afford an engagement ring, he suspects his actor son was “more concerned with the stone, its size and clarity, its housing, which jeweller”.
Tom and Zendaya met on the set of Spider-Man: Homecoming in 2016, when they played the titular hero and his love interest MJ, respectively. Their romance was confirmed in 2021.
In his post, Tom’s father admitted fears over whether being in the spotlight could put a strain on the couple’s relationship.
He wrote: “I do fret that their combined stardom will amplify their spotlight and the commensurate demands on them and yet they continually confound me by handling everything with aplomb.”
“And even though show business is a messy place for relationships and particularly so for famous couples as they crash and burn in public and are too numerous to mention […] yet somehow right at the same time, I am completely confident they will make a successful union.”
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Zendaya rose to fame after landing a role in Disney sitcom Shake It Up, and became a household name after starring in Euphoria.
Holland – who has starred in three Spider-Man films opposite his now-fiancée – made his stage debut in Billy Elliot the Musical in 2008.
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