Summary
Handsome production design, strong writing, and superb performances get The New Look off to a racing start.
There’s always a real truth hiding behind another, at least according to Christian Dior in Episode 1 of The New Look, and it’s clear that the Apple TV+ drama is going to concern itself primarily with that truth throughout Season 1. How does a man with the singular goal of making beautiful women’s clothes rise to the throne of French couture during, crucially, the Nazi occupation of Paris? How many compromises must have been made? How many principles must have been shunted to the wayside — if they were ever there at all?
This is what we’re here to find out. The opening flash-forward, to Paris in 1955, lays out that Coco Chanel, now in her 70s, plans to make a comeback after losing control of French fashion by shutting her door to Nazi WAGs during the occupation. But it can’t be that simple, can it?
The New Look Season 1 Episode 1 Recap
In 1943, Christian Dior was a nobody, and his sister Catherine was openly conspiring with the French Resistance, acting as bait to lure them into ambushes and inviting conspirators into Christian’s apartment. Dior’s work for Maison Lelong funds the activities of the Resistance, but it requires compromise with the Nazis. Catherine would like to have her cake and eat it — she’s happy to take the money, but she wants Christian to refuse to work for the Nazis — which leads to disagreements between the siblings.
Pierre Balmain and Cristobal Balenciaga Refuse to Work For the Nazis
Maison Lelong’s founder, Lucien Lelong, and its director Madame Raymonde Zehnacker, want Christian and his colleague Pierre Balmain to design ball gowns. Pierre is more vocal about his distaste for the clientele than Christian is, but the latter isn’t thrilled with the work either, especially when his client asks for him to be present at her fitting personally. He declines this offer on two occasions, believing that he’s taking a stand against the occupation by refusing to be involved in any phase of the process other than the design. In truth, he’s just passing the book.
Anti-Nazi sentiment is everywhere in “Just You Wait and See”. Pierre isn’t the only one — Cristobal Balenciaga is similarly unwilling to work with the Nazis, a principled stance that recent controversies involving that brand make it somewhat difficult to admire. But the general sense is that everyone who is living and working in Paris would prefer to have nothing to do with the Germans but end up playing ball anyway out of fear. This, of course, is how totalitarianism proliferates, as people generally are more fearful than they are moral.
Making A Deal With the Devil
Similar can be said about Coco Chanel, though perhaps “fearful” isn’t the right word in her case. In many ways, she’s worse off than even Christian, since her Jewish company partners, the Wertheimer brothers, fled the country at the start of the war and now bank elsewhere. This means that Coco no longer has access to her wealth. To make matters worse her nephew, Andre, whom she has raised since he was a child, has been captured by the Nazis and is being held in a French prisoner-of-war camp outside Paris. These two issues dovetail and leave Coco in quite a predicament by the episode’s end.
With the help of Baron Vaufreland, Coco is able to secure Andre’s release. However, this favor requires strings being pulled by Spatz (the name meaning “Sparrow” in German), a well-spoken Nazi with an English mother who is subsequently owed a favor from Coco. He takes her to dinner with Heimrich Himmler, of all people, who sinisterly lays out the Aryan Law, a systematic means of stripping away Jewish identity by depriving the Jewish people of their jobs, culture, and possessions. Since the Wertheimer brothers are Jewish, the Nazis have the power to restore Coco Chanel’s wealth and influence. All she has to do is say the word.
Coco also strikes up an intimate relationship with Spatz, though at present it’s somewhat unclear if this is a legitimate romance or another facet of the Nazi long-game. Either way, Spatz plans to introduce Coco to Commander Schellenberg at the upcoming ball, the same one that Maison Lelong is producing gowns for. Schellenberg is soon to be the head of Nazi Foreign Intelligence.
How does The New Look Season 1 Episode 1 end?
All roads converge at the end of “Just You Wait and See”. Coco attends the ball and is introduced to Schellenberg, who offers to invoke Aryan Law to recover her company if she simply aids him in the small task of ending the way between Great Britain and Germany. He doesn’t explain how she might accomplish this for now, but we’ll find out in the next episode.
Meanwhile, Catherine’s French Resistance chums are all captured and interrogated by the Gestapo, and Christian is summoned to the ball in person to fix a tear in the ballgown that his client’s husband is going ballistic about. A terrified Lucien visits him at home to beg him to attend, and he finally relents. When he gets there, though, he discovers the Nazi’s wife has torn the dress on purpose. Since Christian refused to attend the fitting, she has been unable to tell him some very important news — she knows Catherine from school, and the Gestapo are actively looking for her. She implores Christian to hurry off and find her before they do.
This, unfortunately, doesn’t happen. The premiere ends with Catherine being taken away by men in a car, while the French Resistance members, including her friend Jean, are summarily executed by firing squad.
What did you think of The New Look Season 1 Episode 1? Let us know in the comments.
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