World War II movies have been around for a long time and I’ve seen all kinds of stories set during this devastating war. The war had various fronts but it affected millions of people all over the world. Sometimes this includes celebrities and the definition of celebrity is in someone’s opinion. In the case of The New Look, I would categorize fashion designers as celebrities of the time. That’s what this series mainly focuses on.

Christin Dior (Ben Mendelssohn) is toiling away as a fashion designer for Lucien Lelong (John Malkovich) while he’s also doing missions for the underground Rebels fighting the Germans with his sister Catherine Dior (Maisie Williams) and others. While Dior is fighting the Germans Coco Chanel (Juliette Binoche) is teaming up with one of them for a secret mission. A German agent Spatz (Claes Bang) approaches her to try to convince Sir Winston Churchill to come to the table for peace talks.

Both of these two fashion icons have their hands full regarding their place in the fight during this great war but they also still have to try and survive and live their lives in France and abroad. Their lives and those of the ones they love are continuously threatened by the Nazis. With spies and collaborators lurking around every corner, they have to be looking over their shoulders.

Todd A Kessler is the creator of the show and head writer. He has infused so much history into this series. The World War II history is very abundant and is the crux of the series. The Nazis play a huge part in being a threat to these two fashion icons, one mainly known for her perfume and boutique and the other known for his ode couture clothes he designed for the high class and aristocrats. The series goes in-depth on the fight for their livelihoods as well. That’s the stuff I was most fascinated about. The writing got this stuff so right for me watching the show.

The direction of the series was also very solid from people like Julia Ducournau (Titane, Raw) Kessler and Helen Shaver among others. The locations they were able to film at and on were beautiful. They brought a realistic nature to the series. All the rooms were filmed with breathtaking precision and they looked like they were out of time. The cinematography was amazingly gorgeous in this historical show.

With a series like this the cast has to be bigger than life and with Mendelssohn  and Binoche as the leads you know the creators of the series weren’t messing around. It’s the supporting role that intrigued me the most. Williams goes through the wringer in the show and she brings a whole new level to her acting game. Bang is always good and Emily Mortimer plays a drunk aristocrat and she’s very good as well. Malkovich is always good no matter what he does and he does good work opposite Mendelssohn here. The cast overall is stellar. 

The New Look deals with a different side of World War II I wasn’t that familiar with but it blends the fashion world of the time with the perils of war very nicely. With the series mainly focusing on Mendelssohn and Binoche’s characters, it does stretch itself too thin regarding the story. The supporting characters were handled very aptly by the head writer and creator of the show Kessler. He brought me completely into this world from the very get-go. I was invested in who these people were and what they represented. This is a winning series for me.

All 10 episodes reviewed streaming now on Apple TV+

4 stars

Dan Skip Allen