‘The New Look’ Review: Ben Mendelsohn and Juliette Binoche Blend History and Haute Couture in Apple TV+ Drama

French designers Christian Dior and Coco Chanel come out fighting in the waning days of WWII in a series that’s a cut above the competition

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Ben Mendelsohn as Christian Dior in "The New Look" (Apple TV+)

Largely set in the hothouse Parisian world of haute couture, “The New Look” views the waning days of WWII and the Nazi Occupation, and their aftermath, with fresh eyes. The stunning period drama portrays struggle, defeat and triumph among names that still have cachet — Christian Dior and Coco Chanel chief among them.

On one side, we see the high costs and moral high-ground of the French resistance, and on the other, a collaboration with the Germans in a world where survival is everything and beauty is fleeting and ephemeral. The series itself, created by “Damages’” Todd A. Kessler, is biographical fiction at its finest, a heartbreaking story of triumph and loss amid breathtaking beauty and institutional cruelty.

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