I’m unsure if this metaphor works (it doesn’t), but this week’s (regrettably, I’m sure) Claes Bang–less episode of The New Look was a filler episode, so here goes: inside Apple TV+ are two wolves. A prestige wolf: high-end, HBO and Golden Age–inspired cinematic television that costs more money than anyone who works for or reads Vulture dot com can comprehend. Examples include Foundation, Severance, Slow Horses. Then there’s the boomer wolf, which comes with an equal amount of zeroes following dollar signs but with an ’80s and ’90s television-program aesthetic. Within this wolf, The Morning Show is a bad wolf and The New Look is a good wolf. TL;DR: The New Look is good bad, like the British dramas whose VHS copies collect no dust on grandma’s built-in shelf.
If you thought this long-winded, terrible metaphor was over, I regret to inform you that you are wrong. Inside Christian Dior, as dramatized in The New Look, are two wolves: a feisty, clever big dreamer with the nerve and verve necessary to build a couture house from the ground up. And then there’s the distress wolf (also known as the CATHEREEEEEENE!!! wolf: a wolf who is always crying out the name of his sister, who is gone but like, definitely coming back!)
“Give Your Heart and Soul to Me†could have certainly been condensed. I am of the generation that watched all 27 episodes of The O.C. season one in real time. As a result, I am always complaining that television seasons are too short these days. However, following the excellent first three episodes, even I can admit that The New Look is moving a bit glacially (pre-climate crisis) without Claes Bang, and despite banger performances from Ben Mendelsohn (my Emmy campaign continues), Juliette Binoche (The Taste of Things is in theaters now!) Maisie Williams (incredible lying-in-bed work this week), John Malkovich (Shailene Woodley accent in full force once again), and the supporting cast. Thankfully, The New Look starts a new chapter in the episode’s final moments with Catherine’s return. But before that, other stuff had to happen for dramatic effect.
Anticipating that CATHEREEEEEENE!!! will return, Christian continues to avoid work. He’s sat on a contract with Lelung for four and a half months out of fear that CATHEREEEEEENE!!! will need him when she returns, making him a free agent. In a scene mirroring last week’s, Lelung begs Christian once again to focus on his work rather than the unknown. The episode opens with Christian and partner Jacque Rouet (David Kammenos) watching a live performance of “La Vie en Rose†by the Édith Piaf. Weirdly, Bradley Cooper does not show up to trace her nose. Rather, Piaf encourages those who are in mourning to stand up. Christian refuses, adamant that he is not in mourning despite being in mourning for the past four episodes. Jaques gets him to stand up. After the show, Georges Vigoroux (Quentin Faure) approaches Christian and attempts to recruit him to design for Philippe et Gaston, a French couture house founded in 1922, whose reputation was on par with Chanel. “How can you talk business after such a transcendent performance by Mademoiselle Piaf,†Christian says, adding that Lelong has tasked him with hiring Balmain’s replacement. At Lelung, Christian interviews a young, vibrant designer named Pierre Cardin (Eliott Margueron), who wears a lion on his head and takes off his pants to show off his tailoring skills. Cardin’s upbeat personality and enthusiasm for design plant a necessary seed in Christian’s mind that will inspire him to follow in the steps of Balmain (more on that later). Cardin, whose love for geometric shapes and impeccable tailoring shaped him into an avant-garde designer with an affinity for space-age-inspired designs, will return to The New Look as he worked with Christian on his inaugural collection. Remember Maxim’s, the iconic Paris restaurant where Coco dined with Nazis in the series premiere? Cardin, who became a regular there, purchased it in 1981.
While Christian avoids living a life for himself, Coco Chanel is all about Coco Chanel. Her selfishness and nearly incomprehensible lack of awareness (played impeccably by Binoche, a nonjudgmental master of Coco’s condescension) gets her wrapped up in a (literal) petty crime and sets her up for a lonesome future. Living luxe in Switzerland, Coco, carrying a leopard print bag, stumbles upon unlikely bottles of Chanel No. 5 for sale at a boutique while shopping with her niece, Gabrielle. The war caused a shortage of the perfume, as the perfumer, Ernest Beaux, could not grow the flowers to make the formula. Coco purchases all 60 bottles at the Swiss boutique and makes arrangements to send them to Beaux for examination upon learning that her former partners, the Wertheimers, are making the perfume in Hoboken, New Jersey. Per a quick Google, in 1945, a ½ oz. bottle of Chanel No. 5 cost $15.90. Per an inflation calculator, that’s $275.50 in 2024. And per my calculator app, $15.90 times 60 is $954, which in 2024 money means buying all 60 bottles would amount to $16,529.77. (I hope I didn’t do the math wrong there; it has been a while since I have personally done math). When Beaux called 60 bottles of perfume “a small fortune,†he wasn’t being hyperbolic, but Coco’s ears ring when other people talk.
Coco is so entrenched in her own world that the war might as well not have happened despite her direct involvement with Nazi operations. Coco’s nephew, André, is dying of tuberculosis, Nicole Kidman in Moulin Rouge! style. Despite the doctor saying the condition is worsening, Coco’s ears keep ringing, and she ignores the advice. However, she eventually sends André and Gabrielle back to Paris so he can get treatment. Despite her love for him, she’s unwilling to face the consequences of her actions back in France and would rather be alone, living in her delusion, than take that risk. Coco rows with her lawyer about money: she wishes to use the assets she has to purchase a home in Switzerland and wants to sue the Wertheimers for formulating Chanel No. 5. Willfully ignorant of the fact that her driver has not been paid in two months, he gets his revenge: he arranges to steal the perfume himself. Coco tags along for the ride in an attempt to return her niece’s teddy bear, despite her driver’s pleas to stay home. A dirty, unkempt Coco Chanel — clutching a teddy bear rather than a leopard print bag — hitches her way home, for once suffering actual consequences of her actions. And yet, upon her return, she has not learned a lesson. “I don’t want a fight,†she says of the Wetheimers. “I want a war,†as if there hasn’t been enough. “Fucking sue them.â€
Christian finally sees the light at the end of the (four-episode long) tunnel: CATHEREEEEEENE!!! has, allegedly, been rescued and is arriving on a train along with other camp prisoners. At the harrowing pickup, she’s nowhere in sight and presumed dead. Christian visits Madame Delahaye, who ensures him again that his darling sister will not return until he designs for himself. Christian finally sees his unsigned contract with Lelung as an opportunity.
In a meeting with Marcel Boussac (Patrick Albenque), textile manufacturer and the richest man in France, Christian’s ascendant, determined wolf makes his debut. Rather than joining Philippe et Gaston, an old house going the same way as Lelung or Chanel, Christian, finally accepting his mourning status, pitches a way forward for French couture and for himself: his own house. â€It’s the only way to turn this heartbreak into a return to joy,†Mendelsohn says in his Emmy clip. “People need to feel again. They need to dream again. They need to live again, and we can create a new world for them.†Boussac flips through Christian’s sketches, which reflect the aesthetic that will, in time, be known as … the new look. Christian calls them “some seeds.â€
And just like that (sorry) CATHEREEEEEENE!!! (sorry again) is home. In real life, Christian Dior himself said that Catherine was so emaciated when she returned to Paris from the camps that he didn’t even recognize her, making it possible that Catherine was on the train in the episode, but Christian didn’t notice her in the crowd. The episode closes with a Nick Cave cover of “La Vie en Rose.†Mr. Cave, if you’re reading this, did Bradley Cooper trace your nose with his fingers?
Farewell until next week, which will hopefully ramp things up as we finally get to the actual point of the show: the House of Dior and Nazi Claes Bang. I believe in Claes Bang’s return as much as Christian believed in Catherine’s.
Loose Threads
• If The New Look has piqued your interest in fashion and you are based in the New York metropolitan area, please visit the Women Dressing Women exhibit at the Met, which closes March 10. It’s an incredible curation that includes fashion designed by women throughout history, including French couture by Coco Chanel and modern day Dior designs under creative director Maria Grazia Chiuri, with enriching historical context.