Here's how the cast of Apple TV+'s 'The New Look' compares to the real-life people they're playing
- "The New Look" focuses on the fashion world during and after the Nazi occupation of Paris.
- Apple TV+'s drama depicts the fashion designer Christian Dior's famed rivalry with Coco Chanel.
Apple TV+'s newest historical drama, "The New Look," focuses on the fashion designer Christian Dior's famed rivalry with Coco Chanel, set against the backdrop of World War II.
Created by Todd A Kessler, the man behind hit legal drama "Damages," the 10-part series dramatizes how the two contemporary haute couture designers navigated Nazi-occupied Paris and the postwar years, including the measures they took to keep themselves — and their fashion houses — alive.
As depicted in the first three episodes of "The New Look," now streaming on Apple TV+, Chanel closed the doors of her atelier at the onset of the war but grew close to several powerful Nazis in what turned out to be a mutually beneficial relationship.
Dior — who had not launched his namesake brand when the war broke out — spent the war years designing dresses for the wives of Nazi officers working under Lucien Lelong, a Faustian bargain that helped establish his name.
Alongside Chanel and Dior, the series also weaves in historical figures — some famous, some less so — depicting how the leaders of the fashion world navigated the horrors of World War II.
Below, meet the cast of the series, which includes "Game of Thrones" star Maisie Williams and established stars such as John Malkovich and Glenn Close.
Academy Award winner Juliette Binoche plays the iconic fashion designer Coco Chanel.
Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel's name is synonymous with haute couture. The founder and namesake of the Chanel brand have been credited with introducing women to more casual, freeing feminine designs and popularizing the "little black dress." She also created the enduringly popular perfume Chanel No. 5.
As the series depicts, Chanel entered into a romantic relationship with a high-ranking intelligence officer during the Nazi occupation of Paris. Subsequently, she became an agent for the German military intelligence service, the Abwehr.
The extent of Chanel's collaboration with the Nazis was revealed in Hal Vaughan's 2011 biography about the designer, "Sleeping With the Enemy: Coco Chanel's Secret War."
Ben Mendelsohn, who previously worked with creator Todd A. Kessler on "Bloodline," plays Christian Dior, Chanel's rival in the fashion world.
Dior may now be a household name, but during World War II, the man behind the brand was a fledgling designer working under Lucien Lelong in Nazi-occupied Paris, where he was tasked with creating dresses for the wives of Nazi officials.
He created his namesake label in 1946, and a year later, he changed the trajectory of women's fashion forever when he debuted his first collection, which became known as "The New Look."
The collection, celebrated for its ultra-femininity, featured rounded shoulders, cinched waists, and full skirts.
Catherine Dior, the younger sister of Christian Dior, is played by "Game of Thrones" alumn Maisie Williams.
Catherine — who was 12 years younger than her couturier brother — was a French Resistance fighter who was arrested and tortured by the Gestapo for her involvement in gathering information for Polish and British intelligence.
Per History Extra, Catherine never said a word when she was imprisoned at various concentration camps.
Eventually, she returned to Paris after the end of the war, where she reunited with her older brother and received several medals of honor, including the Croix de Guerre, a distinction usually reserved for regular armed forces.
It is widely believed that the perfume "Miss Dior," launched in 1947, was named after Catherine, although the fashion house has never confirmed this.
Emmy Award winner John Malkovich plays Lucien Lelong, a prominent French couturier during World War II.
As chairman of the Chambre Syndicale de la couture — now known as the Fédération de la Haute Couture — Lucien Lelong has been credited for guiding the couture industry through the difficult days of the German occupation of Paris.
As audiences see in "The New Look," Lelong did not create the garments that bore his label, leaving that to his protégés, which included Dior, Hubert de Givenchy, and Pierre Balmain.
"The Northman" actor Claes Bang portrays Hans Von Dincklage, the Nazi diplomat who was Chanel's lover.
Little is known about Baron Hans Von Dincklage, the German-British aristocrat who prefers to be called "Spatz" (the German word for Sparrow), beyond his relationship with Chanel.
According to PBS, the two met in 1941 and continued their relationship long after the war ended, moving to the neutral territory of Switzerland together.
Glenn Close plays one of the period's leading purveyors of good taste, magazine editor Carmel Snow.
Carmel Snow was the editor in chief of the American edition of Harper's Bazaar throughout the 1940s and is credited for coining the phrase "The New Look."
According to Business of Fashion, after Dior debuted his collection in 1947, Snow encapsulated the excitement over the new silhouette and sartorial standards by telling him: "It's quite a revolution, dear Christian. Your dresses have such a new look."
Emily Mortimer plays Elsa Lombardi, a confidant of Chanel, based on Vera Bate Lombardi, who denounced her as a Nazi informer.
Vera Bate Lombardi, who also went by just Vera Bate, was a British socialite and close friend of Chanel's. According to PBS, she was involved in "Operation Modellhut," a mission orchestrated by SS Nazi intelligence.
As audiences see in the series, Lombardi unwittingly traveled with Chanel and Dincklage to Madrid in 1943, where she learned that she was to act as an intermediary and assist Chanel in delivering a cease-fire message from the SS (operating independently of Adolf Hitler) to British Prime Minister Winston Churchill.
The plan collapsed when Lombardi denounced Chanel and others as Nazi spies to the British Embassy, according to Vaughan's "Sleeping With the Enemy: Coco Chanel's Secret War."
The first three episodes of "The New Look" are now streaming on Apple TV+. Subsequent episodes will be released weekly on Wednesdays through April 3.
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