The new Chanel miniseries explores the fashion icon's complex past

Looking for a challenging, historical, fresh series about the fashion industry? In the Apple TV+ series "The New Look," which recently premiered, the responses of prominent French fashion designers, including Coco Chanel (Juliette Binoche) and Christian Dior (Ben Mendelsohn), to the German occupation of Paris during World War II are explored. 

Series creator Todd A. Kessler highlights the 1940s as a pivotal timeframe, emphasizing the varied survival strategies of designers such as Dior, Balenciaga, Chanel, Balmain, Givenchy, and Pierre Cardin against the backdrop of their artistic contributions to the world of fashion. 

In the depicted wartime events, Chanel (played by Binoche) engaged in a relationship with German officer Hans Günther Von Dincklage, aka Spatz (played by Claes Bang), and undertook a mission for the party. This mirrors historical accuracy, as Dincklage was a Gestapo spy, and Chanel collaborated with the Germans back then. Living at the Ritz Hotel in Paris, used as German headquarters during the occupation, Chanel was sent on a mission to Madrid to contact Prime Minister Winston Churchill. The outcome of this mission remains lost to history. 

In 2011, the author of "Sleeping with the Enemy: Coco Chanel's Secret War," Hal Vaughn, shared insights in an interview. Chanel's grand-niece, Madame Gabrielle Labrunie, conveyed to Mr. Vaughn the challenges of those times, stating that people had to do terrible things to survive. Following the book's release, Chanel (the fashion house) denied allegations of the designer's antisemitism but acknowledged her wartime relationship with German aristocrat Baron von Dincklage. "The New Look" series acknowledges these aspects of Chanel's WWII history, presenting a nuanced portrayal rooted in exhaustive research, according to series creator Todd A. Kessler.

From that juncture, they reflected on the query of perception - do we hold of individuals navigating exceptional circumstances without a clear path to survival? Is success defined by endurance rather than financial prosperity? Their approach commenced with empathy, devoid of judgment, considering how would a person have acted in the given, special situation. Lorenzo di Bonaventura, executive producer of the series underscored the importance of in-depth research for authenticity in portraying real individuals and their lives in entertainment, noting that without research, the lack of authenticity can be glaringly apparent. In a scene towards the end of the first episode, Spatz escorts Chanel to an apartment once owned by a Jewish family. He suggests that she should take whatever items she likes, but Chanel declines, stating she doesn’t need anything. Unfazed, Spatz assures her that whatever she desires, he will arrange for it to be delivered to her suite at the Ritz. 

For Kessler, this scene conveys Chanel's motivations for allying with the Germans. The choice tested her character. Living under the regime of those years, life could suddenly end meaninglessly. Storytellers ask: faced with that, how would you act knowing the right choice appears only if you survive? The scene epitomized the randomness of living under occupation and the dilemmas of being tested with no right answer until the aftermath reveals survival. 

Di Bonaventura further explains that initial reactions to Chanel taking something overlook her likely complex thinking at that moment and the dangers around her. As an incredibly intelligent woman, she would have been aware both of selfish concerns, but also of the true threat posed by those people. Authentically portraying her internal experience required understanding beyond superficial judgments, getting into her perspective to represent the nuances and pressures she faced. Without such an approach, the depiction would lack authenticity.