The New Look Recap: Persevere With Dignity
A couture fashion house doesn’t build itself overnight. It requires teamwork and, most essentially, a large number of artisans working to execute their creative director’s vision. While most fashion houses are associated with the man or woman who share their names, behind them are a whole team of specialists who’ve made a career out of sewing exquisitely. Designers including Christian Dior, Pierre Cardin, John Galliano, Alexander McQueen (known for working alongside his seamstresses), and more were expert tailors, but it’s not a one-person job; as of late, Valentino has even had its seamstresses and tailors walk the runway to acknowledge those responsible for actually making the clothes. This is important to recognize in order to fully understand why finding seamstresses without hurting his friends’ businesses is such a daunting task for Ben Mendelsohn as Christian Dior.
It’s the penultimate episode (how did we get here?), and as The New Look approaches its conclusion, it still finds a way to meander and once again prevent me from seeing indulgent shots of fashion paid for by Apple. The show does, however, maintain its boomer energy, with a little edge. While Christian Dior has found his head tailor in Pierre The Pantsless Cardin, he cannot find 30 seamstresses in Paris who can get his collection ready in time for his first show, which is set to take place at his new headquarters. Basically, he’s in big trouble and the only way the incredibly nice Christian can get the collection ready in time is if he snatches up seamstresses from his friends Balenciaga, Balmain, and Lelong.
Amid all this, Christian must head south for his father’s funeral, where he encounters family drama. Who among us has not had work stress meet family matters? Last week we met Bernard, a new sibling for Christian, and now that it’s almost over, The New Look decided it’s time we met the eldest Dior sibling, Raymond (the incomparable Alex Jennings), who, like all the Diors, is dark and troubled. He’s just a little meaner than the rest. At dinner, Raymond agitates Christian about his failures and his current business endeavor, fearful that it will go south like their father’s. He also dismisses his younger brother’s passion for fashion and beauty. “How many dresses will it take to erase what happened to Catherine?” he says.
Christian speaks at Maurice’s funeral, and while they had a fraught relationship seen earlier in the season, Christian attempts to connect his passion and interests with his father. “He loved beauty,” Christian says, before talking about how Maurice encouraged him to work hard. Afterwards, Raymond tells Christian he was too easy on him.
Catherine faces Freidman once again at her father’s funeral, and once again refuses to tell him or the audience what the hell is going on. But fortunately Christian notices her weird behavior and encourages her to come clean, noting that it’s the only path to heal. Christian also encourages her to return to Paris with him, but she sees her future in flowers: she promised papa she would finish the garden, after all.
Catherine confronts Freidman and bluntly tells him the truth: Tania is dead, and it’s her fault. Catherine stole a piece of bread to give to a starving Tania, who was caught with the bread and beaten in front of Catherine and sent to a gas chamber. While Catherine’s multi-episode secret storyline has frustrated me to my core, I must commend Maisie Williams for her moving performance in this confession scene.
The episode is framed by two flashbacks of Coco and Elsa as girls in Moulins, France, illustrating their sisterly bond and that, at some point, they didn’t have simmering resentment toward each other. In between, in 1940s Switzerland, Spatz continues plotting with perfect hair, Elsa breaks down, and Coco wins the perfume wars. Coco and Elsa share the same fear: abandonment and loneliness, which mean different things to both of them. Coco’s rousing anger in Elsa builds as Andre’s suspicion of Spatz grows. And Spatz isn’t helping: at dinner, Spatz essentially tells Andre he’s a Nazi without saying it. Coco got into this whole Nazi mess because of Andre, and she cannot fathom losing him. She has no one else, since she doesn’t really see Elsa as a real person anymore, just someone to use.
Elsa, meanwhile, clings to Coco because she is the only person she has left. Her sister, Lottie, refuses to see her. In a short but chilling scene performed expertly by Juliette Bioche and Emily Mortimer, Elsa encourages Coco to come clean to Andre, saying it’s the best path forward. “Andre’s working it all out,” Elsa says. “Tell Andre what we did.” Note that here, unlike Coco, Elsa finally takes responsibility for her Nazi ties. Coco dismisses her, tells her she hates her, and orders her to leave Switzerland immediately. Spatz takes advantage of Elsa’s vulnerability in a harrowing (but somewhat sexy? sorry) scene that proves Claes Bang should play Hannibal Lecter. He seduces Elsa into taking more morphine. He intentionally makes her feel even worse by telling her Coco does not need her.
Christian, in his party turtleneck (who is he, Tom Wambsgans?) returns to Paris and walks slowly in his moonlit studio, a maze of dress forms. He grazes garments on hangers and stares at one of his own sketches as Raymond’s words from a few scenes ago play (love this). “That art gallery you started and failed.” Christian, who worked as an art dealer before his fashion endeavors began, has to make a choice. Christian tells Zehnacker that he’s willing to take seamstresses from his friends. “I can’t allow it to fail,” he says. “Do whatever you have to do. We have to survive.”
When Coco gets back to the hotel after learning that Carmel Snow followed through on her promise to spread the word about her new perfume Stateside, and after an exhausting conversation where she deflected so much that she drove a priest to kick her out of his church, Elsa is dead. And just like that (sorry), Spatz is in the clear. Let’s all pour one out for Mortimer’s incredible performance in this role, which truly elevated the show. The episode ends with a cover of “I Cover the Waterfront” by Sam Dew, a popular 1933 song with notable recordings by Billie Holiday, Frank Sinatra, and Louis Armstrong.
Let it be known that this recap could have been a 3,000 word essay begging Claes Bang to keep his hair and beard like that at all times. Nevertheless, I resisted.