Dress of dreams

The New Look' series traces how Dior brought back hope and beauty after the war

- LEANNE DELAP

Every Dior dress was faithfully recreated, including the "Le Bar" skirt suit from 1947.

Shows about fashion design often suffer from a specific challenge: making sewing look interesting. "The New Look" solves this issue boldly, by embedding the story of the house of Dior's rise within the heartbreaking context of the Second World War.

The first half of the series, which debuted Wednesday on Apple TV Plus with three of 10 episodes, is literally dark, suffocated by the pounding of Nazi jackboots. It is in the second half, amid healing, retribution and the complex nature of collaboration, that the light begins to return. This sets the stage for Christian Dior, played by Ben Mendelsohn, to introduce a dramatic new silhouette, bringing beauty and hope back to a decimated industry and continent.

In a delicious cameo appearance, Glenn Close as American Harper's Bazaar editrix Carmel Snow says she has been scouring Europe, "looking for the great collection to rise from the ashes of the last five years." She anoints Dior the postwar king of couture.

A few other designers of the era are accounted for: Coco Chanel (Juliette Binoche), Pierre Balmain and Cristobal Balenciaga. Lucien Lelong, Dior's employer through the war, is played with élan and depth by John Malkovich.

Everything is set in Paris, save for the time Chanel, a historically problematic figure, spends in exile in Switzerland. To his credit, creator/showrunner Todd A. Kessler does not oversimplify the human condition and our contradictions: every character makes compromises and good and bad decisions to survive the war.