“Society loves scandal in fashion.” A new look, Kaiser Karl… the coming avalanche of haute couture series

This winter a lot of viewing looks very couture. An avalanche of fashion series is about to hit streaming platforms. Three great figures of the 20th century Parisian scene^e century have inspired screenwriters and directors. Cristobal Balenciaga (Disney+), Christian Dior (New look , from February 14 on Apple TV+) and Karl Lagerfeld (kaiser carl with Disney+) are thus the subject of biopics in which we also meet Gabriel Chanel, Hubert de Givenchy, Pierre Cardin and even Yves Saint Laurent. Series: The housen (coming to Apple TV+) will be about the fictional story of a modern family running the head of a fashion house plagued by power struggles and ego wars. The main characters will be played by Lumber Wilson, Amira Kasar and Carol Bouke. After a series of documentaries dedicated to the creators (Simon Porte Jacquemus, Olivier Rousteing, etc.) and behind the scenes of the industry (Luxury, dream factory), so it’s time for TV fiction. It must be said that fashion is absolutely “videogenic” both with the intrigues that take place behind the scenes and with its aesthetic factor.

A fascinating universe

In fashion circus everything is more dramatic and exaggerated than in real life, a distorting mirror that contributes to all the plot twists. “These fashion fates have all the ingredients that make a good soap opera successful; the plot is as real as it is unbelievable, awesome, boastful, money, betrayals… We know the show will be safe, guaranteed. three or four dramatic twists in each episode,” assures Luca Marchetti, semologist and fashion expert. Indeed, in the world of haute couture, everything comes together to captivate the public. star characters, competition between designers, a sense of luxury and drama… It is the whole sociology of this micro-society that is revealed, the hierarchies in the studios. to fratricidal wars between designers.

Series: Cristobal Balenciaga , Created by Lourdes Iglesias, explores these various topics. The six-episode story follows actor Alberto San Juan as the Spanish fashion designer, an enigmatic man who, long before Martin Margiela, ran away from reporters and gave up communications. The story begins when the designer presented his first Parisian haute couture collection in 1937. On screen, we see Anouk Greenberg playing Coco Chanel or even Nin d’Urso, the designer’s cabin model. “What attracted me most to his personality was his integrity and lack of ambition in such a competitive and cruel world,” says Lourdes Iglesias, who portrays a man driven by his obsession with control and almost a desire for control, sick of perfection. “Besides being a great creator, he was an outstanding businessman. Three thousand people worked for him,” he adds.

“Money has always flowed freely in the fashion industry. It naturally increases the scale of events, as it signals close ties to systems of power. Everything in fashion is on a scale of 10, and the public loves a scandal,” explains Luca Marchetti. The low blows between the designers and the dark hours of the occupation are not ignored, the screenwriters do not hide the ambiguities of the creators during this time. Ten episode time series new look American director Todd A. by Kessler and airing on Apple TV+, explores Christian Dior’s more than promising beginnings in the context of World War II. On screen, a five-star cast. Australian Ben Mendelsohn plays the fashion designer, and Maisie Williams, known for her role as Arya Stark. Game Of Thrones , plays his sister Catherine Dior, a resistance fighter exiled to the Ravensbrück concentration camp. French actress Juliette Binoche plays the fiery Gabrielle Chanel. “The fashion industry is a backdrop new look but it’s the characters who drive the dance, with their personal conflicts, their struggle to reconcile art and life, in desperate times when everything is in doubt,” explains Todd A. Kessler, who spent seven years researching dozens of biographies. , archives and interviews with the help of several fashion historians to carry out this project.

Behind the scenes of a dream

There is something fascinating about coming into the intimacy of these figures “inherited” by the history of the Great Houses, as they eventually became abstract, as if frozen in History. Chanel was in agony, in tears, walking in her pajamas in her suite at the Ritz. Cristobal Balenciaga refuses to bow to the demagogy of his shareholders, finding refuge in the arms of his companion. Christian Dior depends on the predictions of his clairvoyant, haunted by the disappearance of his sister. Pierre Balmain yells at his boss, Lucien Lelon, whom he calls a vampire… This is where the fiction gets interesting. “The documentarian works from the filmed archives, he depends on his historical sources,” explains director Olivier Nicklaus, the author of a number of popular documentaries about fashion, such as: Azedin Alaia, French fashion designer.

“Through fiction we can let the dogs loose, imagine things, and even question the unspoken things of an era.” Thus, through these series, the creators’ homosexuality is addressed on the screen. Haute couture stars take on another dimension, a more human one, that helps generate empathy in the public that only begs to be revealed behind the scenes. “The series allow us to care about the psychological writing of the characters, to explore their interiority,” explains Luca Marchetti. The series is taken from the book of journalist Rafael Bakke Kaiser Karl intends to lift the veil on the “most mysterious” of fashion designers, exploring his rivalry with Pierre Bergé and Yves Saint Laurent, as well as his love story with Jacques de Bascher.

But behind the drama we also see that fashion is “real” work done in a white coat. Balenciaga or Dior drape fabrics that tirelessly fill their sketchbooks… These lines naturally emphasize fabrics and clothing models. Some houses have also reached out to costume designers. Thus, Chanel participated in the creation of the outfits of the character of Gabrielle Chanel in the series Cristobal Balenciaga. “Dior was instrumental in making his archives and Mr. Dior’s creations available to us so that we could recreate his first collection from 1947, as well as the dresses presented at his conference at the Sorbonne in 1955,” emphasizes Todd A. Kessler. The challenges of communicating these promised productions to a global audience are, as we can imagine, important for brands. “It’s about soft power houses, and more broadly, the influence of French fashion and Paris in the world,” analyzes Olivier Nicklaus. Revealing the backstage of this dream world, the directors place fashion at the heart of modern culture, making it a social, political as well as aesthetic issue.