See the Cast of The New Look Compared to Their Real Life Counterparts
In this new period drama set in wartime Paris, Juliette Binoche stars as Coco Chanel and Ben Mendelsohn stars as Christian Dior.
The New Look details the experience of French fashion designers—namely, Coco Chanel and Christian Dior—during and after World War II.
"Coco Chanel, at the start of the war, was the world's most famous fashion designer," Todd A. Kessler, the show's creator, tells T&C. "She was very wealthy and [had] a lot of status in Paris. Dior, coming out of the war, ends up ascending to her throne. There's a changing of the guard, so to speak. So the focal points were really, unintentionally, Dior dethrones Chanel, in a certain way."
Executive producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura adds, "What they also represented was almost a polar opposite of design. She had freed women, she thought permanently, from the constricting fashion that Dior brings back, in a sense. That was the other side of it: The public face, but also the artistic collision that's going on between the two of them." Over the ten episodes (four are out now), the story will follow the diverging paths of Dior and Chanel, up until Dior debuts his famous "New Look" collection in 1947.
Each actor brought their character to vivid life—including the two leads: Juliette Binoche, who plays Coco Chanel, and Ben Mendelsohn, who plays Christian Dior. "I remember Juliette coming in one morning saying she had dreamed she had been visited by Chanel. She felt the responsibility of taking on this part," Emily Mortimer, who plays Elsa Lombardi (based on Vera Bate Lombardi), tells T&C in our March 2024 cover story. "She made Coco Chanel a very earthy human being: funny, sexy, earthbound. A woman with a will to survive."
Here, see how The New Look actors compare to their real-life counterparts:
Juliette Binoche as Coco Chanel
French actress Juliette Binoche takes on the role of Coco Chanel. Of playing Chanel, Binoche tells T&C, "She wanted her freedom because she started from a very traumatic point. Yes, she is complex, but I think everybody's complex."
Ben Mendelsohn as Christian Dior
Mendelsohn, an Australian actor (you may recognize him from Star Wars, or the Netflix show Bloodline, for which he won an Emmy for his performance) takes on the role of Christian Dior in this period piece.
Maisie Williams as Catherine Dior
Game of Thrones star Williams takes on an entirely different type of role in French resistance fighter Catherine Dior, the sister of Christian. "She's not someone who we think about when we think the Dior fashion house, and yet, she was such a huge inspiration for Christian in his personal life," Williams tells T&C.
John Malkovich as Lucien Lelong
Malkovich adds to his long list of television credits in his turn as French couturier Lucien Lelong, who was Dior's boss until 1946.
Claes Bang as Spatz
Bang, a Danish actor and musician, tackles the role of Chanel's lover, Hans von Dincklage, a Nazi spy also called "Spatz."
Emily Mortimer as Elsa Lombardi (based on Vera Bate Lombardi)
Mortimer, a British actress perhaps best known for The Newsroom and The Pursuit of Love, plays Elsa Lombardi in The New Look. Elsa is socialite Vera Bate Lombardi, a close friend of Chanel's who was arrested in Italy during World War II for spying for the British, and later traveled with Chanel to Madrid, where she denounced the French designer as a Nazi spy.
Glenn Close as Carmel Snow
Close doesn't show up until later in the series, but she plays Harper's Bazaar Editor in Chief Carmel Snow. She said, "I was thrilled when [Todd Kessler] asked me to step into the daunting shoes of Carmel Snow in The New Look, and only hope I do justice to one of the truly iconic, game-changing figures in the history of fashion."
Emily Burack (she/her) is the Senior News Editor for Town & Country, where she covers entertainment, culture, the royals, and a range of other subjects. Before joining T&C, she was the deputy managing editor at Hey Alma, a Jewish culture site. Follow her @emburack on Twitter and Instagram.
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