‘The New Look’ Filming Locations Are as Legendary as the Fashion
- Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.
- Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.
- Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.
"Hearst Magazines and Yahoo may earn commission or revenue on some items through these links."
Inspired by true events, the Apple TV+ series The New Look offers a dramatized version of a very real—and very dramatic—time in France, when Nazis occupied Paris and haute couture was hanging on by a thread amid the unimaginable atrocities of World War II.
The series, streaming today, begins in 1955 with Christian Dior (played by Ben Mendelsohn) addressing a packed auditorium at the Sorbonne about his career as a couturier, a period in which Paris was dressed in Nazi flags and propaganda, and the couture houses either closed or stayed open to inevitably design for the wives of its German insurrectionists. Questioned about how his decisions—and those of others in his métier, including Coco Chanel (Juliette Binoche), Lucien Lelong (John Malkovich), Pierre Balmain (Thomas Poitevin), and Cristóbal Balenciaga (Nuno Lopes)—impacted fashion history and their own beliefs, Dior’s memory takes us back to 1943 as the story begins to take shape two years into the occupation.
Although its main characters are iconic French fashion designers, the show’s creator, Todd A. Kessler, weaves a tale that is less about the glamour and excesses of high fashion and more about the art of survival in the face of insurmountable odds and utter tragedy. In fact, fashion is often the backdrop to the action.
As the momentum builds over 10 episodes to the series’ finale—the revelation of Dior’s 1947 debut collection, heralded as “The New Look” by Harper’s Bazaar editor Carmel Snow (Glenn Close)—viewers are treated to masterfully constructed sets and actual locations dressed in period furnishings that set the stage for the emergence of contemporary haute couture. From Chanel’s longtime residence at the Ritz to Dior’s penultimate fashion presentation in his atelier at 30 Avenue Montaigne, The New Look filming locations are runway-ready.
Maxim’s
Filming location: On-site in the actual Maxim’s at 3 rue Royale, Paris
Founded by Maxime Gaillard in 1893, Maxim’s was one of the most fashionable restaurants in Paris through the 1930s, with its incredible Art Nouveau decor and equally incredible clientele like the Duke of Windsor, Jean Cocteau, Sasha Gitri, and Marcel Proust. In the decade that followed, it was also the preferred bistro of the German high command and Nazi sympathizers including president of the Reichstag Hermann Göring and Germany’s ambassador to France Otto Abetz.
“Maxim’s is so beautiful, it would have been silly not to shoot there,” says the show’s production designer Anne Seibel. “We dressed the restaurant with flowers and added our own tablecloths, plates, and glassware and rearranged some of the tables, but there was nothing we really had to change.”
Having previously used the location for Woody Allen’s 2011 film Midnight in Paris, Seibel was prepared for the only real challenge of shooting in the historic eatery for a pivotal scene in which Chanel is dining at a long table with Nazi officials and several party supporters. “It’s a very tight space, so we had to help the director of photography strategically disguise the lighting to make sure that the equipment wasn’t seen [on camera].”
Le Gallopin
Filming location: On-site in Le Gallopin at 40 rue Notre-Dame des Victoires, Paris
Opened in Paris’s 2nd arrondissement by Gustave Gallopin in 1876, the brasserie was also one of the city’s first cocktail bars. Favored for its classic “bourgeois” French dishes, the neighborhood hot spot is also recognized for its interiors, which consist of Cuban mahogany woodwork embellished with hand-painted motifs of garlands, horns of plenty, fruit, and cartouches with the founder’s initials. One of the most compelling elements is a dining room with an immense Art Nouveau–style glass roof that was installed in 1900.
“Obviously, it made sense to shoot here too, as opposed to building a set,” Seibel says about the location that serves as a regular meeting spot for Dior and his associates—and a composite boyfriend, Jacques (David Kammenos), who works as a bartender there. “Again, we brought in some period furniture and props like [liquor and wine] bottles and advertisements—and outside the windows we dressed the street with period posters, lamps, and even a newspaper kiosk.”
Coco Chanel’s “Apartment” Suite at the Ritz Hotel in Paris
Filming location: The Cité du Cinéma (or Studios of Paris), Saint-Denis
The designer’s home address since 1937, 15 Place Vendôme—better known as the Hotel Ritz—served as the center of her private world in Paris off and on for more than three decades. During the Nazi occupation it was also the residence and meeting place for high-ranking German military officials including Chanel’s acknowledged lover with Nazi ties, Baron Hans Günther von Dincklage (portrayed by Claes Bang). To escape persecution for her alleged activities with the regime, in 1945 Chanel decamped to Lausanne, Switzerland, where she spent the next several years in exile before returning to Paris—and the Ritz—to reopen her shuttered couture house in 1954.
At the bougie hotel, she rented a 2,023-square-foot suite on the second floor overlooking Place Vendôme. “We weren’t able to shoot in the Ritz, or really even go into its [archive], but I had plenty of research on where she was living,” notes Seibel. “She actually lived there in two suites: The first overlooked her shop on Rue Cambon and the last one [where she died in 1971].”
From historic images of the hotel’s interiors and Chanel’s suite itself, Seibel focused her interpretation on the larger of the two overlooking Place Vendôme. “We kept the style of the living room and bedroom seen in archival images,” Seibel explains, “including the furnishings and fabrics we selected—it was quite a job, but I love building sets.”
Lucien Lelong’s Atelier
Filming location: The Cité du Cinéma (or Studios of Paris), Saint-Denis
Few images exist of the couturier’s atelier, which, presumably, occupied the same offices at 18 Place de la Madeleine in Paris that housed his parents’ namesake dressmaking and textile business, A.E. Lelong. Although he opened his own couture house in 1910, garments that bore his label were created by other designers throughout its history, including Dior, Balmain, and Hubert de Givenchy. “I relied on the script to help me design the space,” explains Seibel. “I studied his conversations with Madame Zehnacker (Zabou Breitman) and Dior, and envisioned what they were seeing—but really, all these fashion houses had a similar feel at the time.”
According to a two-sentence mention in an August 1948 issue of Time magazine, Lelong “closed up his atelier, with his new fall creations still unfinished” at his doctor’s behest, and with nobody to carry on the line. “In selecting the paint color on the walls, the drapes in the corridor, the bolts of fabric, mannequins, and equipment, I wanted it to feel a bit worn out and lived in,” she adds, noting that her team spoke with trained seamstresses who explained how a proper couture workroom at the time would have functioned.
Christian Dior’s Atelier at 30 Avenue Montaigne
Filming location: The Cité du Cinéma (or Studios of Paris), Saint-Denis
Perhaps the most pivotal moment in Christian Dior’s life as a designer was his first haute couture presentation on February 12, 1947, which defined the “New Look” postwar and helped to revive the business of high fashion around the world. The seminal collection—which included his famous black-and-white Bar suit—was presented to several hundred guests packed like sardines throughout the Maison’s galleries and its grand staircase.
“There is just so much reference material and imagery for the atelier and this [historic] moment,” explains Seibel, who previously envisioned Dior’s atelier for the 2022 film Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris. “Building the staircase was quite challenging, but then it’s really a piece of art.”
The set designer’s team of carpenters and artisans recreated it so well that the team at Maison Dior—where the actual staircase has been modernized—was amazed. “We even selected the chairs one by one on eBay, then reupholstered and painted them all,” Seibel says. “I wanted this element to be as accurate as possible because there are so many photos of that iconic fashion show.”
You Might Also Like
