In 1947, Christian Dior launched his fashion house with a collection that charmed and markedly changed the industry. Paris had been liberated from Nazi occupation three years earlier, while Dior’s own emancipation from Lucien Lelong, for whom he’d been designing since 1942, arrived in 1946. Labelled the ‘New Look’ by Carmel Snow, the acclaimed editor-in-chief of Harper’s Bazaar, the collection made a compelling argument for excess after post-war austerity. The bar suit in particular, comprised of an ivory, wasp-waisted jacket and full, pleated black skirt, was quickly championed for its dramatic new silhouette. Now, adopting its moniker from Snow’s baptism, a new ten-part drama from Apple TV+ titled The New Look excavates fashion history, tracing Dior’s professional and personal life during the Second World War and leading up to the New Look.
