Apple TV+'s 'The New Look' To Sashay Away for Valentine's Day

The fashion world is where art meets commerce, taking highfalutin ideas but making them wearable on the human body, buyable for the average consumer, and desirable for the wearer with taste. Considering the high bar such a demand sets, one would think that would be enough to sustain an industry, considering the high bar such a demand sets, but fashion has always attracted the high-strung and those with a flair for the dramatic. But no one, bar no one, really ever topped two of the greatest in that arena, Coco Chanel and Christian Dior, whose fashion lines still bear their names today.

Coco Chanel was famous for her rivalry; arguably the biggest was with Italian designer Elsa Schiaparelli, who, alongside Chanel, was one of the most prominent figures in the fashion business during the Interwar period. However, the one that caught the attention of the press was her feud with Dior, who fairly exploded onto the fashion scene in 1947 with a line that came to define the silhouette of the 1950s, referred to, even today, as “The New Look.”

Technically, Dior called that first collection “Corolle” in a nod to the bell-shaped petals that inspired his skirts. It was a throwback to the Belle Epoque, with structured silhouettes, padded hips, cinched waists, and tulle, taffeta, and silk organza layers for days, in defiance of a decade of rationing. Chanel’s response to these outfits that were less about celebrating a woman’s curves than forcing them to behave? “Dior doesn’t dress women. He upholsters them.”