Apple’s lavish French drama follows a family of haute couture power players who scramble to rebuild, fend off the vultures and seize power for themselves after their patriarch is laid low by scandal
When the inaugural season of La Maison starts out with a legendary fashion designer “pulling a Galliano,” you know you’re in for a ride. About a decade ago, real-life Dior designer John Galliano torpedoed his career after a video containing a drunken racist rant went viral. What was the end for one designer in 2013 is what this new French drama presents as merely the beginning.
When an iconic fashion house is suddenly in need of a new star designer, what happens next? “We see a lot of documentaries about how fashion is made and fashion shows, but what you don’t see is who is actually holding the strings,” says the show’s star, Lambert Wilson. “Those super-powerful, mostly men, sometimes women, that basically make or destroy designers and entire companies as they wish.”
The series, which premiered on September 20, stars French national treasure Wilson as a Galliano-esque figure — the once-celebrated, suddenly reviled designer Vincent Ledu. At heart, it’s a family drama set in the world of haute couture. With Maison Ledu hanging on by a thread, Vincent’s former muse Perle, played by Amira Casar, wants to bring in young guerilla designer Paloma Castel (Zita Hanrot) to lead their house into a new era. Meanwhile, the competing luxury group Rovel sees this as an opportunity to acquire the company that is not just a thorn in the side of ruthless CEO Diane Rovel (Carole Bouquet), but also that of her business partner — Ledu’s estranged brother, Victor (Pierre Deladonchamps).
In its 10 episodes, the series injects themes like ageism, relevance, adapting to new trends, and sustainability, less in a finger-wagging way, but in a manner that feels deeply personal to these characters. “Perle feels the weight of that, because she was a muse and she’s getting older,” says Casar. “Vincent has managed to mold her into what he wants her to be, but there’s immense loneliness under there. It’s quite refreshing for her, even if there’s an age gap between her and Paloma, to be with the younger generation because they look up to her as an ex-model who is a star. But at the same time, she’s bringing in business solutions, because it’s also about her survival and the survival of the house. She has to choose someone who will revolutionize the whole system.”
For Paloma, fitting into the rigid structure of a traditional fashion house is not the easiest task. “She’s a fighter,” says Hanrot. “She’s trying to find her place in the family and in the world, as a designer. And afterwards, it is going to be complicated for her to find a balance between what the fashion world wants from her and what [principles] she has to leave behind.”
Her struggles are somewhat shared by Vincent’s nephew Robinson, who in his mind would have been the person to take over Maison Ledu. “He is not OK with the position he has in his life,” says Antoine Reinartz, the actor bringing Robinson to life. “He’s an heir, and everyone is telling him to just enjoy his money, so he doesn’t know what he deserves. He’d like to be a designer but, actually, he is really stuck.”
Behind the scenes is Canadian director Daniel “Podz” Grou, who worked alongside French helmer Fabrice Gobert to establish the pace, look and tone of this visual spectacle. For the Cardinal and Lupin director, it was the scale of the project that appealed to him. “I’ve done others shows where you are going into the deep and dark, but this was all about glamour. I keep comparing it to this jewel that we were trying to shine, and it was fun to flex those muscles,” says Grou. “It’s also propulsive and it never lets up. When I was reading it, I couldn’t put it down, which is a rare thing. I read it all in one sitting.”
With its depiction of the fabulous French fashion industry, flanked by some of the most glorious Parisian landmarks, there is no shortage of extravagance and beauty in La Maison. But what delights Grou most are the characters created by writers José Caltagirone and Valentine Milville. “I like when people are overtly b****y and they enjoy being b****y,” he says with a chuckle. “I don’t like that in real life, but I like it in fiction, as everybody does. It’s fun to see the backstabbing. How is Diane going to f*** over the other guy? How is Vincent going to try to get his mansion back? It’s the stuff of great drama.”
As for that “jewel” aspect, the visuals of the show do not hurt its appeal either. “It’s so rare nowadays to arrive on a set that is so luxurious,” says Wilson. “Because luxury is within the subject, you can’t do something cheap and cheerful about luxury and fashion in Paris. But it was mind-boggling — the number of people on the set, the number of extras, how they were dressed, the number of hair and makeup people. Apple TV+ definitely gave it their all.”
La Maison, streaming Friday, October 11 on Apple TV+