Juliette Binoche Reveals Coco Chanel’s Rarely Talked About Dark Side in The New Look

When one hears the names Coco Chanel and Christian Dior, the first word that comes to mind is couture. The second is probably icons. While many may immediately think of Chanel No. 5 when hearing about the fashion legend, most don’t know about Chanel’s history during World War II. And it’s a shocker. Juliette Binoche, who plays Coco Chanel in The New Look, sat down exclusively with SheKnows to discuss her new limited series on Apple TV+. Binoche is joined by Ben Mendelsohn, who plays Christian Dior, John Malkovich as Lucien Lelong, and Game of Thrones star Maisie Williams as Christian’s sister Catherine Dior. The New Look is an eye-opening look at Chanel’s not so iconic past – specifically her involvement with the Nazi party, and the Dior family’s brutal hardships during the war.

Binoche confesses like many she had little knowledge of Chanel’s history as a Nazi informant. The New Look explores this side of Chanel, that seems to have been brushed under the historical rug. As you watch the show, Chanel No. 5 might not smell as sweet. Binoche herself admits, “I didn’t know very much, I knew there were some shadows around there, it took me a while to understand where it came from, not to excuse her, but to understand where the roots were.” Chanel was involved in an affair with a German official and Binoche says her relationship with Boy Capel, who gave her confidence, but subsequently betrayed her by marrying someone of higher status, impacted Chanel a lot. But wait, a broken heart doesn’t justify becoming a Nazi informant. Binoche says, Capel’s death and the trauma of that relationship seems to have turned Chanel into some who didn’t care about anything but having fun.

We asked Binoche if she was able to feel sympathy for Chanel, and whether Chanel was conveniently naïve or intentionally trying to hurt people. “When you play a character like this, you’re not looking for sympathy, you’re looking for something to understand the need, and relate to the need – she was manipulative at certain times, I don’t think there was premeditation.”

Chanel also had a relationship with a German official, Spatz, played artfully by Bad Sisters’ villain Claes Bang, who ultimately turned out to be a spy who had relationships with many women. Some says Chanel didn’t have a lot to do with the Nazi party, but she was in bed with them. Literally.

The history of Coco Chanel and Christian Dior during World War II is deeply depressing, as we learn that Dior goes to Chanel for help to get his sister Catherine out of a Nazi work camp. Catherine was the inspiration for Dior’s 1947 “New Look” collection. Catherine was a resistance fighter who was captured by the Nazis. If you’re wondering whether Chanel helped a fellow fashionista out, she did not. The two were never fans of each other, but this probably put the nail in the coffin, or rather pin in their cushion. Politics made strange bedfellows, and Coco Chanel chose unwisely.

However, Binoche reveals there was one person Chanel cared about and that was her nephew, a French soldier named André, who had been captured by the Nazis. In fact, some say Chanel only was involved with the Nazis to free her nephew.

“If I put myself in her shoes, she was definitely a survivor, and conqueror, and didn’t care about the consequences…. And there was a feeling of being entitled, because she was the star of design at the time. During the wars, she was the one liberating women – liberating women from corsets, liberating women from skirts, putting pants on, cutting her hair, suntan. Everything she was doing for herself, became fashionable,” Binoche says, and adds that Chanel never wanted to dress the Germans. But the Germans bought her business. “When she learned that her nephew was a prisoner of the Germans, she wanted to save him.”

In fact, that might explain her involvement with German official-gigolo spy Spatz. Though Binoche says she also wanted to “have a little bit of a good time, to lighten up during that horrible period of time.”

Watch the exclusive video interview above to learn more about Chanel’s complicated past and what Binoche discovered playing her. The New Look is streaming now on Apple TV+.

Before you go, check out the all-time best ‘Outlander’ episodes you need to watch.