Series: “La Maison”: Tough fashion world

Can a story from the fashion world also be told as a socio-political drama? At least that’s what the Apple TV+ series “La Maison” is trying to do, which is currently in line with this year’s fashion series. At the beginning of the year, the series “Cristóbal Balenciaga” started on Disney+, followed a few months later by “Becoming Karl Lagerfeld,” while Apple TV+ showcased the life and work of Christian Dior in “The New Look.”

What is the appeal of following the biographies of famous fashion designers whose work lies at an interface between commerce and art? »La Maison« tells a fictional story, so it doesn’t deal with any real myth, but rather stages the fashion world as an exciting family drama with lots of political undertones. Right at the beginning of the ten-part series, the great fashion designer Vincent Ledu (Lambert Wilson) falls from the throne because an employee secretly films him as he utters the worst racist insults and complains about a Chinese millionaire. Instead of apologizing, the 60-year-old fashion designer portrays himself as the victim of a campaign. The respected family business, the titular Maison, the last family-run haute couture company on the Seine, has no choice but to retire him.

To address the viral outrage, the young, non-white designer Paloma Castel (Zita Hanrot) is made the company’s art director. Paloma is also the daughter of Vincent’s long-time lover. Does that make her something like a family member? Does she have a claim to the Ledu fashion empire, which became what it is today thanks to the work of her father, who was never a shareholder?

The luxurious wealth of the family, which even owns a small castle in Brittany, is like a golden cage.

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Together with the former model Perle Foster (Amira Casar), who was Vincent’s muse for years and is in a relationship with one of his brothers, Paloma runs the venerable company in the heart of Paris and completely turns everything around. Paloma had previously lived and worked in Berlin with her partner Ye (Park Ji-min). The two come to Paris, present sustainable fashion with a feminist statement in avant-garde performances and thus shake up the Paris fashion scene. At the same time, the fashion company Rovel is trying to take over the Ledu family business and is sowing discord as best it can in the already divided family, which is more divided than ever by the Vincent scandal.

“La Maison” is a multi-layered and very fast-paced family drama in which tough and scheming businessmen take charge of each other. Family relationships always have something to do with the company that takes priority over everything else. No matter whether the sister of the fallen fashion czar Marie Ledu (Anne Consigny) is put under pressure by her rich husband, an ultra-conservative politician whose money was used to prevent a company bankruptcy, or Vincent’s nephew is spied on by his lover on behalf of the rival Rovel group. It’s always about corporate policy goals to which everything has to be subordinated.

The luxurious wealth of the family, which even owns a small castle in Brittany, is like a golden cage. Only the young Paloma, who grew up with her mother in Latin America and whose relationship with her friend soon falls into serious crisis, tries to resist the old routine. The more she has to do with the Ledu family and finds out how closely her life is actually linked to this wealthy fashion clan, the harder it becomes for her to escape it. But the rebellious Paloma doesn’t give up and continues to fight against traditional conventions.

Available on Apple TV+