Fashion drama becomes TV staple

By Elizabeth Kealy-Morris

With the release of dramas Cristóbal Balenciaga, The New Look and Becoming Karl Lagerfeld, the fashion drama miniseries has become a staple for streaming television in 2024.

The latest offering, French-language drama La Maison on Apple TV, captures the essence of the drama and intrigue surrounding Maison Ledu, a fictional luxury haute couture house controlled by the Ledu family.

The dynamics between key characters are well outlined, and explore universal themes such as love, power, ambition and betrayal, as well as a longing for connection, acceptance and identity. In this way La Maison has little to do with apparel and clothing in their materiality: the camera does not linger over sketches or runway collections. The series, instead, engages with fashion on a more abstract level, highlighting how it intersects with broader human concerns.

Vincent Ledu (Lambert Wilson) is the celebrated designer whose scandal threatens the future of Maison Ledu. His racist tirade against a wealthy Korean client was captured by catering staff at a public function and posted on social media by Ledu’s scheming nephew in a bid to ruin his uncle’s reputation.

Perle Foster (Amira Casar) is Vincent’s former principal model and inspiration who, despite her lasting attachment to Vincent, is crucial in the house’s post-scandal revival. Paloma Castel (Zita Hanrot) is the orphaned mixed-heritage daughter of Vincent’s long-time gay lover. Neither were accepted into the family and this tension of class, race, and sexual orientation difference is central to the plot throughout the series.

The character of Paloma, in her early 30s, represents millennial indifference to tradition, hierarchy and heritage. We meet her in the first episode as the co-designer of a Berlin-based luxury eco-focused ready-to-wear brand. It’s marking a milestone with its first runway show at Paris Fashion Week with other brands’ deadstock (unsold inventory) forming the runway collection.

In a bid to ensure the Ledu brand makes radical shifts in creative leadership after the racism scandal, Perle seeks to sideline Vincent and draw Paloma into Maison Ledu as the next-generation designer who will bring innovation and hope to Maison’s restoration. Diane Rovel (Carole Bouquet), the iron-fisted CEO and matriarch of the Rovel Luxury Group, represents the archetype of the fashion conglomerate within fashion markets, controlled by the monetary interests of anonymous shareholders. Viewers learn early that her acquisition plans for Maison Ledu are driven by strategic interest and personal vendetta.

The series effectively sets up the central conflict, the stakes involved and the potential for dramatic and strategic manoeuvres. It paints a vivid picture of the internal and external pressures faced by Maison Ledu as it struggles to navigate its crisis, a problem that has notably rocked actual luxury fashion houses in recent years. An interesting aspect of the series is the contemporary understanding of the role social media plays in creating spectacle that brings people together as well as divides.

The luxury fashion market seeks to protect and extend agreed assumptions of how such brands function via rarity, exclusivity and uniqueness to add value to their brand DNA, products and businesses. Luxury brands must ensure coherence between values, narratives, highly skilled craft and artistic techniques, with space for both tradition and innovation. By integrating these elements harmoniously, a brand can sustain its luxury status and build a lasting impression of excellence and exclusivity.

Luxury fashion, clothing and apparel markets depend on the objects they design becoming status symbols. But they also rely on the allure, appeal, imagination and magic promised through fashion stories that are told through photography and videography. This latest AppleTV+ fashion drama is released against the backdrop of shifting consumer expectations in the luxury sector, particularly in the wake of the Covid pandemic.

There has been a transformative shift from traditional “show-and-tell” marketing to more immersive and interactive brand experiences. Consumers now seek to “join and experience” luxury brands rather than merely observe – and this is driving brands to create engaging content that extends beyond the product itself. This evolution has given rise to innovative strategies, including online videos, interactive events and sophisticated uses of technology to enhance post-purchase engagement.

The rise of the fashion series is a direct response to these changing consumer preferences. By integrating high-quality media narratives with brand storytelling, these series offer a novel avenue for brands to convey their history and ethos, creating a platform for the fashion industry to captivate audiences and deepen their connection with the brand narrative.

As streaming platforms continue to gain prominence, the collaboration between fashion houses and media producers is likely to expand. This means that in the future, the intersection of fashion and storytelling will become increasingly integral to brand identity and consumer connection.

Elizabeth Kealy-Morris is Senior Lecturer and Researcher in Dress and Belonging, Manchester Fashion Institute, Manchester Metropolitan University. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons licence