Fashion drama becomes a TV series

La Maison captures the drama, intrigue and intense rivalry of the luxury fashion world

By Elizabeth Kealy-Morris

With the release of dramas Cristóbal Balenciaga, The New Look And Become Karl LagerfeldThe fashion drama miniseries has become a staple of streaming television in 2024.

The latest 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 the key characters are well depicted and explore universal themes such as love, power, ambition and betrayal, as well as the longing for connection, acceptance and identity. This way La Maison In terms of its materiality, it has little to do with clothes and clothing: the camera does not linger over sketches or catwalk collections. Instead, the series 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 customer was filmed by catering staff at a public event and posted on social media by Ledu’s scheming nephew in an attempt to ruin his uncle’s reputation.

Perle Foster (Amira Casar) is Vincent’s former main model and inspiration, who, despite her ongoing attachment to Vincent, plays a crucial role in reviving the house after the scandal. Paloma Castel (Zita Hanrot) is the orphaned, mixed-race daughter of Vincent’s long-time gay lover. Neither was accepted into the family and this tension between class, race and sexual orientation is central to the plot of the entire series.

The figure of Paloma, in her early 30s, represents the millennial indifference to tradition, hierarchy and heritage. We meet her in the first episode as the co-designer of a Berlin-based luxury eco-ready brand. The company marks a milestone with the first runway show at Paris Fashion Week, with the runway collection consisting of remnants (unsold inventory) from other brands.

To ensure that the Ledu brand undergoes a radical change in creative leadership following the racism scandal, Perle seeks to get Vincent out of the way and bring Paloma into Maison Ledu as the next generation designer, bringing innovation and hope to the Maison’s restoration will bring. Diane Rovel (Carole Bouquet), the iron-fisted CEO and matriarch of the Rovel Luxury Group, represents the archetype of the fashion conglomerate in the fashion markets, controlled by the financial interests of anonymous shareholders. Viewers learn early on that their plans to take over Maison Ledu are driven by strategic interest and personal vendetta.

The series effectively presents the central conflict, the risks and the potential for dramatic and strategic maneuvers. It paints a vivid picture of the internal and external pressures faced by Maison Ledu in dealing with its crisis, a problem that has been rife in recent years has particularly shaken luxury fashion houses. An interesting aspect of the series is its contemporary understanding of the role that social media plays in creating spectacles that bring people together and divide them.

The luxury fashion market seeks to protect and expand accepted assumptions about how such brands operate through rarity, exclusivity and uniqueness to add value to their brand DNA, products and stores. Luxury brands must ensure coherence between values, narratives, highly skilled craftsmanship and artistic techniques, providing space for tradition and innovation. By harmoniously integrating these elements, a brand can maintain its luxury status and leave a lasting impression of excellence and exclusivity.

Luxury fashion, clothing and apparel markets rely on the objects they design to become status symbols. But they also rely on the appeal, appeal, imagination and magic promised by fashion stories told through photography and videography. This latest AppleTV+ fashion drama comes amid changing consumer expectations in the luxury sector, particularly in the wake of the Covid pandemic.

There has been a shift from traditional “show-and-tell” marketing to more immersive and interactive brand experiences. Consumers now want to “join and experience” luxury brands rather than just watch – and that’s driving brands to create engaging content that goes beyond the product itself. This evolution has led to innovative strategies including online videos, interactive events and sophisticated technology applications to improve post-purchase engagement.

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

As streaming platforms become more and more important, collaboration between fashion houses and media producers is likely to increase. This means that the intersection between fashion and storytelling will become increasingly important to brand identity and connection with consumers in the future.

Elizabeth Kealy Morris is a lecturer and researcher in clothing and belonging at the Manchester Fashion Institute, Manchester Metropolitan University. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license