Meet the Characters in Apple TV’s Juicy New Vogue Collection ‘La Maison’

PARIS — Put together to satisfy essentially the most dysfunctional households in trend.

Giving the Roy household from “Succession” a run for his or her cash, the Ledu and Rovel clans are on the heart of the brand new 10-episode Apple TV+ sequence “La Maison,” hitting screens Friday.

Betrayal, backstabbing and bitchiness abound on this story of feuding factions vying for management of a fictional French trend home.

The brainchild of Alex Berger, the chief producer behind the hit French spy sequence “The Bureau,” the French-language present contains a solid together with Lambert Wilson, Carole Bouquet and Amira Casar as veteran trend figures, in addition to Zita Hanrot because the rising designer who crystalizes their rivalry.

The storyline recollects the legendary duel between real-life luxurious magnates Bernard Arnault and François Pinault for management of Gucci within the Nineties.

Since then, Arnault has develop into one of many world’s richest males, underlining the rising financial clout of France’s luxurious sector. Whereas the sequence’ creators say they didn’t got down to skewer the trade, they did need to discover the darker aspect of a enterprise constructed on promoting desires.

“We needed to indicate that even within the 0.01 %, the households are simply as dysfunctional as our personal,” Berger mentioned in a joint interview with showrunners Valentine Milville and José Caltagirone.

“We have been on this dichotomy between the shiny picture and the ferocity of the relationships that underpin it,” Caltagirone mentioned. “It’s like individuals’s obsession with royal households. In a manner, it makes us really feel nearer to them. It’s reassuring to assume they’ve issues too.”

The plot charts how Vincent Ledu, head of a century-old high fashion home rooted in lacemaking, falls from grace after a viral video spreads on social media. His muse and right-hand lady, Perle Foster, groups with rising designer Paloma Castel to avoid wasting the home of Ledu and make it related for Gen Z.

However hazard lurks within the type of Diane Rovel, the ruthless head of the Rovel luxurious group, who’s hellbent on buying Maison Ledu by any means attainable and tearing aside its founding household.

Viewers gained’t fail to attract parallels between the characters and real-life trend icons. Eager to make the present as life like as attainable, the writers consulted everybody from designers to seamstresses and trend sociologists to get the small print proper.

“We approached it with the identical degree of care as a couture home does a group,” Milville mentioned. “We tried to create actual identities for the manufacturers and homes represented.”

With the assistance of costume designer Carine Sarfati, whose credit embrace the Netflix sequence “Name My Agent,” the present takes viewers behind the scenes to couture workshops and runway exhibits, with cameos by trade figures reminiscent of Balmain designer Olivier Rousteing, mannequin Eva Herzigova and journalist Mademoiselle Agnès.

Sarfati introduced in trend designers to work alongside her standard workforce to ensure each ingredient clicked, right down to creating unique emblem buckles, buttons and linings for the garments. Her purse designer, Clara Ormières, beforehand labored for Hermès.

“Once they tapped me for the venture, it was tremendous thrilling as a result of I really like trend, but additionally actually anxious as a result of it’s going to be scrutinized by individuals from the trade and we don’t have the identical deadlines. We’re making these things a yr, a year-and-a-half earlier than the present is aired. Will it nonetheless work?” Sarfati mentioned.

She was additionally involved with viewer expectations following the runaway success of “Emily in Paris” and its multicolored wardrobe. “It was behind my thoughts, however all of us agreed we didn’t need it to look cartoonish,” she mentioned.

Berger mentioned the present goals to know the science of clothes. “It’s not a critique, it’s a snapshot of right this moment,” he mentioned. “You must respect this world and on the identical time, query it.”

WWD sat down with the solid of the present to speak in regards to the inspiration for his or her characters and broach scorching matters like rivalry, cancel tradition and the environmental value of garments.

Carole Bouquet as Diane Rovel

As the previous face of Chanel No.5 fragrance and a longtime good friend of Karl Lagerfeld, Bouquet is aware of the style trade inside out, however she mentioned taking part in Rovel was a stretch.

“Nothing I’ve ever skilled in trend resembles what we shot,” Bouquet mentioned. “I often simply present up for the enjoyable half. Sadly — although luckily for me — I’m not accustomed to the internal workings of energy.”

Europe’s wealthiest lady, her character is known as the “she-wolf in a swimsuit,” mirroring Arnault’s real-life nickname, “the wolf in cashmere.” However Rovel can be conscious of one other, much less flattering moniker — “the fishwife” — which suggests less-than-glamorous origins.

Accordingly, her wardrobe displays a continuing want to stay on prime. Sarfati mentioned she was impressed by L’Oréal heiress Liliane Bettencourt, who on the time of her loss of life in 2017 was the world’s richest lady.

“Carole Bouquet typically clothes in films as she does in actual life. I pushed to have a bit of enjoyable and create a personality that was very completely different,” Sarfati mentioned. “It typically teeters on the verge of unhealthy style.”

The costume designer chosen boldly coloured outfits by manufacturers together with Valentino, Max Mara and Jil Sander, accessorized with oodles of gold Goossens costume jewellery. Rovel is at all times impeccably coiffed, with shiny crimson lips and matching nails.

“She desires to broadcast her energy,” Bouquet mentioned. “We put a variety of effort into her look and I typically regretted it, as a result of it required hours within the make-up chair, which I don’t take pleasure in. We needed to do fixed touch-ups between takes as a result of I needed her to be flawless always, which is insufferable. I’m not like that in any respect in actual life,” she added emphatically.

Whereas Bouquet mentioned she doesn’t share her character’s bare ambition, she embraced her diabolical nature for the display. “It’s very juicy to play a personality like that,” the actress mentioned with a smile. “It’s a query of empire: who’s going to reign?”

She was cautious in addressing the subject of cancel tradition, which topples the fictional couturier within the present, however has additionally engulfed Lagerfeld in posthumous controversy over his behavior of delivering sharp-tongued asides — political correctness be damned.

Whereas Bouquet understands the necessity to problem wrongdoing, she lamented that criticism of public figures typically turns right into a witch hunt.

“I feel it’s too violent, however on the identical time, there are causes for this. So I feel it’s like a revolution that I don’t like, and it’ll ultimately cool down,” she mentioned. “There are occasions when it actually goes too far, however you’ll be able to’t make such an vital course correction with out some excesses.”

Lambert Wilson as Vincent Ledu

Whereas Vincent Ledu’s storyline echoes the 2011 incident involving John Galliano, the character’s response to public shaming is much less contrite than imperious, a response befitting the scion of a historic household — with the entitlement and jaw-dropping properties to match.

“Within the sequence, there’s many clashes: generational clashes and social clashes. He’s an aristocrat, and it makes a really huge distinction. They know they’ve energy,” famous Wilson. “I considered Hubert de Givenchy, who gave the impression to be the epitome of all that.”

Sarfati’s temper board featured photographs of designers like Giorgio Armani and Haider Ackermann, but additionally the likes of Apple founder Steve Jobs or architect Norman Foster. However in contrast to these masters of minimalism, Wilson added his personal flourish within the form of a wig.

“I performed with this notion of getting this mane of silver hair,” mentioned the “Matrix” star. “He’s a bit like a Roman emperor. Then it reunites one with the notion of the fallen king. He’s nearly like a type of a historic determine.”

Ledu makes use of solely the colour black in his designs, and his wardrobe is crammed with darkish items by the likes of Yohji Yamamoto, Lemaire, Armani and Berluti. He wears bespoke spectacles from Maison Bonnet, the maker of Yves Saint Laurent’s well-known glasses.

The plotline has the designer grappling with the realities of the modern-day trend trade, together with the necessity to generate a gentle stream of content material for social media. “I’m amazed, as a result of I knew a time when exhibits have been ready in silence and secrecy, and it was enjoyable,” Wilson mentioned.

“Think about rehearsing a play and having to movie your self whilst you’re rehearsing, and it’s completely crucial to supply the viewers with excerpts of you rehearsing. I imply, it might be unattainable. We wouldn’t enable it. That’s the fact for the style world,” he continued.

Then there’s the ageism confronted by veterans in an trade that thrives on newness.

“One of many matters of the sequence can be the way it’s inevitable to get replaced, despite the fact that you might be on the prime of your artwork. The younger will come,” Lambert mentioned.

“It’s very painful,” he mused. “Although you may respect the younger, despite the fact that you may assume that they’re worthy, that they’re proficient and exquisite, it’s a tragedy to desert your personal place within the sport.”

Amira Casar as Perle Foster

Casar is accustomed to the position of trend muse. Having been found by Helmut Newton as a youngster, she modeled for manufacturers together with Jean Paul Gaultier and Chanel earlier than switching to appearing, with roles in movies reminiscent of “Name Me by Your Title” and “Saint Laurent,” wherein she performed Yves Saint Laurent’s righthand lady Anne-Marie Muñoz.   

In “La Maison,” her character Perle Foster has spent her life within the shadow of the Ledu household. When Vincent Ledu is compelled to step down as inventive director, she units a brand new path for the home with the assistance of Paloma Castel, cofounder of the Berlin-based sustainable trend model Doppel.

“She takes the facility, and what’s she going to do with that energy as a girl was what I discovered attention-grabbing,” Casar defined.

Sarfati labored carefully with the actress on her wardrobe, which mirrors Casar’s powerful stylish type. She wears manufacturers like Alaïa, Comme des Garçons, Dries Van Noten and Lemaire, and is rarely with out her chunky silver Bone cuff, designed by Elsa Peretti for Tiffany & Co.

“We had a variety of enjoyable,” Sarfati mentioned. “We weren’t afraid to strive some fairly out-there appears to be like, just like the python Alaïa coat she wears to the Doppel trend present.”

Although Foster is a trend icon, modeled after real-life figures like Gaultier muse Farida Khelfa and Pierre Cardin’s stylish acolyte Maryse Gaspard, Casar was delicate to the intimate dimension of the character, who’s initially idealized by Ledu and progressively taken without any consideration.

“She’s a really lonely individual. She sacrificed her life to him, so I noticed theater in there, I noticed drama,” she defined. “She has no household. He’s her household. She’s his butler, she’s his the whole lot.”

The sequence explores Foster’s fears about getting older, as the previous mannequin contemplates a return to the runway. Casar famous that though actors additionally face ageism, attitudes are evolving.

“It’s typically different individuals projecting their fears on you about age, however I discover issues are altering, additionally as a result of ladies are writing lots for ladies,” she mentioned. “That’s optimistic. There’s hope for older ladies.”

She’s much less optimistic relating to social media, preferring to not interact with digital followers. “I’m delicate and I feel it might damage me,” she mentioned. “I’m not into feedback.”

Although French cinema goes by a long-overdue #MeToo reckoning, Casar can be apprehensive in regards to the fallout from trial by web, believing that everybody deserves a good listening to in a court docket of regulation.

“I’ve been on units the place women have been spoken to so badly, so badly, and no person’s achieved a factor, no person’s mentioned something, and also you’ve needed to swallow your pleasure,” she recalled. “So these items are occurring, however we should not go into the acute and behave like outlaws.”

Zita Hanrot as Paloma Castel

In distinction with the tightly managed aesthetic of Maison Ledu, Castel’s label Doppel is all about upcyling. The character was impressed by rising Paris designers like Marine Serre, Jeanne Friot, Clara Daguin and Victor Weinsanto, Sarfati mentioned.

Hanrot, who first got here to public consideration within the 2015 movie “Fatima,” mentioned she initially discovered Castel too sullen. Watching “McQueen,” the 2018 documentary about Alexander McQueen, confirmed her that even tortured creatives can have an expansive, charismatic aspect.

She determined to play up the energetic, impulsive nature of the militant designer, who’s not afraid to step into the limelight and upend Maison Ledu and the tortured household that runs it. “They undoubtedly have a fancy angle to pleasure,” Hanrot noticed. “They appear to be without end in mourning. There’s at all times this sense of guilt.”

Telegraphing her freewheeling method, Castel piles on classic ‘80s and ’90s designs by the likes of Gaultier and Claude Montana and adopts the dove as her emblem, making a signature print for Ledu that nods to Serre’s real-life trademark crescent moon motif.

Hanrot mentioned that whereas her character speaks out in opposition to points like discrimination and waste, the sequence permits viewers to make up their very own thoughts.

“There are a number of sides to trend, as a result of I additionally really feel a variety of empathy for these designers who’re trying to find magnificence on a visceral degree,” she mentioned. “There’s not one single fact, however moderately, we attempt to signify completely different factors of view. It’s nuanced and there’s no clear-cut reply.”

Pierre Deladonchamps as Victor Ledu

As Vincent Ledu’s youthful brother, Victor Ledu has struggled to carve out his place at Maison Ledu. By marrying Diane Rovel’s daughter, he has defected to the enemy and is without end scheming to grab energy.

“He’s between two chairs and I feel that if he doesn’t select one, he’ll fall,” mentioned Pierre Deladonchamps, the French actor revealed within the 2013 homoerotic thriller “Stranger by the Lake.”

“He’s searching for recognition and rehabilitation, since we study within the sequence that he’s unwittingly accountable for a household tragedy. I get the impression he at all times really feel responsible and he desires to make amends and present he’s a great individual, however the whole lot he does suggests in any other case, so nobody desires to like or belief him. He sabotages himself,” he added.

Deladonchamps in contrast the dynamic between the 2 brothers to the battle between Britain’s Prince William and Prince Harry.

After taking part in a employee struggling to avoid wasting his firm in “The Takeover,” the actor loved the non permanent trappings of luxurious that got here along with his position in “La Maison,” together with sports activities vehicles, designer fits and spectacular properties.

“It’s fairly exhilarating. You’re like a child in a sweet retailer, besides, I used to be completely satisfied to go house on the weekend to a life that aligns extra carefully with my values. I do assume you’ll be able to simply get used to luxurious and opulence. What’s vital is to maintain issues in perspective and to always remember the place you’re from, wherever that is likely to be,” he mentioned.

Antoine Reinartz as Robinson Ledu

It’s tempting to dismiss the nephew of Vincent Ledu as an afterthought, however Robinson Ledu — annoyed designer and head of PR and affect at Maison Ledu — finally ends up taking part in an important position within the plot.

Reinartz, who just lately appeared within the Oscar-winning movie “Anatomy of a Fall,” is aware of designers like Julien Dossena and Nicolas Di Felice and initially deliberate to borrow their low-key look. However Sarfati needed the character’s garments to sign his wrestle for autonomy, so as an alternative, she took her cues from Dan Levy’s extroverted type.

Robinson’s brightly patterned sweaters and colourful prints stand out in a sea of black at Maison Ledu. “It’s a type of resistance and a declaration of freedom,” Sarfati mentioned.

To analysis the position, Reinartz delved into French newspaper Le Monde’s sequence “Successions,” which tells the tales of dynasties just like the Hermès and Rothschild households.

“This man is diminished to being an inheritor, so he has no sense of self as a result of he has no thought what he deserves,” he mentioned. “He lives in a world the place everyone seems to be homosexual, the place it’s out within the open and accepted, however he doesn’t actually flourish in his relationships both. There isn’t any love.”

Finally, the character is tempted to sever his household ties in a bid to carve his personal path. “On the identical time, renouncing your heritage is an phantasm. You can not erase what you have been born with,” Reinartz mentioned.