La Maison

If the superficiality (and lack of French) of Emily in Paris wasn’t to your liking, Apple TV+ has released a rival to the much-panned Netflix series. Set in fictional French haute couture house Ledu, La Maison is full of style, sass, and yes, characters speaking in their mother tongue.

Former model Perle (Amira Casar) now works for temperamental fashion designer Vincent (Lambert Wilson), who demands perfection from his staff and hands out insults like Tic-Tacs. But his hot-headedness comes back to haunt him when he’s caught on camera launching a racist tirade against a Korean client. As his world starts to crumble around him – much to the glee of his rival fashion house, Rovel – it’s up to Perle to salvage Ledu.

Antoine Reinartz, in a decidedly different role from his powerhouse performance in Anatomy of a Fall, is delightfully dastardly as Robinson, Vincent’s scheming nephew. Meanwhile, Zita Hanrot adds some subtlety and heart to proceedings as trendy young designer Paloma, who uses her platform to rally against overconsumption and unethical practices within the industry. Her characterisation, however, feels somewhat dated, as the writers use her as a vessel through which they can critique the commodification of clothing while still indulging in it.

Those hoping for cinéma vérité should look elsewhere; this is more The Bold and the Beautiful than The Rules of the Game. It’s a slick soap rather than a profound exploration of the pitfalls of the fashion industry. The series also lifts liberally from US shows like Succession, with the respective Ledu and Rovel cohorts willing to resort to increasingly sleazy tactics to smear their rivals.

High art it may not be, but there are more than enough shots of dazzling sartorial creations to satisfy fashion lovers’ thirst for stylised drama. An enjoyably camp melodrama, La Maison is soapy and catty, but with a veneer of Parisian sophistication.   

Antonia Georgiou

La Maison is released on Apple TV+ on 20^th September 2024.

Watch the trailer for La Maison here: