The Real Drama Behind ‘La Maison,’ a New ‘Succession’-Style Fashion Series

The world of fashion has always been fascinating, with its cast of eccentric characters and sense of drama. But 2024 has been a year full of sartorial intrigue playing out on the small screen, with a myriad of documentaries, biopics and TV series that have sought to reveal the inner workings of the industry. From Disney+ In fashion: 90s AND Cristobal Balenciagafor Apple TV Supermodels AND New lookit seems like every few weeks there’s another fashion series you can binge-watch.

Next up is HouseThe 10-part series, which will hit Apple TV this weekend, right in the middle of fashion month, has been called France’s answer to Inheritancetells the story of the power struggle between family members at the fictional French fashion house Ledu, which descends into chaos when its designer, Vincent Ledu (played by Lambert Wilson), who has been in the role for 40 years, is caught hurling racist slurs.

Adding to the family drama is the fact that Vincent’s estranged brother, Victor (Pierre Deladonchamps), is married to the daughter of Ledu’s arch-rival, Rovela, while his mother-in-law, Diane (Carole Bouquet), also wants to take over Ledu as revenge. Meanwhile, Vincent’s former muse, Perle (Amira Casar), has placed Paloma Castel (Zita Hanrot) in the top spot – a promising, level-headed designer in the vein of Marine Serre, Clara Daguin and Victor Weinsanto – much to the family’s chagrin.

It’s no wonder fashion is such a compelling topic on TV and in the movies, as exemplified by the machinations of American Vogue and Anna Wintour in The Devil Wears Prada to the murderous conspiracy of the Gucci family in Gucci HouseAfter all, in addition to being incredibly eye-catching (and therefore pleasing to the eye), there is also a lot of money involved in it, which means a high level of drama.

“The fashion industry has always been a subject of fascination in popular culture,” she says. Vogue Business Lucy Maguire. “It’s exclusive, glamorous, celebrity-driven and constantly evolving. And even now, when so much of the industry is captured and shared via people’s phones, viewers are still curious about what goes on behind closed doors. Often, the more fantastical the performances, the more buzz they generate.”

“Fashion has long been a rarefied and closed world where you could only find glimpses here and there, but that has changed with the advent of social media, which has probably only increased people’s interest and appetite for it because it’s now at their fingertips,” agrees freelance fashion editor Jessica Bumpus. “Everyone loves a good story, and fashion is full of myths, legends, so the story is told in anecdotes. In a very online world, you had to be there in real life to know.”

Those in the know will inevitably see parallels between the show’s characters and some of the key players in fashion. “We approached it with the same level of care that a fashion house would approach a collection,” showrunner Valentine Milville said WWD“We tried to create real identities for the brands and houses we represented.”

For starters, Vincent’s downfall echoes designer John Galliano’s infamous anti-Semitic remarks in October 2010 and February 2011, which were recorded by onlookers and widely circulated in the media, resulting in Vincent leaving Dior.

Then there’s the intrigue between the Ledu family and their rivals, the Rovels, over who has the biggest fashion empire, which brings to mind real-life fashion titans Bernard Arnault and François-Henri Pinault. While the former’s LVMH stable includes 75 famous fashion, jewelry, cosmetics, and beverage brands, including Christian Dior and Louis Vuitton, the latter’s Kering Group has several top houses, the most famous of which are Gucci, Balenciaga, and Saint Laurent.

Their rivalry has raged for decades, but it really began in earnest in the 1990s, after Arnault quietly bought a 34 percent stake in Gucci, slowly increasing his holdings. Unhappy with the outcome, then-Gucci designer Tom Ford turned to Pinault, who helped orchestrate a coup by effectively buying a majority stake and sending Arnault’s stock price plummeting.

The two have been locked in a fashion cold war ever since, with tensions occasionally flaring, including when Kering acquired a 51 percent stake in Alexander McQueen’s eponymous brand while he was still at the helm of Givenchy, a partner of LVMH. Similar financial disputes arose with Fendi in the late 1990s and early 2000s, when LVMH teamed up with Prada to prevent Kering from taking full control of the brand. LVMH now dwarfs Kering Group, generating $93 billion in annual profits compared with $21 billion, and Arnault is one of the five richest people in the world.

Actress Carole Bouquet plays Diane Rovel, the leader of rival Ledu, and has clear similarities to Arnault – her character is the richest woman in Europe and is nicknamed the “she-wolf in a suit,” a nod to Arnault’s real-life nickname, “she-wolf in cashmere.”

Meanwhile, Lambert Wilson, who plays Vincent Ledu, drew inspiration from Hubert de Givenchy when telling WWD: “There are a lot of conflicts in the show: generational conflicts and social conflicts. He’s an aristocrat and that makes a huge difference. They know they have power. I thought of Hubert de Givenchy, who seemed to embody all of that.”

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