Art Deco regains popularity a century after its prime
NEW YORK
- This image provided by the Museum of the City of New York shows a postcard featuring the Empire State Building, from left, the RCA Building, and the Chrysler Building. (Museum of the City of New York via AP)
A century after it was formally introduced at the 1925 International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts, in Paris, Art Deco is enjoying a resurgence in decor, fashion and more.
A new generation is appreciating the style's unapologetically glamorous roots and translating it into something new.
A current exhibition at the Museum of the City of New York provides a look at the style that helped define the city in the popular imagination a century ago, in landmarks like the Chrysler Building, the Empire State Building, Rockefeller Center and Radio City Music Hall.
And in London, the Victoria and Albert Museum has a collection of day and evening outfits, jewelry, textiles and costumes from Les Ballets Russes that were a big influence on fashion.
“Art Deco is many different things to different people, and its evolution is as unique as its expression in architecture, interior design, decorative arts and fashion,” design writer Arricca Elin Sansone said last year in a story for Elle Décor.
Emerging after World War I, the original Art Deco era embodied a spirit of creativity, freedom and innovation. With modernity and exuberance on full display, the 1920s and early ’30s became one of the most design-influential periods in history.
Those early 1930s saw the blooming of the style in Miami, too, where South Beach’s Art Deco District is a draw for visitors and a hub for design.
And in Paris, organizers of the 2024 Olympics created Art Deco posters last year to celebrate the games and mark the centennial since the 1924 Olympics, which Paris also hosted. They said the vivid posters were meant to celebrate the style’s colorful and flamboyant influence on the city’s landscape.
In cities around the world during that era, squat urban landscapes morphed into canyons of soaring skyscrapers. Public and private spaces embraced geometric motifs, luxurious materials and an urbane appeal. In transportation, faster cars and sleeker trains hinted at a dynamic new age, while the jazz-fueled nightclub scene brought people out to celebrate.
That same energy infused the shift from restrictive corsets to sensuous, liberated silhouettes. It was the bee’s knees, the cat’s pajamas, the Roaring Twenties. Flapper style reflected changing roles for women in society, says design blogger Courtney Price.
On today's runways and red carpets, shimmering gold-and-black satin gowns evoke Jazz Age sparkle, often adorned with crystals and feathers. Celebrities like Zendaya, Gigi Hadid, Beyoncé and Demi Lovato have embraced bobs and finger waves, channeling the allure of the Deco era in fresh ways.
