A Century of Glamor: Celebrating 100 Years of Art Deco

At the height of the Roaring Twenties, Paris was a vibrant hub of art, music, and literature, and in 1925 the city introduced a new vision of modernity at the Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes that produced an era defining style. It was later named Art Deco – and the world of design was forever changed.

In the summer of 1925 the French capital became the stage for a revolution in design. With the horrors of World War I behind them, Paris hosted the Olympics in 1924 and the following spring presented a vision of modernity that was not only sophisticated, luxurious and bold, but also a post-war vision of the future that deliberately excluded historicist styles like Art Nouveau. The Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes gave its name to Art Deco and a century later, the 1925 event is recognized as the catalyst for the elegant and enduring style.

Symbolic of the city’s creative re-birth, the exhibition was a declaration that beauty, elegance, and craftsmanship could define the modern world. Paris of the 1920s was a hub for artists and intellectuals, including Pablo Picasso, Ernest Hemingway, and James Joyce, while jazz music and American culture also flourished, with Josephine Baker finding fame and a home in Paris.

Visited by over 16 million people, more than 15,000 exhibitors from 20 countries participated as they exhibited the latest furniture, fashion, sculpture, jewelry, glassware, and architecture. Intended as a celebration of modernism, not of historical styles, Art Deco fused timeworn traditions with the modern, mechanized world to create a unique blend of tradition, eclecticism, and progress.

For the exposition, nations and companies were invited to design pavilions, decorating the city in modernity. The Pavillon de l’Esprit Nouveau, designed by Le Corbusier, shocked many with its stark minimalism, and layed the foundation for the International Style. In contrast, the Pavilion of a Collector, by Pierre Patout with furnishings by Émile-Jacques Ruhlmann, showcased the height of French decorative luxury.

A Postwar Vision of the Future

This wasn’t a celebration of the past – it was a departure from it and Les Années Folles (or Roaring Twenties) was the perfect era for this new forward facing outlook. It had in fact been planned in 1915, but the outbreak of war put pay to that. When it finally opened a decade later, it was more than an art fair, as participating designers embraced modern materials like chrome, glass, and concrete, as well as abstract geometry, stylized ornamentation, and global influences from ancient Egypt and classical Greece to African tribal art and Japanese minimalism.

“It should cover a wide field of contemporary industrial and decorative art. Reproductions or mere copies were excluded and that all exhibits should display genuine originality, fulfil a practical need and express a modern inspiration,” read the criteria set out by the organizing committee.

Armed with a determination to display distinctly modern decorative arts, the exhibition certainly made an impression, as thousands of designers from all over Europe participated, including Émile-Jacques Ruhlmann and Rene Lalique. The French pair of designers created works of exquisite detail and they became prominent promoters of the early Art Deco movement, as they put their own modern spin on traditional craftsmanship.

And throughout the 1920s and ‘30s, Art Deco took the world by storm. This new modernity was adopted in everything from jewelry, fashion, cars, and film, to the typography on travel posters and product packaging. It even influenced architecture, as it graced the skylines of cities from New York to Mumbai and still dazzles to this day in the soaring spires and stylized ornamentation of the Chrysler Building and the Empire State Building.

Confident, modern, and luxurious, Art Deco made its way to Hollywood where it was enthusiastically embraced as the world looked to cinema not just for entertainment but for a glimpse of a lifestyle. Art Deco set designs, costumes, and glamour became synonymous with the silver screen, as films like The Single Standard (1932) starring Greta Garbo, was designed by Cedric Gibbons, who set the tone for Art Deco-era movies. Similarly, the 1932 film Grand Hotel, featured a stunning revolving-door entrance and a stylish lobby that became icons of Hollywood’s Art Deco style, while The Great Gatsby (1926) vividly portrayed the opulent lifestyle of the Roaring Twenties and set the standard for glamorous modernity.

Defining This New Modernity

Art Deco was born at a moment of profound change and this reflected in its style. The scars of World War I were still evident in Paris, but it was a time of great optimism as society looked to the future to help bury the past, as they imagined a future that was sleek and sophisticated, industrial yet refined. Influenced by Cubism, Futurism, ancient Egyptian and Aztec motifs, and the streamlined forms of the Machine Age, Art Deco created a new and modern style that was visually appealing, but not intellectually challenging like the avant-garde art of the period.

Infusing functional objects with artistic touches, Art Deco took an egalitarian approach with the aim of making aesthetically pleasing, mass-produced objects that were available to everyone. And it shared this philosophy with the Bauhaus in neighboring Germany, but diametrically opposite in output, as Bauhaus preferred clean and simple geometric forms over the artistic embellishments of Art Deco.

It was a style that embraced the future with its geometric shapes, rich colors, lavish ornamentation, and obsession with luxury materials like chrome, lacquer, marble, exotic woods. Art Deco became synonymous with modern elegance, which could be epitomized by Victoire (1928) by René Lalique. The designer was known for his glass art, which he produced in the Art Nouveau and then in the Art Deco style, Victoire embodies the sensation of speed and the Machine Age, and came to embody this new style as it was stamped on everything from luxury ocean liners to racing cars, ad was a motif adopted by other artists like Pierre LeFaguays.

Art Deco was the style of skyscrapers, ocean liners, and jazz clubs and its application was similarly versatile. Sculpture, art, design, and architecture were all produced in the Art Deco style, with artists like Emile-Jacques Ruhlmann designingelegant home furnishings using rare, exotic woods with ivory embellishments from Africa and the Far East, like his État Cabinet (1922). Taking the style to the masses, the influential poster designer and graphic artist, A.M. Cassandre’s created posters  bursting with the bold dynamism typical of the modern Deco style, while Tamara de Lempicka became a major proponent of Art Deco in Europe and North America with her stylized portraits of the famous and fashionable. Spirit of the Wind or Victoire Mascot by Lalique. At Blackhawk Automotive Museum in Danville, California (Wikimedia Commons).

Seemingly encapsulating the Roaring Twenties, Tamara de Lempicka stridently created a new image of the modern woman in her portraits. A libertine, sexually expressive, social climber, experimental artists who fused styles, and an astute cultural protagonist, Lempicka’s art shimmered with a cinematic allure and female empowerment to reflect the new modern age.

This was the movement of modernity, and the car was at the forefront of that modernity. And nothing on four wheels looked more modern at the time than the Delahaye 135M Figoni & Falaschi Competition Coupe. Designed by the Italian-born French coachbuilders Giuseppe Figoni and Ovidio Falaschi for rally races, which it seems far too elegant for, it was the embodiment of modern speed. The influence of Deco was everywhere, with designs like the Philco Model 41-230T Table Radio Bakelite Cabinet bringing modernity into the home, while the Chrysler Building (completed 1930) by William Van Alen stands as a 1,046 foot reminder of the machine-age elegance typical of American Art Deco.

A Global Ripple Effect 

What started in Paris did not stay within France. The exposition’s influence was immediate and international, as artists, architects, and designers spread this new design vocabulary of precision, glamour, modern elegance across the world. In the United States, Art Deco shaped cities like New York where the skyline soon rose with the streamlined Chrysler Building and Rockefeller Center, while household items like a tea service or cigarette case were touched by Art Deco to ensure that even everyday life dazzled with stylish modernity.

The 1925 Paris Exposition wasn’t just a design exhibition – it was a turning point. It defined how design could reflect and shape the spirit of an age, as it offered a new aesthetic vocabulary  to the world that balanced modern innovation with artistic expression – and 100 years later we’re still speaking its language.

And a hundred years on, Art Deco continues to speak to our desire for beauty, order, and aspiration. Typical of its age, Art Deco remains a beacon of optimism and flair from the smallest item to the tallest building that showcases that just because something is functional, it doesn’t mean that has to be anything other gloriously rich in flamboyant detail.