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Designs for life: the lasting impact of Art Deco
In the interwar era, artists and designers embraced a sleek modern style that embodied the optimism and elegance of the age. On the centenary of the Paris expo that launched Art Deco on the international stage, Emma Bastin explores its origins and lasting impacts
Published: August 13, 2025 at 9:00 AM
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On a cold, wintry December day in 1935, the Duke and Duchess of York arrived in Bexhill-on-Sea to open a new public venue. Lining the route were well-wishers of all ages, from Brownies and Cubs to war veterans wearing campaign medals. By the time the royal couple reached their destination, the crowd numbered in their thousands; no doubt the duke and duchess found it difficult to fully appreciate the building.
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With its unadorned cream walls, acres of glass and sleek lines, the De La Warr Pavilion did not so much proclaim its modernity but shout it out loud. The stylish façade hid a welded steel frame, the first of its kind in Britain. Inside were an auditorium seating 1,300, a restaurant and a library, all for “the common enjoyment of the people”. Quickly dubbed ‘The People’s Palace’, it was – and still is – an iconic embodiment of Art Deco style.
Art Deco – a shortened, anglicised version of arts décoratifs – was never referred to as such in its heyday in the 1920s and 30s. Like most art movements, it gained its name long after its popularity had waned. The first use of the term as we use it now was by art historian Bevis Hillier in 1968.
Facade of the Folies Bergère, Paris
Maurice Pico, 1926
The dancer Lila Nikolska was the model for the gold bas-relief facade of the most famous cabaret in Paris – the Folies Bergère. Dancers were important to Art Deco sculptors, their bodies epitomising fluidity and strength. Here, movement is emphasised by the sequences of lines that surround the model, which also suggest that strident, modern music is playing.
As with many other forms of art and design before and since, Art Deco was a response to the social, cultural and economic climate in which it emerged. It drew inspiration from a diverse range of sources, from ancient Egypt to the avant-garde, incorporating motifs from nature as well as concepts of mass-production using artificial materials.
As a result, defining Art Deco is notoriously difficult. Some art historians have proposed that, rather than seeing it as a style, we should view Art Deco as a celebration of the imagination and creativity of the interwar years. Yet there is something distinctive and recognisable about its character. The form of an Art Deco object is usually simplified, often incorporating geometric shapes; functionality is important. Decorative features are stripped back to the essentials, but popular motifs include chevrons, sunrays, plants and human figures.
Century of style
By the time the De La Warr Pavilion was opened, the style had been growing in prominence for more than a decade. For many historians and enthusiasts, 2025 is being celebrated as the centenary year of Art Deco. That was the year when L’Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes (usually loosely translated as the International Exhibition of Decorative and Industrial Arts) was held in Paris. The organisers had declared that exhibits must show “modern inspiration and a real originality”, and the expo brought together the best in contemporary design from around the world.
Vogue cover
Pierre Mourgue, 1930
As the foremost fashion magazine in the US, Britain and France, Vogue led the way with stylish, avant-garde cover illustrations produced by a talented roster of artists. Pierre Mourgue, one of several artists Condé Nast discovered in France, relocated to the US where he produced several covers for Vogue. This example from 1930 exudes elegance, shows off the latest fashions, and references the modern skyscrapers springing up in New York City in that era.
However, the roots of Art Deco date from as early as the 1910s, when French artists began to move away from the intricate detailing of Art Nouveau and towards a simpler style. Luxury French fashion magazines like Gazette du Bon Ton and Femina commissioned artists including Paul Iribe and Georges Lepape to illustrate the latest avant-garde fashions by couturiers such as Paul Poiret. Outside of France, there were moves towards simplified architecture by Austrian Josef Hoffmann and Scot Charles Rennie Mackintosh.
Styles of modern art that developed in the years before the First World War, such as Cubism, Vorticism and Futurism also influenced Art Deco style. Unsurprisingly, advances in art and design were temporarily halted during the war but quickly leapt forward in the following years, driven largely by the desire to forget – to make a break with what had gone before – and for modernity.
Seven years after the end of the war, the 1925 Paris expo established Art Deco as a mainstream style. Some 16 million visitors passed through its doors in the seven months it was open – importantly, that included tastemakers, buyers, designers and journalists from around the world.
Articles in the press raved about the “dream city” that had been created with temporary pavilions. The impermanent nature of these buildings, along with the expectation that the style should emphasise the modern, inspired architects to produce groundbreaking designs. Postcards and photographs showed off the astonishing assembly of buildings to a global audience. For those present, elaborate arrangements of searchlights illuminated the pavilions and grounds at night, and extraordinary sights – such as a 15-metre-tall crystal fountain by jewellery designer René Lalique – enhanced this vision of modernity.
Ekco A76 radio
c1934
In the 1930s, Ekco radios combined innovative design with the latest technology; today, they’re highly sought after by collectors. Radio ownership boomed in the interwar years, when the use of Bakelite (an early plastic) allowed Ekco to create alternatives to earlier square wooden cases. Well-known architects and designers such as Serge Chermayeff and Wells Coates were commissioned to create new ranges, introducing Art Deco design into homes across the nation.
Conspicuous consumption
The Paris expo hosted 15,000 exhibitors, many of which were businesses promoting themselves and selling their wares. The organisers wanted to showcase design not just in terms of production but also consumption. Large department stores such as Galeries Lafayette occupied their own pavilions, and luxury boutiques lined the Pont Alexandre III across the Seine.
The French wanted to highlight the skills of their artists, and a model French embassy was created in which sumptuous interiors and furnishings were displayed. This was Art Deco for the elite, not the masses, designed to appeal to those with deep pockets. But in an age when trends percolated down, many of the designers fully expected that the style they had developed would be taken up by the lower classes, albeit at a later date and in more economical forms.
Mass consumerism, faster communications and new technologies enabled Art Deco to spread both widely and rapidly. Thanks to the variety of ways in which this style could be applied, it appeared in myriad forms – one of the most imposing and widely visible being architecture.
London Underground poster
Edward McKnight Kauffer, 1931
Inspired by Futurism, this ultra-modern poster was seen by hundreds of thousands of travellers in the early 1930s, when such a combination of image and text was still a novelty. One of the boldest artists commissioned by London Transport, McKnight Kauffer – who used an airbrush to create the 3D effect on the numbers 6 and 12 – was also one of the most prolific, producing nearly 100 posters.
Businesses keen to show their inventiveness employed forward-looking architects to create factories and headquarters in the most modern style. Along the Great West Road in London, an array of cutting-edge buildings sprang up, among them modern factories for Firestone, Gillette and Coty cosmetics. The Hoover Building was erected in Perivale, and the Oxo Tower on the south bank of the Thames in central London.
Outside the capital, Littlewoods built a vast modern headquarters in Liverpool, and Scotland welcomed Art Deco buildings such as India of Inchinnan, and Luma Tower in Glasgow. Retailers also realised the commercial potential of Art Deco: the simple lines and large areas of glazing allowed their products to shine. Burton and Marks and Spencer both favoured an Art Deco-inspired neoclassicism, with grand pillars and repeated motifs. Their buildings can still be seen today on high streets in towns and cities such as London, York, Halifax and Swansea.
The streamlined style of Art Deco was perfect for railway stations and airports, too, its sleek lines evoking speed and efficiency, and its wide open spaces accommodating large numbers of passengers. Dozens of Art Deco tube stations built in suburban London in the 1920s and 1930s were designed by Charles Holden, who enjoyed an excellent working relationship with Frank Pick, the man who modernised and united the London Transport network. Together they created a unified look for stations and their interiors across the network. Often beacons of modernity in a land of mock-Tudor semis, their stations welcomed hundreds of thousands of passengers every day in places such as Acton Town, Cockfosters and East Finchley, which is still guarded by Eric Aumonier’s Art Deco Archer statue.
Group of Four Nudes
Tamara de Lempicka, 1925
This Polish-born artist’s work is instantly recognisable, pushing boundaries of style and subject. This painting blends Cubism with the traditional: bodies are drawn in strong, angular lines, but beautifully toned shading and colours give a sense of depth. Intensely erotic, it was deemed shocking at the time.
Picture palaces
Cinema proved to be a potent force in the spread of Art Deco. The explosion in movie-going fuelled demand for a large number of new venues, many of which were built in the latest style. From their gleaming white exteriors to their modern foyers and plush interiors, cinemas allowed the audience to lose themselves in fantasy for a few hours. It was not only the cinema buildings that were Art Deco: the films themselves were also heavily influenced by the movement. From the 1920s, the industry led the way in fusing modernity and glamour.
Hollywood art director Cedric Gibbons, who visited the 1925 expo, became the master of Art Deco styling in films. The MGM movies on which he worked in the interwar period showcased his vision of heightened luxury and elegance, particularly his interior sets, such as those in Our Dancing Daughters (1928) and Grand Hotel (1932). In the 1930s, musicals developed the ‘Gibbons look’, and vast Art Deco sets with high ceilings, repeated motifs and sweeping lines were created for films like Top Hat (1935). Hollywood shared this glossy style with a global audience of around 80 million people each week, helping to create consumers with aspirations to live like their favourite movie stars.
Eltham Palace entrance hall
Rolf Engströmer, 1936
When Stephen and Virginia Courtauld added an Art Deco extension to the existing medieval hall of Eltham Palace, south-east London, Swedish designer Rolf Engströmer was commissioned to create the circular entrance hall. Natural light floods through the domed glass roof to illuminate exquisite marquetry walls, modern furniture and a rug designed by textile artist Marion Dorn. Modernity prevailed throughout the new section of the house, which boasted underfloor heating, multi-room sound systems and a centralised vacuum cleaner.
Need for speed
Beyond the cinema, Art Deco adorned advertising boards, magazines and newspapers. Graphic designers embraced the new style, recognising that simplicity and ease of reading were essential for capturing the public’s attention; French poster designer Paul Colin noted that the best advertising “must be readable at 100km an hour”. The intricate drawings and acres of text found in Victorian and Edwardian adverts were swept away, replaced with striking, pared-back visuals creating an efficient and dynamic look.
Frank Pick at London Transport advocated this modern look, commissioning commercial artists such as Edward McKnight Kauffer, André Édouard Marty and Dora M Batty to create posters displayed across the transport network. Like movies, these posters had a huge audience, and the public soon became familiar with this modern style – consciously or not. Seeing the success of the London Transport posters, other businesses began to use Art Deco in their own marketing material. Railway companies and shipping lines produced some of the most iconic advertising, but this new form of graphic design was also used to market clothing, make-up, cars, food – almost anything, in fact.
Manufacturers quickly realised that Art Deco was a style that could easily be reproduced en masse. Its simplicity of form and design allowed objects such as radios, telephones, mirrors, china and printed fabrics to be created easily, often using mass-production techniques. There was a ready market for these goods, too – the number of people with disposable incomes was growing, and products that offered a sense of modernity along with ease of living were in demand.
Cartier brooch
c1925
Art Deco jewellery was dazzling – and no one created dazzle quite like Cartier. This brooch has a jadeite background showcasing diamonds and sapphires set in a geometric design. Jade had long been used in the far east, and this brooch demonstrates how inspiration from other cultures was mixed with modernity to create a brand new style.
In Britain, geometric clocks and photo frames appeared on mantlepieces, as did brightly coloured ornaments. Potteries employed forward-thinking artists such as Clarice Cliff to decorate their tableware, and furniture became more streamlined. Even those on limited incomes could buy into the look: Littlewoods offered Art Deco tea sets, electric light pendants and dressing-table trinkets for as little as 10 shillings, payable in instalments.
Reclaiming the past
The heyday of Art Deco ended with the outbreak of the Second World War. Quickly, utility and practicality replaced consumerism and design. The style was largely relegated to the doldrums during the reign of stark Modernism and Brutalism in the 1950s and early 1960s, but by 1965 a tentative revival had begun. The 1920s and 1930s represented a period before the living memory of younger members of society but, in their desire for self-expression, they looked to the interwar era as a golden age of individualism, youth and newly liberated sexuality.
This interest was fuelled by the emergence of design studies, and the idea that Art Deco could not be simply dismissed as commercialised and lightweight. Exhibitions were staged, and books and articles were written on the subject. Fashion designers and retailers such as Biba took the glamour of Art Deco and reinterpreted it for a new audience. Postmodernism and pop art borrowed the bright colours, geometrics and fun to break with the austerity of postwar Modernism, and original Art Deco items became sought after by collectors.
Chrysler Building, New York City
William Van Alen, 1930
When completed, the Chrysler Building was the world’s first supertall skyscraper – the loftiest building in the world, soaring 319 metres into the New York City sky. It’s an Art Deco icon, largely due to its terraced ‘crown’ featuring concentric arches and radiating sunbursts. Typical of the style, ornamentation is exuberant – stylised hub caps, oversized Chrysler hood ornaments and radiator caps all reference the source of the wealth that underwrote this building: making and selling cars.
The centenary of the Paris expo has sparked another resurgence of interest, as designers look to the past for inspiration. There are efforts to preserve Art Deco heritage around the world, and celebrations and exhibitions celebrating the innovations it made.
Art Deco has proved to be timeless. Its sleek aesthetic transcends shifts in fashions, and the glamour and luxury it epitomises remain desirable. It changed the way we view art and design: no longer the preserve of the rich and urbane, mass produced objects were beautiful, fun and functional, accessible to all. Today, the ideal of Art Deco – melding beauty with utility – remains a guiding principle in design and its consumption.
Dr Emma Bastin is a historian of the early 20th century, particularly focusing on the interwar period. She explores material and cultural history, including fashion and retail
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This article was first published in the August 2025 issue of BBC History Magazine
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