Chicago Art Deco Madness Part I

Art Deco, sometimes referred to as Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture and design that first appeared in France just before World War I. It influenced the design of buildings, furniture, jewelry, fashion, cars, cinemas, trains, ocean liners, and everyday objects such as radios and vacuum cleaners. It took its name, short for Arts Décoratifs, from the Exposition Internationale des arts décoratifs et industriels modernes (International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts) held in Paris in 1925. You will see many clean-lined and simple, "moderne" motifs of the deco period on this tour which include: streamlined shapes, horizontal lines (suggesting speed), verticality in buildings, zig zags or ziggurats, stair-stepping, sunbursts, silver and golden metallics, and a general sense of modern style & glamour of the roaring twenties and flapper eras. Art Deco combined modern styles with fine craftsmanship and rich materials. During its heyday, it represented luxury, glamour, exuberance, and faith in social and technological progress.