1000 Posts - Art Deco Posts are the Most Popular

Here is another luscious Madeleine Vionnet creation.
In celebration of my 1000th post, I am looking back at the most popular posts, the ones that have been viewed the most often.

The most popular post by far was 'Madeleine Vionnet and Art Deco' Here

The 2nd most often viewed post is also related to my Art Deco studies - 'Art Deco Art on the Figure' here.

A Coco Chanel dress from the Art Deco era.

A detail shows the rich velvet with burn-outs on a silk ground.

The 5th most viewed post was also on the subject of Art Deco fashion, 'Art Deco in England' here

It was a bit of a trick post title because it is about my having sent a module of work to England to be assessed, during my long-distant degree studies. The unit of work focused on an analysis of the Art Deco period.

Here is a beautiful, Art Deco period dress by UK-born designer Edward Molyneux. This dress can be seen in the Metropolitan Museum.

Conclusions - Art Deco lovers do lots of internet searches. Or, there is a lot of interest in the Art Deco period.

SDA Fashion Show

My favourite winner of the SDA 'Bodies of Water' Members' Fashion Show - Marliss Jensen, from Minneapolis, called her 2 outfits - 'Homages to Yves and Yves'.

She made body prints on cotton knit using Procion H fiber reactive dye.
Sorry the images are not clear and are not taken from the right angles to really show off the garment. My best shot was looking at the back of the garments but I had to then dodge a spot light.

Beth Kendrick, also from Minneapolis, won 1st place with 'Lucette', a hand dyed, painted, discharged embellished dress.

The waving black scarf stuffed into the top of the corset appeared to be a last minute addition for modesty's sake. It was distracting trying to work out why it was there and wondering if it would fall out before the model got back behind the screen. So we didn't get time to really look at the garment.

Step Design is Something New

An interesting feature of step design use during the Art Deco period is that even though the ancient source of the inspiration was so obvious, the art, architecture and fashion garments were celebrated as something refreshingly new.

Here is a silk painting obviously inspired by recent discoveries of ancient buildings found in the jungles of Central America.

A Mayan temple compared with an early Chicago skyscrapper. The architect who designed the building on the right even copied the wide band on the top part of the tower on the left. Both cultures constructed buildings to literally reach up to touch the sky. Both buildings were the tallest, in their day.

Here are some possible sources of inspiration for a silk jacket made by an unknown American designer: the revolutionary Chrysler tower, Aztec temple and an Anastasi basket. All feature step designs that create an uplifting feeling of reaching for the light. Step design could be interpreted as a symbol of optimism and hope. It would be interesting to see if this is so in the work of other cultures that have used the step design element.

Orange

While I was studying the Art Deco Movement, I put all of the images I collected up on my large design wall. I would group them and regroup them according to how my thoughts were developing. One thing that struck me was no matter how I rearranged the images they always had the same feel.

Then I saw the dominance of the colour orange.

Intense orange. It was bright and cheerful. Hopeful.

It reminded me of the 60s mood. Designers write about a revival of Art Deco at that time but I now think the 60s revival, with the reappearance of bright orange, was a reflection of the optimistic feelings of the time. It was the 'dawning of the age of Aquarius'.

Now I am curious, has bright orange re-emerged every time there was a positive, uplifting, optimistic collective response to the times?

I am on the look out for bright orange.

More Art Deco in Victoria

In the Royal BC Museum there are 2 Art Deco garments that are well worth the hunt to find.
This silk georgette evening dress, 1926-28, illustrates well the shock of the new. For the first time in European history women went out in public wearing garments that exposed their lower legs and the full length of their arms. These garments reflect the hard won freedoms women enjoyed for the short time between the wars in North America.

The dress is heavily embroidered with beads. Loops of seed beads make the red flowers in the floral bouquet 3 dimensional.
I am always fascinated by the strong bond between women and flowers.

Next to the dress, in the display cabinet, is this interesting hat. It too is an important social commentary on how women, for the first time, voluntarily cut off their 'crowning glory' as though they were removing a burden from the past. Then they covered up their heads in the Asian style, with form-fitting hats. It was such a shocking protest at the time. They seemed to want to remove the inequality of the gender issue so they could be seen as another human being.

The hat is covered with dense long and short stitch and ribbon couched down in a similar technique to quill work.
I don't know what to make of the design. Any suggestions?

Art Deco in England

A box full of a semester's worth of Art Deco Movement research has been sent to England to be assessed. Phew! I am looking forward to a month's break but I thought you might like to see some more highly innovative fashion from the period, courtesy of Richard Martin's book.

This pink silk satin dress by Gabrielle Chanel has spiraling bias-cut panels encircling the body.

I may not agree with Richard's attempts to convince me these creative dress designers were inspired by Picasso (I think the inspiration flowed the other way) but he did describe this dress well, "A kind of 3D, silk-swathing puzzle." It is a 1920 design by Madeleine Vionnet.

Madeleine wasn't big on colour, as you can see in these ecru and pink dresses, in fact they are all skin-like in colour. Colour would have been a distraction from the brilliance of these designs. What was important to her was the cut and how the cloth related to the body.

The detailing on this sleeve is exciting in an understated way: threading, tying, hanging, wrapping, joining with faggoting, gathering - all on this quiet, elegant sleeve.

Another Madeleine Vionnet (1938) garment speaks of utter simplicity while it drapes the body with such complexity. All without the help of Lycra or Spandex. Pure genius.

Art Deco Art on the Figure

Here are some more luscious garments from that MOMA book I previously posted images of.

In 1927, an unknown designer has appliqued an abstract floral design on a 2 piece garment.

Yes, it does look 60s ish because that's when there was an Art Deco revival.

Mariska Karasz's 1927 appliqued silk jacket would be misinterpreted if thought to be inspired by Matisse's cutouts. Matisse didn't start doing his cutouts until he became ill  and he first published them in 1947. It is now understood how much textiles influenced Matisse's work so could it be he was inspired by Mariska's work? His mother made fashion garments. However, it is said, both Matisse and Mariska looked to folk costume embroideries for inspiration.

Jean Lanvin's wonderful 1927 evening coat of black cotton velveteen is embroidered with white wool. The radiating energy of the sun burst motif is so Art Deco.

Madeleine Vionnet and Art Deco

A friend showed me this very interesting book. Its main argument is that Art Deco fashion was greatly influenced by Cubism. I found the argument contrived and not at all convincing but it didn't stop me enjoying the wonderful images of Art Deco style garments.

One of my favourite designers in the book is Madeleine Vionnet. She was known for her great skill in working with fabric on the bias. In this 1932 dress step-shaped, bias-cut panels make a sheath that skims the body. So revolutionary!

This 1929 silk wedding dress looks as though it was made from a large leaf.

It is so elegant with its 7 foot train.

Art Deco

This semester I am doing the Art History: 20th & 21st Century module with the JC School of Textile Arts. I have chosen to study the Art Deco Movement, which happened between the world wars, 1920 to 1940. It is proving to be a most interesting period to study.

Since the summer I have been collecting images of all things Deco and have built up quite a collection I have been able to use in my assignments.

This silk georgette dress, 1920, was in the summer exhibition in the National Costume Museum in Winnipeg.

While in Wolfville, Nova Scotia I recognised their Art Deco style cinema. Like so many cities and towns across North America, in fact around the world, cinemas were built in the new style to be able to house the new popular form of entertainment.

Art Deco has shown up in the most unexpected places. In an earlier post I showed this Art Deco treasure stored in a woolen factory behind bales of wool, in New Brunswick.

Know as a total style, the Art Deco aesthetic was applied to literally everything, from flour sifters to car hood/bonnet ornaments, which meant everyone who had even a little money to spend could participate in the movement and be seen as modern. Finally art/craft/design came out of museums into people's daily lives and wasn't elitist.
Three cheers for Art Deco.