Art Deco's Modern Renaissance: A Style Reborn

Art Deco is an international artistic style that was popular in the 1920s and 1930s.

Now, interest in the style and its qualities is growing. A new generation is enjoying the style’s roots and turning it into something new.

A public showing, or exhibition, at the Museum of the City of New York provides a look at the style that helped define the city 100 years ago.

Famous Art Deco buildings include the Chrysler Building, the Empire State Building, Rockefeller Center and Radio City Music Hall.

The public showing, called “Art Deco City: New York Postcards from the Leonard A. Lauder Collection,” also has clothing and film clips from the time.

In London, the Victoria and Albert Museum has a collection of day and evening clothing, jewelry and more. The collection comes from Les Ballets Russes, a dance company that had a major effect on fashion.

And in Paris, organizers of the 2024 Olympics created Art Deco posters last year to celebrate the games and mark the one hundred years since the 1924 Olympics, which Paris also hosted.

A style of the 1920s and 30s

Experts have different opinions about Art Deco. Design writer Arricca Elin Sansone, for example, said last year in Elle Décor magazine: “Ask three historians to define the term Art Deco, and you’ll likely get three varying answers.”

Appearing after World War I, the first Art Deco era had a spirit of creativity and freedom. With the aim of appearing modern, the style became one of the most important forms of design in the 1920s and early 1930s.

The Art Deco style is believed to have first appeared at the 1925 International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts, in Paris.

The early 1930s saw the development of the style in Miami where South Beach’s Art Deco District is popular with visitors and a center for design.

In some large cities, low-rise buildings of two or three floors turned into landscapes of high-rise skyscrapers. Public and private spaces showed themes involving geometrical designs and luxurious materials.

In transportation, faster cars and better trains suggested a new age while jazz music urged people to celebrate.

“A fashionable renaissance”

The same energy can be found in today’s fashion shows and red-carpet events for stars. Some of today’s colorful clothing suggests the Jazz Age, another name for the period when Art Deco was popular. Stars like Zendaya, Gigi Hadid, Beyoncé and Demi Lovato have used elements of the Deco era in new ways.

“The aesthetic of the 1920s is enjoying a fashionable renaissance,” said Kirsty Thatcher of the Australian fashion magazine Russh. A “renaissance” represents a rebirth of something from the past.

New York-based interior designer Vanessa DeLeon told the Associated Press, “The boldness and elegance of Art Deco are what appeals to me.”

Jamie Watkins and Tom Kennedy of the London design company Divine Savages include Art Deco elements in their collections of products for the home. Watkins suggested: “It’s no wonder we’re drawn to it again.”

Lynda Klich is the co-organizer or curator of the exhibition at the Museum of the City of New York. Klich noted that postcards were the social media of their day. Travelers at the time busily wrote messages to friends and family. New York’s famous Art Deco buildings appear in over 250 postcards. There is also a selection of clothing from the 1920s, shoes and other objects.

“Art Deco was the look that sold the city to the world,” said co-curator Lilly Tuttle.

The exhibition in New York City runs through February 17.