Decadent dresses from between the wars

 Do you know how to tell the difference between women's fashion from the 1920s and the 1930s?

If not, then you should check out the following video that features the curators of a new exhibit at the Museum of Vancouver entitled Art Deco Chic: Extravagant Glamour Between the Wars. The garments and accessories on display come from the private collections of Ivan Sayers and Claus Jahnke, as well as from the MOV and other’s collections.

Drawing inspiration from geometric shapes to evoke elegance and modernity, the fashion design of the era was also influenced by an increased ability to travel world wide – bringing inspiration not only from modernism, but from faraway places such as Russia, Egypt, and Mexico.

The show includes 66 different gowns representing some of the most important fashion designers in the world in the 1920s and 1930s, including Chanel, Lanvin, Vionnet, Patou, and Schiaparelli. Handbags, hats, shoes, and jewelry are also on display to further illustrate the use of geometric shapes to create sleek, sophisticated designs.

Notable Vancouver items include a black beaded gown worn to the opening of the city's Commodore Cabaret in 1929; a red and gold lamé evening dress made from fabric depicting the battles of the Trojan War; and a modest, yet stylish, navy polka dot dress made by the Aurora Dress Company of Vancouver around 1927.

Delightful Art Deco typefaces

Thanks to 'The Daily Heller' blogger Steven Heller – who is also prolific author of books on Art Deco design and the practice of graphic design in general – for profiling some dynamic typefaces that helped define the Modernistic era in a specimen sheet from 1930! 

Check out his blog post to see some other wonderful examples of fonts.

Check out this cool Italian pasta packaging, circa 1934

Click here to learn more about the Buitoni Foods Corporation!

Discover the life story of Italian illustrator Paolo Garretto

If you love Deco-style illustration, then you should check out this two-part article by design blogger Steven Heller that tells the life story of Italian illustrator Paolo Garretto (1903-1989). Part one is here, part two is here.

Heller notes that Garretto's "airbrushed caricature epitomized Deco styling. During the Twenties and Thirties he was a master of international advertising design and editorial art, as inventive as A.M. Cassandre, as prolific as Jean Carlu, as witty as Miguel Covarrubias. His geometric conceits captured the romance of the industrial age.

Garretto's graphic approach was based on simplification of primary graphic forms into iconic depictions and loose, but poignant likenesses. Vibrant, airbrushed color was his trademark, and he also experimented with different media to create exciting new form, including experiments with collage and modeling clay which proved fruitful. Without his superb draftsmanship what is now pigeon-holed as Deco styling would surely have been a superficial conceit, but his conceptual work was so acute, and his decorative work was so well crafted that he eschewed these pitfalls.