Art Deco turns 100

It has been a hundred years since modernism embraced glamour and bold elegance. A century later, its spell remains unbroken: Art Deco buildings, hotels and furniture continue to enjoy unflagging popularity. Cities such as Paris, Reims and Nancy are now inviting guests to anniversary celebrations, while the newly opened Waldorf Astoria hotel is polishing up New York’s Art Deco gem.

He was the eye-catcher of the evening. Or more precisely: his extravagant, absolutely unmissable hat was the real eye-catcher and received the attention it thoroughly deserved. When William Van Alen, the architect of the iconic Chrysler Building, arrived at the Society of Beaux-Arts Ball wearing a Chrysler Building hat, the show was over for all the other outfits. However, the timing was also bizarre since it wasn’t just New York’s Society of Fine Arts that was whirling around at the time, but the whole of America. It all resembled a wild rollercoaster ride: one moment there was a construction boom and the driving rhythms of the Jazz Age, the next there was Black Friday and endless misery. Somehow, this is also part of the aura of the magnificent Chrysler Building, which opened two years after the New York stock market crash, and of the extravagant era it represents. It is an architectural ray of hope with problematic timing. To this day, the building with its stainless steel decorative elements reminiscent of Parisian gargoyles – stone water spouts – and its winged helmet modelled on the Chrysler radiator mascots of 1926 is considered the most famous Art Deco skyscraper in the world.

Dazzling comeback

For some time now, the unmistakable style that was launched exactly a hundred years ago has been celebrating a dazzling comeback: Art Deco wherever you look. It inspires contemporary designers of furniture and accessories, invites glamorous déjà vu in the context of interior design, sets accents in terms of jewellery and brings vintage and mobility together – keyword being luxury trains. Cities that shine with Art Deco gems have an edge over other travel destinations. This is true of Paris and Brussels, home to the Sacré-Cœur Basilica in Koekelberg, the largest Art Deco building in the world, and of Shanghai, with its former alliance of glamour and latent wickedness that sometimes surround Art Deco. And, of course, for the USA: anyone who knows Miami’s Art Deco Historic District inside out will discover a kind of Art Deco beauty in a deep slumber in the far less well-known Central American city of Tulsa. The current relaunch of a New York Art Deco hotel icon, the Waldorf Astoria, also fits perfectly into this picture. The Park Avenue hotel, also built in 1931, is currently celebrating the completion of its full renovation and seamless fusion of listed architectural heritage and contemporary lifestyle.

Above all, however, it is the diversity of nuances that is impressive, which even the experts at SOM Architects only gradually discovered over the course of several years of research, for example during their deeper study of the original architectural drawings that had ended up in the archives of the Floridian Wolfsonian Collection. ​“It’s a bit like an onion,” says Ken Lewis, project partner at SOM. ​“You peel it, and more and more layers appear.”

Decorated divas

Unlike peeling an onion, which ultimately reveals no core, the Waldorf Astoria was different. The core is Art Deco. This gives rise to numerous other cross-references, meaning that everything is connected to everything else. Anyone who says Art Deco has usually also heard of Bauhaus, and is certainly familiar with the flourishes of floral Art Nouveau and the angular austerity of the constructivist Art Nouveau that later developed from it. They are familiar with people like Le Corbusier and Charlotte Perriand, with the chessboard extravagance of a ​‘Kastl’ by Koloman Moser. Two movements from the same source – and yet as different as a glamorous diva and the no-nonsense trustee from the boardroom in the same building. It goes without saying who the diva is: Madame Art Deco.

She, too, had internalised modernity – the regular humming and whirring of the machine age, which began to change everything at the end of the nineteenth century, just as digitalisation and AI are doing today. The rhythm of the machines not only changed everyday working life, in which the puffing of steam engines had replaced that of horses; it also brought a new aesthetic to the fore: linear, structured and orderly, even when it came to stylised petals and women’s fashion. The signature of the machines – as unmistakable as it was irreversible – shaped the stylistic cousins of early modernism: the older Viennese Art Nouveau as well as the later prescribed, sober German Bauhaus austerity.

Our trip to the Seine – let’s take it in a time machine – brought a slightly shifted perspective in 1925, the same year that Marcel Breuer invented his legendary tubular steel furniture in Dessau. The Exposition internationale des arts décoratifs et industriels modernes was taking place at the time, organised by the Société des Artistes Décorateurs with the participation of the city’s four largest department stores. After all, these were intended to cover as wide a range of products as possible and reflect the world of tomorrow. But in Paris, once the epicentre of baroque, representative fashions, machine aesthetics were allowed to shine: mirrors in the style of peacock fans, inlays made of tropical woods, make-up boxes covered with stingray leather. If you run your fingertip over the small, smooth curves, they still remind you of glass beads today. Sharp contrasts and no shyness about using valuable, expensive materials, the opulent use of gold, bronze and etched glass combined craftsmanship and industry, while fashion postcards featuring ladies with strict, coquettish pageboy hairstyles testified from the outset to where the journey was headed. Art Deco, the style derived from the name of the aforementioned exhibition of the Roaring Twenties, celebrated luxury and glamour in addition to the creed of modernism.

Equally important was an optimistic view of the technological blessings of the near future, which was hastily approached in 1925 with aeroplanes, cars and radios. This was also well received on the other side of the Atlantic, where things had always been done on a larger scale and built ever higher, including a skyline from which the skyscrapers described above still stand out today. It goes without saying that the emphasis on luxury inevitably focused attention on hotels, clubs, restaurants and swimming pools – genuine societal stomping grounds.

Do you know Nancy?

In the anniversary year of its founding, people are passionately remembering the special legacy that Art Deco has given the world. This is especially true in France, where it originated. From 22 October 2025 to 26 April 2026, the Musée des Arts décoratifs in Paris is hosting the exhibition ​‘1925 – 2025. A Hundred Years of Art Deco’ – an immersive journey through time to the 1920s. In addition to the origins of the modern era, contemporary reinterpretations are also on display. Of course, it is also worth looking beyond Paris: Reims, where the destruction caused by the First World War created plenty of space for Art Deco buildings, also opens its doors to guided tours of private Art Deco villas with extravagant ornaments, wallpaper with geometric patterns – and Bordeaux red, English green or midnight blue wherever you look.

However, a visit to Reims’ Art Deco department stores such as the Galeries Lafayette or the Galeries Rémoises also offers unique impressions. Nancy, however, presents itself even more strongly as an Art Deco treasure trove, which is now being showcased from this special perspective through architectural walks, exhibitions and concerts. Another special feature of this century-old style is clearly evident here, as if in an urban laboratory, revealing Art Deco as a connecting bridge between French Art Nouveau and the formal rigour of modern architecture. In Nancy and the surrounding Lorraine region alone, a total of 1,300 Art Deco buildings impress with their enormous functional range – from aquariums to wineries.

Napier: Art Deco rebirth

On 3 February 1931 at 10:47 a.m., the New Zealand city of Napier was shaken by a 7.8 magnitude earthquake. In just two and a half minutes, almost all the buildings in the centre were destroyed, many of them completely obliterated by subsequent fires. 256 people lost their lives and thousands were injured. It was one of the worst disasters the country had ever experienced – and at the same time the beginning of one of the most unusual stories of rebirth in architecture. Within just two years, a new city centre emerged, planned, organised and constructed in an almost completely uniform style. Instead of historicist brick architecture, the clear, modern style of the time was now applied: Art Deco.

Reinforced concrete replaced fragile masonry, ornaments became geometric, and facades were smooth and streamlined. Colours such as ochre, green and pink dominated the scene. It was a conscious departure from the past and an architectural promise for the future. Particularly noteworthy: some architects also integrated Māori motifs into their designs – one of the earliest forms of cultural synthesis in New Zealand urban planning. The legendary ​‘Tin Town’, a temporary shopping centre made of corrugated iron, also became an icon of these years of reconstruction. Today, Napier is a globally unique ensemble with over 140 preserved Art Deco buildings. Every year in February, this heritage is celebrated with the Art Deco Festival, when the entire city is transformed into a living replica of the 1930s – complete with vintage cars, jazz, picnics and costumes.

Art Deco pioneer: Lobmeyr

In 1925, a style was born in Paris with the ​‘Exposition internationale des arts décoratifs et industriels modernes’: Art Deco. Austria was represented with a visionary pavilion designed by Josef Hoffmann, Oskar Strnad, Josef Frank and Peter Behrens. As a member of the executive committee, Stefan Rath, then owner of the Viennese glass manufacturer Lobmeyr, had a decisive influence on the overall design. The presentation was a triumph – Lobmeyr received the Grand Prix for glass.

On display were avant-garde designs that celebrated the ​‘magic of materials’, as the Viennese critic Bertha Zuckerkandl wrote. The central element was the wafer-thin blown muslin glass – a masterpiece of Austrian glass art. Established in 1854 with Ludwig Lobmeyr’s No. 4 drinking service, it was elevated to iconic status in 1925 by Oswald Haerdtl. Its archetypal forms and radical modernity shaped the style of the time – and the signature of the company well into the 1950s.

Today, Andreas, Leonid and Johannes Rath are the sixth generation to run the family business, with the aim of combining tradition and innovation in every design. Their glass objects continue to be handmade, often in collaboration with international designers. Between timeless elegance and modern design, Lobmeyr remains a shining example of how Austrian craftsmanship is writing global style history. Most recently, the collaboration with Formafantasma and Studio Brynjar & Veronika caused an international sensation.

Louis Vuitton Art Deco

Another highlight of the anniversary year is the exhibition ​‘Louis Vuitton Art Deco’, which will be on display in Paris from 26 September 2025. To mark the 100th anniversary of the 1925 International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts, the company is staging an immersive show at LV Dream on Quai de la Mégisserie, featuring over 300 historical objects, including legendary travel trunks, jewellery and archive materials. Eight thematically designed rooms span the arc from the origins in Asnières to the celebrated debut at the Paris World’s Fair to the international trends of Art Deco in architecture, fashion and travel. Louis Vuitton thus honours not only the creative vision of Gaston-Louis Vuitton, but also the lasting influence of an era that continues to shape modern design to this day. Admission is free, and the museum is open Tuesday to Sunday from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m.

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