The Deco Diaries
Chronicling the inspiration and creativity of the Art Deco era
Diary Articles
The Fashionable Silhouette
Coco Chanel in a Jersey suit, Biarritz, France 1928 The 1920’s fashionable silhouette lacked structure and was radically different to the Edwardian corseted fashions. This trend was...
Annette Kellerman - Swimming Star
As our thoughts turn to lazy days spent beside the pool, spare a thought for Annette Kellerman; the sportswoman who designed and pioneered the one-piece...
Clarice Cliff
Sunray Vase 1929-1930 by Clarice Cliff, on exhibition in the V&A London Clarice Cliff was born on January 20th 1899, in Tunstall, Stoke-on-Trent. She began...
Women's Suffrage
Sophia Duleep Singh - Indian princess, goddaughter to Queen Victoria and a pivotal figure in the suffrage movement, remembered on the new Royal Mail stamps ...
Must Have 1920s Toys
Louise Brooks with Dismal Desmond ~1927 So, what were the 'must-have' Christmas toys of the 1920s? Dismal Desmond, designed by Richard Elliott and created by the...
Wall Street and 1930s Fashion
At the end of the summer in 1929, economist Irving Fisher famously announced that “Stock markets have reached what looks like a permanently high...
'Le Magnifique' - Paul Poiret
Paul Poiret's work had a significant influence on modernism. His clothing designs, in what we in the UK would call the Edwardian era, seem visionary and 'before...
Number 7, Blyth Grove - The house where time stands still
Number 7, Blyth Grove, Worksop, Nottingham has remained virtually unchanged since the Straws moved here in 1923 and decorated it, in a style that was fashionable at the time. In...
Art Deco Architecture - Miami, Florida
The Bass Museum, Miami, Florida, built 1930 On 18th September 1926, a Category 4 hurricane made landfall in Florida. The eye of the storm passed...