The living rooms Poirot solved his cases in. The Great Gatsby. The gilded dining room of London's Claridge's Hotel. All of these are examples of Art Deco interior design, and all of them have an enduring appeal, a gleaming glamour full of slender silhouettes, and gilt finishes. This year marks the centenary of the International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts in Paris, an influential expo held in 1925 that ran for seven months and is credited with influencing global style towards the more decorative. But even a century later, Art Deco interior design is still as relevant to décor today; its rules, tenets, and ideas informing many of the designers we regularly feature in Livingetc.
"Our references can be classical, based in aesthetics like Art Deco, but pared back a little for today," explains interior designer Bryan O'Sullivan (who has designed spaces at Claridge's). One of his greatest inspirations has been Jean Michel Frank, a key figure of the Art Deco interior design movement, prominent in the 1920s. "We designed a sofa based on a Jean Michel Frank one," he adds. "It was rectilinear, had a wonderful depth, and felt very elegant. You could sit back on it properly, it was filled with foam, but it didn't look messy."
