Art deco silks.(Brief Article)

The Exposition internationale des arts decoratifs et industriels modernes, which took place in Paris in 1925, is widely considered a watershed event in the history of design. The exposition engendered considerable press because, as one American critic writing in Good Furniture Magazine observed, the exhibits displayed "daring originality and freedom from traditions of earlier periods." Not only were the designs innovative, they were incredibly luxurious, for the designers of the interiors created specifically for the exposition spared no expense to install lavish furnishings. The richness of these interiors depended on case pieces made from exotic and highly polished woods with contrasting inlays of ivory, tortoiseshell, horn, and other materials; shimmering glass lighting devices; and most of all, splendid fabrics, which were used on the walls and to upholster the seating furniture. So unified were these interiors that their designers became known as ensembliers.

France, and in particular Lyons, has been renowned as a center for weaving high quality textiles for more than five hundred years. Prelle et Compagnie, which was responsible for creating some of the innovative fabrics for the Exposition internationale, was established in Lyons in 1752, and still weaves some of the world's most opulent silks. Recently it has drawn on its extensive archives (which consist of samples, drawings, and manufacturing formulas) in order to reproduce some of its most sumptuous fabrics. Many are designs that first went into production in the early part of the twentieth century when the art deco style was in ...