Art Deco, sometimes referred to as Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture and design that first appeared in France just before World War I. It influenced the design of buildings, furniture, jewelry, fashion, cars, movie theatres, trains, ocean liners, and everyday objects such as radios and vacuum cleaners. It took its name, short for Arts Décoratifs, from the Exposition internationale des arts décoratifs et industriels modernes held in Paris in 1925.
Art Nouveau is an international style of art, architecture, and applied art, especially the decorative arts, known in different languages by different names: Jugendstil in German, Stile Liberty in Italian, Modernisme català in Catalan, etc. In English it is also known as the Modern Style. The style was most popular between 1890 and 1910 during the Belle Époque period that ended with the start of World War I in 1914. It was a reaction against the academic art, eclecticism and historicism of 19th century architecture and decoration. It was often inspired by natural forms such as the sinuous curves of plants and flowers. Other characteristics of Art Nouveau were a sense of dynamism and movement, often given by asymmetry or whiplash lines, and the use of modern materials, particularly iron, glass, ceramics and later concrete, to create unusual forms and larger open spaces.
Chanel is a French luxury fashion house that was founded by couturière Coco Chanel in 1910. It focuses on women's ready-to-wear clothes, luxury goods and accessories. The company is currently owned by Alain Wertheimer and Gérard Wertheimer, grandsons of Pierre Wertheimer, who was an early business partner of Coco Chanel.
Dame Zandra Lindsey Rhodes,, is an English fashion and textile designer. Her early education in fashion set the foundation for a career in the industry creating textile prints. Rhodes designed garments for Diana, Princess of Wales and numerous celebrities such as rock stars Freddie Mercury and Marc Bolan. In addition to designing garments, she designed textiles for interiors, featuring her prints on furniture and homewares. In 2003 Rhodes founded the Fashion and Textile Museum in London.
The International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts was a World's fair held in Paris, France, from April to October 1925. It was designed by the French government to highlight the new style moderne of architecture, interior decoration, furniture, glass, jewelry and other decorative arts in Europe and throughout the world. Many ideas of the international avant-garde in the fields of architecture and applied arts were presented for the first time at the Exposition. The event took place between the esplanade of Les Invalides and the entrances of the Grand Palais and Petit Palais, and on both banks of the Seine. There were 15,000 exhibitors from twenty different countries, and it was visited by sixteen million people during its seven-month run. The Style Moderne presented at the Exposition later became known as "Art Deco", after the name of the Exposition.
Kelly Wearstler is an American designer. She founded her own design firm Kelly Wearstler Interior Design in the mid-1990s, serving mainly the hotel industry, and now designs across high-end residential, commercial, retail and hospitality spaces. Her designs for the Viceroy hotel chain in the early 2000s have been noted for their influence on the design industry. She has designed properties for clients such as Gwen Stefani, Cameron Diaz and Stacey Snider, and served as a judge on all episodes of Bravo's Top Design reality contest in 2007 and 2008.
Désirée Lucienne Lisbeth Dulcie Day OBE RDI FCSD was one of the most influential British textile designers of the 1950s and 1960s. Day drew on inspiration from other arts to develop a new style of abstract pattern-making in post-war British textiles, known as ‘Contemporary’ design. She was also active in other fields, such as wallpapers, ceramics and carpets.
Designers Guild is an international home and lifestyle company with a flagship store and showrooms on the Kings Road and Marylebone High Street in London, and offices in London, Paris and Munich.
Haute couture refers to the creation of exclusive custom-fitted high-end fashion design that is constructed by hand from start to finish. Beginning in the mid-nineteenth century, Paris became the centre of a growing industry which focused on making outfits from high-quality, expensive, often unusual fabric and sewn with extreme attention to detail and finished by the most experienced and capable of sewers—often using time-consuming, hand-executed techniques. Couture translates literally from French as "dressmaking", sewing, or needlework and is also used as a common abbreviation of haute couture and can often refer to the same thing in spirit. Haute translates literally to "high". An haute couture garment is always made for an individual client, tailored specifically for the wearer's measurements and body stance. Considering the amount of time, money, and skill allotted to each completed piece, haute couture garments are also described as having no price tag: budget is not relevant. In modern France, haute couture is a protected name that may not be used except by firms that meet certain well-defined standards.
The history of Italian fashion is a chronological record of the events and people that impacted and evolved Italian fashion into what it is today. From the Middle Ages, Italian fashion has been popular internationally, with cities in Italy producing textiles like velvet, silk, and wool. During the Middle Ages and Renaissance, Italian fashion for both men and women was extravagant and expensive, but the fashion industry declined during the industrialization of Italy. Many modern Italian fashion brands were founded in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and in the 1950s and 1960s, Italian fashion regained popularity worldwide. While many clients of Italian fashion designers are celebrities, Italian fashion brands also focus on ready-to-wear clothes.
Sue Timney is a British interior, product and textile designer. She has worked in Britain, USA, Europe and Japan and in 1980 co-founded Timney-Fowler, an interior product company.
Timothy Corrigan is an interior designer with offices in Los Angeles and Paris. His firm, Timothy Corrigan, Inc., specializes in comfortably-elegant interior design and incorporates antiques into most of its projects. His clients include European and Middle Eastern royalty, Hollywood celebrities and corporate leaders.
Timorous Beasties is a design-led manufacturing company based in Glasgow that specialises in fabrics and wallpapers. The company was founded in 1990 by Alistair McAuley and Paul Simmons, who met while studying at the Glasgow School of Art. Winners of the Walpole Award for 'Best Emerging British Luxury Brand' in 2007 and 'British Luxury Design Talent' in 2010, the company now has two branded showrooms in London and Glasgow, and export their luxury products and design talent worldwide.
Jan Showers, is an American interior designer. She is also the owner and proprietor of a showroom in the Dallas Design District where she curates and sells antiques purchased on buying trips to Paris, New York, London and Venice. In January 2014, Architectural Digest named Jan Showers & Associates to the AD100 list of top design & architecture firms. Showers operates the Jan Showers Collection, a line of high-end luxury furnishings. In 2009, Abrams Books published Glamorous Rooms, a book about Showers’ perspectives and ideas about interior design. Glamorous Rooms is in its 8th printing. In October 2013, Jan's second book, "Glamorous Retreats" showcases the designer's most luxurious interiors Veranda magazine has called Showers’ style “glamour without pretense.”
Martin "Martyn" Lawrence Bullard is an English interior designer, author and television personality based in Los Angeles. Martyn has been consistently named as one of the world’s top 100 interior designers by Architectural Digest, featured permanently in Elle Decor’s A-List, and named one of the top 25 designers by "The Hollywood Reporter". A popular television personality, Martyn starred in the hit Bravo series Million Dollar Decorators and Channel 4's Hollywood Me in the UK, along with a multitude of design television programs spanning over 65 countries.
Marion Hall Best (1905–1988) was an influential interior designer in Sydney, Australia. She practiced between 1938 and 1974, mainly working on commercial, domestic and public projects. She was a strong figure in advocating for interior decoration to be recognized as a profession, now known as interior design.
Pierre Yovanovitch is a French interior designer.
Miles Redd is an American interior designer based in New York City. He studied fashion design at the Parsons School of Design and film at New York University, and served as the creative director of Oscar de la Renta Home from 2003-13. Redd started his own interior design practice in 1998 after honing his skills with antiques dealer John Rosselli and decorator Bunny Williams.
African design encompasses many forms of expression and refers to the forms of design from the continent of Africa and the African diaspora including urban design, architectural design, interior design, product design, art, and fashion design. Africa's many diverse countries are sources of vibrant design with African design influences visible in historical and contemporary art and culture around the world. The study of African design is still limited, particularly from the viewpoint of Africans, and the opportunity to expand its current definition by exploring African visual representations and introducing contemporary design applications remains immense.
Hope Macaulay is a Northern Ireland fashion and textiles designer, creative director and founder of the contemporary luxury fashion brand Hope Macaulay.
