Celebrate New Year in Art Deco Style! Last year we had the Steampunk, this year we’ll add the Art Deco Masquerade Party. Fashion wise, this is a dramatic change. The first keeps us rooted in techno fantasy, the second takes us on a flight over the glitz and jazz of life, the swirls of the nature and the beautification of our own body. Oh well, the last part may not equally apply to both Deco men and women, just search Mother Internet to check on gender equality.
Back to Deco, its foundation is on an art that decorates everybody’s daily life. Indeed, its style delves into jewelries, cars, houses and even vacuum cleaners. The latter are available nowadays as operational collectibles, just in case one who did not have enough Deco, needs to clean up after the party).
Initially, all those objects were exuberant in style and expensively made of precious metals and stones. But those may have not been in the everyday’s life of everybody. Yes, we are all equal, but some are more equal than others. Thus, towards the end of the Art Deco era, after the depressing ‘29 Depression, the designers and craft people designed and made objects from materials that could be produced in larger quantities and at a lower cost accessible to the others. Still, there weren’t enough money for adornments because the prohibition’s “loose the booze” was draining the savings of the more equal and others altogether. The likes of the Al Capone’s more equal type were making about $50 Mills a year and could get the booze right in their study, still camouflaged right behind a beautiful art deco etched glass wall. Pleasant chat on this side, speakeasy on the other side of the Deco glass. See, this is just one example of how Deco was blending the decorative with the functional perks.
But enough with so much boring history, let’s have some fun with the Deco Masquerade Party. Let’s invite some celebrities and look at the Deco costumes. On the first account, we’re paying homage to renown Art Nouveau and Deco creators.
On the second, we are paying the honors to contemporary creators of beautifully designed and seldom handcrafted things available to everybody.
To spice up our party, we are inviting Diaghilev and Tamara. True, Diaghilev was a bit tough with his Ballet Russe’s girls during rehearsals, but in the end the results were remarkable and the Russian women, albeit soft souls, were not “shrinking violets” themselves. Imagine then that Diaghilev is going to bring some ballerinas and prominent painters like Picasso or Matisse whom he befriended.
Tamara de Lempicka had a libertine character which is still popular nowadays with Madona and Barbara Streisand (who are collecting her art work). Tamara may be bringing them over to our Deco masquerade party. (C’mon, let’s get our imagination going!) Next on the list is Al Capone, shall we invite him though? All right, he’ll probably be gallant with the ladies but if the piano player (there will be soft jazz piano playing before things heat-up) doesn’t play what he likes, he’ll pull his gun to make him do it.
The suggested women Deco costume, with glitzy ’20 diva flappers, should also include a sequined tiara with feathers; this will draw the attention also to the head, for women to envy or love, for men to appreciate and love. And talking about love, the love for our sons and daughters, and further their sons and daughters, shouldn’t we get them a Deco costume as well?
For men, we definitely recommend a Gatsby three-piece suit or even better a Zoot. True the Zoot suit is a bit beyond the Deco era. However, the Zoot suit is associated with the ‘40s riots so for the men it is all right to show-off their riotous character.
And how could we forget that our beloved, unconditionally loving pets, with dogs more affectionate than the soothing but libertine felines. Do you have a parrot or lizard pet? Let us know, we’ll find something for them as well. 🙂
