Named after the International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts held in Paris in 1925, the Art Deco Movement emerged following World War I (1914-1918). Art Deco is a culmination of modern design styles that include Art Nouveau, Cubism, Futurism, and Constructivism. While Art Deco owes its aesthetic to many styles and global influences, it did not absorb the cultural significance or philosophical ideologies of those styles. (Miller) The modern machine that played such a significant role in the war also served as inspiration for the visual aesthetic of Art Deco; this style simultaneously rejected and embraced the atmosphere of WWI, which was a product of industrialization itself. (Miller)

Art Deco grew out of a longing and assertive desire to be free of the past and to welcome the future in all of its manufactured and machine-driven brilliance. (Artincontext) The Art Deco movement created a stylish and anti-traditional aesthetic that represented wealth and sophistication. It marked a time of optimism after World War I and looked towards the future with the hope of progress. (Artincontext)

Art Deco design represented modernism. Art Deco was the new design era that intented to create a sleek and anti-traditional elegance that symbolized wealth and sophistication in the post-war economic boom using symmetry, geometry, simplicity, abstraction and rectilinear elements.

The evolution of women from the confinements of traditional social and cultural norms was expressed during the Art Deco era through fashion. World War I changed the role of women when men left to fight in the war and women had to support themselves and their families. Women began to cut their hair and discard the corset for simple, but elegant clothes allowed them to do sports, drive cars, play golf and tennis, and dance until sundown, sipping fashionable cocktails and smoking cigarettes. (Raffaelli)

Many women took advantage of post war liberation, however, limited, or brief, and found success in new fields, unclaimed and unguarded by their male counterparts. Women who trespassed into male territories succeeded in contributing to the Art Deco movement despite being victims of the prevailing sexism of the second half of the twentieth century. (Willette) Women had newfound freedom that changed their role in society as well as the art and design industry.

Artincontext. "Art Deco - A Summary Of The Art Deco Era". Artincontext.Org, 2021, https://artincontext.org/art-deco.

Augustyn, Adam. "Art Deco | Definition, Characteristics, History, Artists, Architecture, & Facts". Encyclopedia Britannica, 2020, https://www.britannica.com/art/Art-Deco.

Miller, Sarina. A Brief Survey Of Modern Design History. 2nd ed., Kendall Hunt Publishing, 2021, pp. Section 1: 1850-1910 Graphic Design, https://he.kendallhunt.com/product/brief-survey-modern-design-history, Accessed 6 Feb 2022.

Raffaelli, Margo. "ART DECO: THE EPOCH OF EMANCIPATED WOMEN". Margo Raffaelli, 2020, http://www.margoraffaelli.com/art_deco.

Willette, Jeanne. "Art Deco And Women | Art History Unstuffed". Arthistoryunstuffed.Com, 2020, https://arthistoryunstuffed.com/art-deco-and-women/.