All text reproduced from World's Fair magazine, Volume VIII, Number 3, Copyright 1988, World's Fair, Inc.
Expanded and revised version January 2000, by Arthur Chandler.

It was on the left bank – the student quarter, the Bohemian section, the old military school and the Eiffel Tower – that France elected to raise her exhibits for the world to behold. At the Place des Invalides, the Ambassade de France exhibited in a single structure the kinds of unification of art and Decoration that set the theme for the entire fair. Some twenty-five rooms flanked a three-sided courtyard. Each of the rooms had its proper theme, and was designed, furnished, and Decorated by the leading artists and artisans of France. There was a room for "Monsieur," a room for "Madame," a working office-library, and a special chamber for music. Each space was crowded with works of art and craft to delight the eye. All the Decor was in the modern mode, with little or no reference to past styles. In the Ambassade, the French government gave its official version of the domestic future: spacious, functional, and Decorated with the very latest fashion.

Views of the Fair looking North, South, North-West and West.

Looking north-westward, the visitor could see the Eiffel Tower, bedecked with lighting provided by Citroen, whose name was emblazoned in lights on the iron beams of the tower for the duration of the fair. Gazing across the courtyard toward the Seine, the visitor could admire the much smaller glass fountain tower designed by Lalique. In two glances, the visitor could encompass the different spirits of 1889 and 1925. The one tower, rising three hundred meters over the Champ de Mars, represented the triumph of modern engineering over the traditional architecture of decoration. Over 140 figures encrusted Lalique's 14 meter tower of crystal that shimmered as the light struck the waters cascading over its sides. In 1889, the power of unadorned iron; in 1925, the poetry of decorated crystal.

Lalique's crystal tower, day and night views

At the opposite end of the right bank quadrangle the visitor encountered a series of exhibits by the four major Parisian department stores. Such stores had been in existence for nearly three-quarters of a century; and, indeed, their existence owed something to the official encouragement of such enterprises by the first exposition universelle of 1855. The original department stores, however, stressed that their mission was to provide good quality goods at a price affordable to the masses. The department store exhibits at the Art Deco fair paid little attention to the bon marché ideals of the earlier expositions.

Two views of the Studium Louvre.

The shape of each of the four buildings was highly original, and designed to attract maximum attention while still staying within the bounds of good taste. But, with the abandonment of the traditional architectural vocabulary, such bounds were difficult to distinguish. The Studium Louvre by Laprade seemed like an updated and octagonal version of Bramante's Tempietto in Rome. On the lower floor, mannequins in the bay windows gave the visitor a preview of the high fashion displays within. The second story featured a setback porch with lush greenery flowing around a series of monumental vases that overflowed with ceramic flowers.

The Primavera pavilion and the Bon Marché

The Louvre store chose the elegance of octagonal form. Sauvage, the architect of the Primavera pavilion, designed a building that drew its inspiration from African thatched huts. The Bon Marché structure, designed by Boileau, was purest Art Deco, with rectangular and curved geometric forms blending in a graceful ensemble.

A watercolor painting and a photo of the Galleries Lafayette.

The most daring of the four stores, however, was the Galleries Lafayette (Hiriart, Tribout, and Beau, architects). The Art Deco facade and interior were faced in a richly textured marble. A bold, flaring sunburst design greeted visitors as they passed into the interior. Inside, the theme of the major exhibit was "la vie en rose": a display of the boudoir of the tasteful and wealthy woman of fashion in the 1920s who knew how to coordinate the angular lines of Art Deco with a sense of stylish grace. The furnishings were in rose hues, offset with silver and black marble. In every respect, the furnishings reflected the ideas of Maurice Dufrene, director of the Lafayette studios:

Dufrene is expressing the same ideals that had been enunciated by avant-garde artists and architects for over a decade: the ideas and style of the past are outmoded. Let the nature of the material and the sensitivity of the artist dictate form. In addition, the supposedly inferior works of craftsmanship – products of the artisan as well as those of the artiste – are of equal stature to the "high art" of architecture. Craftspeople, too, have their high aesthetic standards, which are every bit as rigorous and important, in the overall scheme of things, as the work of the architect.

It is the Marseillaise of modern art.

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