Fashion vs Architecture. Art Deco

 I really like Art deco, especially in the USA and in this post, I want to talk about how architecture and fashion can be connected, with the help of some examples from american culture. 

 If you take a look at photo collage 1, there you can see very famous New York’s buildings the Empire State Building and the complex of Rokefeller Centre. I like these buildings, for their strictness, powerful and luxury look at the same time.

Photo collage 1. Empire State Building and Rockefeller Centre

 NY, USA

 If you look at photo collage 2 there you can see some illustrated VOGUE magazine covers, in art-deco style. On all these covers we can see how women looked like and how they dressed up. So, if we compare the architecture and fashion, we can see that they both have in common strict repetition, functionality, brave geometrical shapes, generous ornaments, chic and luxury. If you look at women on the vogue covers, you can see that they are represented as tall, slim, with geometry in their body shapes, just as buildings on photo collage 1, which are also high, elegant and geometrical, I really see and feel this connection between building's and women’s outlook. 

 Photo collage 2. VOGUE magazine covers 1928-30

 Furthermore, on picture 3, you can see also VOGUE illustration. There are people sitting in the restaurant inside of the art deco building. I like this illustration a lot, because I think that it represents art deco in the USA perfectly, especially how fashion and architecture are combined. Inside of the building there are windows in the arc shape, the columns with some rich decor like expensive candlesticks, overall, the whole interior looks very strict, elegant and luxurious. 

 What about people, women are high and slim with short haircuts, dressing up in some expensive, elegant clothes, which are emphasizing beauty and geometrism of their bodies. Moreover, these women have some elements, small but strong details in their looks, like head scarf and feather fan in hand, which give us a feeling of luxury. Actually, I even feel that these women are natural, human expression of the columns in the restaurant. As you can see the columns are high and slim, just as these women. And decor elements of the interior columns are just like women’s dressing details so rich and so bright. Even the colours of columns and women’s outlook are similar, which makes my feeling of their similarity even stronger. There is also a man, who is wearing strict suit, which is very elegant, and has beautiful geometrical lines. 

 Actually the way these three characters behave, their poses and gestures also tell us a lot. In my opinion, they feel extremely self-confident, powerful, as if they were that massive New York’s Art Deco skyscrapers, which are above all the city, which have the power above all small people, who are passing by them every day, minute, second. 

 Picture 3. VOGUE illustration 1928

All in all, fashion and architecture have a lot in common and it is really interesting, how some aspects from buildings, interiors transform into the clothes, fashion.