The Historical Style of French Design after World War II

France was a "new art" at the end of 19 and the beginning of the 20th century.

Movement, and the "decorative arts" in the 1920s and 1930s.

As the birthplace of the movement, Paris has become the center of the Art Nouveau movement and decorative arts.

France has a very long handicraft tradition, and modern French design is based on the French design tradition, that is, the concept that design mainly serves the wealthy upper class.

Therefore, French modern design presents the characteristics of luxury and nationality, and the popular design serving the people is relatively weak.

1, the luxury of design.

Liz Davies, director of the International Design Center of the French Institute of Advanced Creativity, once said: French design is a luxury design and a noble design (in French, design is called a high-culture design, that is, haute).

Fashion, including luxury fashion, perfume and cosmetics, jewelry, luxury furniture, etc.

Under the guidance of this design concept, French design firms attach great importance to high-grade design projects, and the design content is luxury and luxury.

Even for ordinary products or graphic design, designers will give them luxury and luxury features, resulting in expensive products.

This makes the design level of industrial product design and graphic design closely related to people's lives generally lag behind other countries.

2. Nationalization of design.

France fully supports some major designs.

For example, the Louvre glass pyramid designed by Chinese-American designer I.M. Pei; Pompidou Cultural Center designed by British designer Richard Rogers; Concorde aircraft jointly designed by France and Britain; German bullet high-speed train

"Cultivate a great man"

The abbreviation of vitesse is the result of French support.

France hopes to express the greatness of the French nation through design, especially the grand architecture and engineering projects.

1993, France * * * published a book about industrial design, industrial design. Reflection on a Century is one of the most complete works on industrial design materials.

This shows that * * * attaches importance to design.

1925 On April 28th, the International Art Exhibition of Decoration and Modern Industry opened in Paris, which was later called "Art Exhibition of Decoration".

Jurman, Grut, Rato, Dufresne, Frank, Du Nan, Plinz and Eileen Greer … won the honor in the exhibition.

The exhibition was originally scheduled for 1906- 1907, but it was postponed to 1925 due to World War I, which fully reflected the diversity and mixed state of that era.

That is to say, in 1925, two living arts are converging, one inherits the past and the other turns to the future.

In addition to the endless quarrel between tradition and modernity, there is also the conflict between consciousness and philosophy.

1925 In May, architect August Pellet (designer of the Champs Elysé es Theatre in Paris) said in an interview: "The word decorative art should be deleted.

I wonder who stuck these two words together: art and decoration.

Damn it! Real art needs no decoration.

This sentence is very clear, because this exhibition won the applause of the audience but greatly disappointed the professionals.

The war is over and the world is different.

The war gave birth to various schools of avant-garde art in Europe in the twentieth century, including: de stijl Moscow Vitema College-1918 A new practical art school initiated by Russia during the revolutionary turmoil; Bauhaus School of Design; Neo-idealism was founded by le corbusier and Austrian Zheng Fang in 1920.

Following the British Arts and Crafts Movement, France became the birthplace of the Art Nouveau Movement and the Decorative Art Movement in 1900 and 1925 respectively, and a large number of excellent and fashionable designs emerged.

Among them, the Art Nouveau movement rose at the Paris World Expo in 1900 and lasted for more than 20 years. It advocates the idea of facing industry and returning to nature, trying to find a balance between art and handicraft.

Art Nouveau created a very special style, showing the exploration of non-historical new decorative style.

The entrance to the Paris subway station exhibited in this fashion exhibition is one of the representative works in the early Art Nouveau movement, which uses winding lines, curves, plant leaves and abstract animal patterns and has a distinctive "Art Nouveau" style.

1925, Paris, France became the center of the decorative arts movement.

This movement reached its peak in France in the 1920s and 1930s, and began to decline before the outbreak of World War II.

In terms of design ideas, it has been different from the naturalism and retro of "Arts and Crafts Movement" and "Art Nouveau Movement", and at the same time expressed opposition to the monotonous industrial style.

It recognizes industrialization, but because it emphasizes decoration, it is also different from modernism originated in Germany.

It is actually a movement between "Art Nouveau Movement" and "Modernism Movement".

In France, the design performance mainly focuses on luxury goods and luxury goods, such as glassware, jewelry, metal products, ceramics and so on.

Cartier jewelry and exquisite Daum vases inlaid with diamonds and rubies in fashion exhibitions fully reflect this luxurious style.

At this time, the furniture design style is more diverse.

In addition to the luxurious furniture with expensive materials, exquisite shapes and various decorative techniques, there are also furniture that pays attention to the use of new materials (such as steel pipes). This is because France was influenced by the modernist styles of other European countries, such as Russia, Germany and the Netherlands, during the Art Deco movement, and the comparison of the exhibits in the "Modern Invention" part of the fashion show can also be seen clearly.

Strictly speaking, France has not been able to participate in the modernist design movement, nor has it really experienced the popular design movement.

Relatively speaking, French design tends to be elitist and fashion is not democratic.

However, modernist style, Bauhaus in Germany and mass consumption culture after World War II still have a great influence on French design development, which laid the foundation of French contemporary design style.

In addition to the influence of art movement, there are three factors that affect the replacement of French fashion and the innovation of design. In addition, these three factors also play an important role in the development of modern design in the world:

First, scientific and technological progress.

Science and art are often compared to two sides of the same coin, and design is the combination of the two.

Therefore, in addition to the continuous development of art, the innovation of design can not be separated from the support of science and technology.

After entering the 20th century, the influence of the second technological revolution is still there, and new scientific and technological inventions are constantly emerging. Radio communication, plastics and synthetic rubber, transistors, integrated circuits, televisions, computers, artificial earth satellites, etc. Constantly changing people's lives and bringing more inspiration to design.

The rapid development of science and technology has undoubtedly added vitality to design.

On the one hand, the application of scientific and technological achievements has improved the design conditions, improved the design quality, and created the possibility for realizing the future fashion; On the other hand, new inventions and technologies also need more beautiful shapes to win people's attention, which requires design innovation.

France, as an established western developed country, the promotion of science and technology to design is very obvious.

From the early horseless manned vehicles and helicopters to streamlined cars, portable televisions and rockets, to minicomputers and high-speed trains, to portable communication facilities and cars with future styles, the design of these products depends on the continuous updating of technology, and their appearance and application also provide the possibility for the emergence of fashion products.

Second, changes in the social environment.

In the first half of the 20th century, after two world wars, all countries caused huge financial and personnel losses. Subsequently, a series of changes in the international situation, such as the Cold War, deepened the difficulties for participating countries except the United States to restore their economies.

It was not until the United States carried out a large-scale economic aid and recovery plan for western European countries and the determination of western countries to restore their own economies that western countries began to pass through the most difficult post-war reconstruction period and gradually entered an affluent society after the mid-1950s.

Social) stage.

As far as France is concerned, its post-war design development has not taken new and powerful measures, nor has it established a national design organization, but folk design organizations still exist, such as "Modern Artists Union" and "Industrial Aesthetics Society".

Although generally speaking, French design declined after the war, the increasingly powerful national strength and free and relaxed environment enabled French design to develop on the premise of retaining its traditional cultural character.

1955, Citroen DS car designed and produced by French Citroen company is the most advanced large car in the twenty years after the war.

After the war, French fashion design entered a golden age, and Christian dior

Dior), the baron of Kidorf, summer cover (Cristobal

Balenciaga) and Gabrielle Chanel (Gabriel

Chanel designed fashion and decorated attractive women in that era with different styles.

After the post-war emergency reconstruction, French architectural design follows two main veins: one is the anti-traditional design driven by innovative ideas; One is the unexpected renovation and reconstruction of old buildings, and remarkable achievements have been made in just 30 years. The Pompidou Art Center and the glass pyramid of the Louvre have become symbols of Paris and even France.

From the end of the 20th century to the 20th century, peace and development have become two major themes in the world.

International communication is getting deeper and more frequent, which is an opportunity that cannot be missed in design innovation.

French design also shows various landscapes in this trend of the times.

Fashion is still innovating, leading the changes on the overpass; The forms of industrial products are becoming richer and more personalized; The design of sporting goods is to constantly develop high-tech and new forms of equipment and equipment.

Third, changes in consumer demand.

The demand of consumers is the most critical element of design, and it is also an element that designers in any era and any region must consider.

France has a long history of designing and producing luxury goods, and its design meets the needs of a few elites and dignitaries.

With the development of the times and the popularization of large-scale industrial production, French design is more and more oriented to the general public. Especially after the war, the change of consumer groups requires that its design direction should be changed from pursuing luxury in the past to paying more attention to the diversity of styles and the practicality of functions, which directly requires the design to reduce costs on the premise of ensuring functions.

Therefore, in addition to fashion design, French modern and contemporary design still takes the advanced route, and the rest of the design is more aimed at creating fashion for ordinary families and ordinary consumers.

Different people have different attitudes towards fashion, but it is precisely because of the constant creation of fashion myths that human society will continue to advance.

Fashion is not only an attitude, a life choice, but also a way of historical development.

The process of fashion change is actually the process of innovation realization and the process of continuous improvement of design.

Looking at "French Fashion Show 100", we not only touched the French fashion style, but also gave us inspiration about design: fashion is design, and fashion is innovation.