ART DECO TEXTILES: THE FRENCH DESIGNERS

The decorative arts were given a fresh lease of life by the Paris International Exhibition of 1925, and experienced a boom that was to shape the lifestyles of a whole generation. In 'Art deco textiles - the french designers', hundreds of full-colourphotographs bring to life the age when craftsmanship and industry worked side by side - Lyons silk and the first artificial fibres; carved wooden printing blocks and huge multiple-cylinder rotary presses; indigo and madder and aniline and alizarin dyes; tradition and progress. Whether following the elitist decorative trends of Ruhlmann and Süe, or the more functionalist movement led by Le Corbusier, the worlds of interior decoration and fashion went through radical changes that were both influenced by and reflected in the textiles of the day, and French artists and designers found themselves at the hub of the activity.