Deco Dandy: Designing Masculinity in 1920s Paris - Paperback
by John Potvin (Author)
This book productively contests the supposedly exclusive feminine aspect of the style moderne (Art Deco). Through a sustained focus on the figure of the dandy, the books claims an essential role and place of the male body and masculinity in the history of Art Deco.
This book offers a new perspective on the style moderne (art deco). Challenging the dominant focus on the style's feminine aspects, it explores how alternative experiences and expressions of decorative modernism, nationalism, gender and sexuality converge in the protean figure of the 'deco dandy'.
The book demonstrates that designed products and representations of and for the dandy existed within and outside of normative expectations of gender and sexuality, complicating men's relationship to consumer culture and the moderne. It suggests a broader view of art deco by claiming a greater place for the male body and masculinity in this history than has been given to date. The mass appeal of the dandy in the 1920s allowed for the re-deployment of an iconic, popular and well-known typology as a means to stimulate national industries, engendering a desire for all things made in France. The book therefore presents moments in the history of Parisian cultural life that are instructive of the changing role performed by consumerism, masculinity, design history and national identity. Richly illustrated with over 110 colour and black and white images, Deco dandy is a ground-breaking study that corrects the assumptions and biases that have dominated scholarship on and popular perceptions of art deco. It will be of interests to students and scholars of design history, fashion and gender and sexuality studies.John Potvin is Professor of Art History at Concordia University, Montreal
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