Art Deco, also called style moderne, movement in the decorative arts and architecture that

originated in the 1920s and developed into a major style in western Europe and the United
States during the 1930s.

Art Deco design represented modernism turned into fashion. Its products included both
individually crafted luxury items and mass-produced wares, but, in either case, the intention
was to create a sleek and anti-traditional elegance that symbolized wealth and sophistication.

The 1920’s are roaring back in style with the much anticipated release of Baz Luhrmann’s
film adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s ‘The Great Gatsby’. The cinematic version of this
literary classic is an extravaganza of Art Deco opulence and has inspired us to don diamonds
and take a further look at the distinctive 20th century design movement.

The glittering Great Gatsby with its opulent parties and smoky jazz clubs has reignited the
vogue for 1920’s nostalgia. Art Deco, characterised by bold geometries and dramatic
flourishes, was the era’s defining style.

Baz Luhrmann's cinematic version of this literary classic uses interior design to evoke
feelings of decadence and free-wheeling fun, and his interpretation of the period borrows Art
Deco style to harken back to a time when society sought pleasure and escape from mundanity
and austerity. As seen in the movie, in its time Art Deco was a movement in design that
sought a sense of extravagance, glamour, vitality, and hope related to social and technological
development.

In the film, you can find products that are both exclusively crafted items and mass-produced
wares, with careful design being a common factor to both. In either instance, the specific
purpose of the product is accentuated by a sleek form and a bespoke, aggressively modern
elegance to signify luxury, wealth and sophistication. This attention to detail stands out in
both the book and the film and represents the protagonists' desire to live beautifully, in the
moment.

Tom and Daisy’s Sitting Room

It’s fitting that wealthy Daisy Buchanan would be the mistress of this elegant sitting room
that would look up-to-date in a ritzy Park Avenue apartment today. It’s full of muted colours
and fabrics (except for the rug), from romantic dusty rose velvet armchairs to the sofa and
chairs covered in silky off-white brocade. The sitting room is entirely Hollywood Glam meets
Art Deco, anchored by the aforementioned bold circle rug in graphic 20s-era florals. To
create the interiors and the fashions, production designer Catherine Martin says she visited
museums and the Met library in New York City, among other sources, the most important of
which she credits as the book itself.

Jay Gatsby’s master bedroom

Catherine Martin comes by her knowledge of Jazz Era architecture honestly, having partly
grown up in her family’s Art Deco home in France. No surprise then, that Gatsby’s sleek
bedroom is full of authentic touches of this aesthetic. Geometric modernism is fully at play in
the paneling of the walls, the pattern on the bedding and even the brown and silver rug in this
swanky lair.
Ballroom in Gatsby’s mansion
The grand ballroom in Jay Gatsby’s mansion is meant to drop jaws—or at least catch an
elusive married flapper by the name of Daisy, and that’s exactly what it does. It’s worthy of a
five-star Paris hotel! What makes it opulent and timeless is the use of patina-rich stone walls,
towering pillars, and a gleaming inlaid wood-and-stone floor. "On the one hand it's a sad,
lonely Gothic house, but it's also a house of great wealth and beauty," production and
costume designer Martin has said in an interview. "It had to encapsulate Gatsby's
extraordinary ambitions and his optimistic, romantic soul," she says.

Nick Carraway’s flower-filled cottage

The Arts and Crafts movement’s heyday would have taken place at least a decade before the
Great Gatsby takes place, so it’s apt that narrator Nick Carraway’s older, comfortable rented
house would be in this architectural style. In Carraway’s living room, a simple green-tiled
fireplace almost succeeds in taking the focus off the cascading bouquets of white flowers in
the important Gatsby-Buchanan reunion scene. The warm democracy of American Craftsman
style (Craftsman style is the American iteration of Arts & Crafts style) means that coffee
tables and chandeliers like these are still popular.

The Buchanan dining room

The Buchanan’s dining room is formal. It’s the room of an old-money family complete with
crisp white linens, wait staff, a generous oval table, and antiques—inherited, of course—
throughout. The one nod to the 1920s in the otherwise classic room is the oval rug, which
echoes the lovely bright rug in the Buchanans’ sitting room. Its feather motif riffs on the
fashion of the time, when the stylish speakeasy-going woman would wear feathers in her hair
for a night out on the town.

Cars of “The Great Gatsby”

Not least among the objects d’art in Gatsby’s cosmos are the cars: a brilliant yellow 1928
Rolls-Royce Phantom I Ascot steals the show as Leonardo DiCaprio drives it recklessly
through Long Island. A 1930 Buick, a 1933 Auburn, a couple Packards and a Ford Model A
also appear as extras.