The Art Deco Image

Women have spent a large amount of time throughout the 20th century fighting for liberation from a patriarchal form that told them that they must be quiet and loyal to their husbands and fathers. For the duration of this essay, I will be discussing how the “Modern Woman” image that appeared through the Art Deco style — that emulated ideas such as the femme fatale and masqueraded woman, and presented new styles to enhance women’s comfortability and freedom — is still prevalent and has grown in contemporary art and design since. Overall I will describing to you how fashion, sexuality, and the newly emerged ‘female gaze’, and how these tie in together — in both periods of time — to produce what can be described as powerful femininity. As the …show more content…

Today we can see items of clothing that are commonly worn that have grown out of this initial innovation of freeing a woman’s body. This can be seen in clothing from the Spring 2017 New York Fashion week (see Figure 2), as the model’s bodies are freed by the more minimal use of material. The lowering of necklines and the increase in skin shown in haute couture over the decades is owed to Art Deco fashion and is symbolic of the rise of women’s rights over the years, as the physical discomfort and restrictions that the tight corsets of previous eras could be considered of women’s place in society. The new style being a stance against the oppression. It dictates that a persons own comfort and style is to the upmost importance, not to contort one’s body into something it is not meant to. Today it is shown in loose and cropped pants, shorts, low necklines, cropped tops, and various other clothing that reveals skin that was once covered. Art Deco fashion is also seen today through “chic garçonne” ideal that emerged out of early feminism that made women want to do the same things that men could, and so adopted smoking, sport, an interest in vehicles, a flirty sense of …show more content…

While a lot of her common work was depicting the wealthy, she also had other projects of artwork that showed various anonymous women that were posed erotically and often portrayed an exaggerated form of femininity. Lempicka was openly bisexual and was very proud of her sexual endeavours, especially with women — as present in her work. Due to the nature of her work, it has often been misinterpreted as a piece created by a man, and so seen as “[an] icon of women's disempowered status as the object of the male gaze.” However, due to her style and use of irony and exaggeration actually creates a sense of artificiality that protects the women in her pieces, rather than exploit. Lempicka’s openness about her affairs and sexual encounters has made a large impact on western culture today, as we see sex become a common place issue that everyone talks about. It is taught about in school, and it has become more accessible than ever through the emergence of the internet and cinema (porn and sex scenes in movies being easily found and seen by a lot of people). The sex culture has even grow to the extent where events such as Sexpo have become popular for both men and women, and are heavily publicised. Nothing is as taboo as it was in Lempicka’s time and before, in which everything was taboo regarding sex due to the repression that was instilled during the Victorian era. I believe this is owed