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Rewind to Paris, 1925. It is the Roaring Twenties with folks determined to put the horrors of World War I behind them. Out with the old is the new motto as “modernism” shapes fashion, art and architecture. France, ever stylish, seeks to re-establish itself as the country setting trends for avante garde design and hosts the Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes. Retroactively dubbed the “Art Deco” fair, the seminal event gives the design movement — one that has just started sprouting across Europe — its official name.

And now, here we are, a hundred years later in 2025, haunted by the 1920s style that defined an era. Look no further than Tesla’s robovan, the Cartier exhibition at the Victoria and Albert museum and Lanvin’s Fall collection with Deco-era patterns. In India too, the Art Deco style has seen a re-emergence, creeping into distinctly Indian expressions across various crafts, like Hanut Singh’s jewellery line or Raw Mango’s Art Deco collection. Nostalgia hasn’t looked this great in years.

Bas relief on New India Assurance (detail) created by sculptor N.G. Pansare. Courtesy Art Deco Mumbai Trust and Google Arts & Culture

Evolution of the “Indo-Deco” style

The beginning of the 20th century was marked by tremendous economic, social and technological transformation. Apart from the end of the “Great War,” the Second Industrial Revolution, also known as the Technological Revolution, had kickstarted a new age of prosperity. New occupations and ideas had people on the move in a world that seemed to have been set ablaze with modern thinking.

Art Deco, which had its epoch-making moment at the 1925 Paris Exposition, was greatly influenced by both forward-looking perspectives and antiquity. Practitioners developed stylised imagery that drew inspiration from African and Meso-American art and architectural traditions. These motifs influenced the ‘exotic’ ornamentation that was eventually adapted to form distinct regional variants, one of them being Indian Art Deco or “Indo-Deco.”

Some of the most notable examples of Art Deco in India exist in metros like Mumbai, Chennai and Delhi. Mumbai’s Marine Drive is an Art Deco promenade, a proud display of streamlined forms and nautical designs. Several buildings embraced opulent and exotic imagery, like the ancient Egyptian inspired exterior of the New India Assurance building at Fort. Elaborate Art Deco ornamentation also drew on older sculptured edifices that embodied Hindu and Mughal building traditions in the subcontinent, exemplified in the bas-reliefs seen in the Lakshmi Building and Onlookers Building.

The Eros Cinema; Churchgate, Mumbai. Photograph: Harshil S Mehta (2024), Wikimedia Commons

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