French Post War Design.

 Mobi Boom, The Explosion Of Design In France (1945-1975) is showing at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris until 2 January 2011.


In the France of 1945 – a country of ruined cities, bombed-out morale and an economy smashed to smithereens – it was all about the basics: tables to eat off, chairs to sit on and kitchens in which mothers could feed their children. In the crescendo of rebellion before May 1968, experimentation was key, and plastics took the place of wood. And by the early 1970s, permissiveness prevailed: beds were on the floor, sofas became "sprawlers" and chaise longues were orange and made of foam. Louis XVI, one imagines, would not have known where to look.