Italy
Italy the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe. Located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, Italy shares open land borders with France, Austria and the enclaved microstates San Marino and Vatican City. Italy covers an area of 301,340 km2 and has a temperate seasonal and Mediterranean climate. With around 61 million inhabitants, it is the fourth-most populous EU member state and the most populous country in Southern Europe. Due to its central geographic location in Southern Europe and the Mediterranean, Italy has been home to a myriad of peoples and cultures. In addition to the various ancient peoples dispersed throughout modern-day Italy, the most famous of which being the Indo-European Italics who gave the peninsula its name, beginning from the classical era and Carthaginians founded colonies in insular Italy and Genoa, Greeks established settlements in the so-called Magna Graecia, while Etruscans and Celts inhabited central and northern Italy respectively; the Italic tribe known as the Latins formed the Roman Kingdom in the 8th century BC, which became a republic with a government of the Senate and the People.
The Roman Republic conquered and assimilated its neighbours on the peninsula, in some cases through the establishment of federations, the Republic expanded and conquered parts of Europe, North Africa and the Middle East. By the first century BC, the Roman Empire emerged as the dominant power in the Mediterranean Basin and became the leading cultural and religious centre of Western civilisation, inaugurating the Pax Romana, a period of more than 200 years during which Italy's technology, economy and literature flourished. Italy remained the metropole of the Roman Empire; the legacy of the Roman Empire endured its fall and can be observed in the global distribution of culture, governments and the Latin script. During the Early Middle Ages, Italy endured sociopolitical collapse and barbarian invasions, but by the 11th century, numerous rival city-states and maritime republics in the northern and central regions of Italy, rose to great prosperity through shipping and banking, laying the groundwork for modern capitalism.
These independent statelets served as Europe's main trading hubs with Asia and the Near East enjoying a greater degree of democracy than the larger feudal monarchies that were consolidating throughout Europe. The Renaissance began in Italy and spread to the rest of Europe, bringing a renewed interest in humanism, science and art. Italian culture flourished, producing famous scholars and polymaths such as Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael and Machiavelli. During the Middle Ages, Italian explorers such as Marco Polo, Christopher Columbus, Amerigo Vespucci, John Cabot and Giovanni da Verrazzano discovered new routes to the Far East and the New World, helping to usher in the European Age of Discovery. Italy's commercial and political power waned with the opening of trade routes that bypassed the Mediterranean. Centuries of infighting between the Italian city-states, such as the Italian Wars of the 15th and 16th centuries, left the region fragmented, it was subsequently conquered and further divided by European powers such as France and Austria.
By the mid-19th century, rising Italian nationalism and calls for independence from foreign control led to a period of revolutionary political upheaval. After centuries of foreign domination and political division, Italy was entirely unified in 1871, establishing the Kingdom of Italy as a great power. From the late 19th century to the early 20th century, Italy industrialised, namely in the north, acquired a colonial empire, while the south remained impoverished and excluded from industrialisation, fuelling a large and influential diaspora. Despite being one of the main victors in World War I, Italy entered a period of economic crisis and social turmoil, leading to the rise of a fascist dictatorship in 1922. Participation in World War II on the Axis side ended in military defeat, economic destruction and the Italian Civil War. Following the liberation of Italy and the rise of the resistance, the country abolished the monarchy, reinstated democracy, enjoyed a prolonged economic boom and, despite periods of sociopolitical turmoil became a developed country.
Today, Italy is considered to be one of the world's most culturally and economically advanced countries, with the sixth-largest worldwide national wealth. Its advanced economy ranks eighth-largest in the world and third in the Eurozone by nominal GDP. Italy owns the third-largest central bank gold reserve, it has a high level of human development, it stands among the top countries for life expectancy. The country plays a prominent role in regional and global economic, military and diplomatic affairs. Italy is a founding and leading member of the European Union and a member of numerous international institutions, including the UN, NATO, the OECD, the OSCE, the WTO, the G7, the G20, the Union for the Mediterranean, the Council of Europe, Uniting for Consensus, the Schengen Area and many more; as a reflection
Le Louvre des Antiquaires
Le Louvre des Antiquaires is a historic structure in Paris, France on the Place du Palais-Royal. The building was designed by Alfred Armand and was constructed in 1855 as a hotel, the Grand Hôtel du Louvre; the enormous building was converted to a department store, with the hotel closing in 1887. The department store, Grands Magasins du Louvre, operated until 1974; the building was converted to an antiques mall, Le Louvre des Antiquaires. That business closed in 2015, the building is being converted to a luxury shopping mall, set to open in 2020; the Grand Hôtel du Louvre operated between 1855 and 1887. It had many innovative features, including two steam-powered elevators; the hotel was progressively converted into retail space. The building was constructed at 164-168, rue de Rivoli, Paris by the Péreire brothers at the request of Baron Haussmann, the prefect of the Seine; the Société immobilière de la rue de Rivoli was launched in June 1854 to undertake this and other projects in the area. Three months a company to build the hotel was founded, with many of the same principals.
The architect was Alfred Armand. Jacques Ignace Hittorff, Auguste Pellechet and Charles Rohault de Fleury participated in the design. Félix-Joseph Barrias was commissioned to paint the frescoes; the Grand Hôtel du Louvre opened in 1855 in time for the Exposition Universelle. An 1872 Baedeker guide described the Grand Hôtel du Louvre as "a huge, palatial edifice, the construction of which cost upwards of 50,000 l." It was the largest hotel in Europe. On the ground floor there was a large courtyard with galleries. There were shops along the 150 metres street front. A massive stairway led from the courtyard to the table d'hôte dining room; the table d'hôte accommodated over 300 diners. There was a more expensive restaurant, a salon 41 metres in length and a large billiard room; the modern hotel included twenty lavatories. Another innovative feature was a pair of steam-powered lifts; the hotel had 700 rooms and a staff of 1,250. It became renowned for both its foreign cuisine; the hotel provided interpreters and guides, a post office, a telegraph room and an bureau of exchange.
Although the public rooms were splendid, the hotel catered to tourists with modest budgets as well as to the wealthy. The building was shared by a department store; the company that owned the building collapsed after a financial scandal and was dissolved on 30 June 1872. Another company had been founded on 26 March 1855, known as "Les Galeries du Louvre", to operate the store and the hotel, it became the Société du Louvre. In August 1875 this company bought the buildings that held the Grands Magasins du Louvre and the Grand Hotel du Louvre; the hotel rooms were taken over for retail space, the whole building was a department store. The hotel was closed on 1 November 1887. In 1888 the Hôtel du Louvre opened on the other side of the Place du Palais Royal; this successor continues to operate in this location today. The department store Les Grands Magasins du Louvre Les Galeries du Louvre, was founded in 1855, three years after its competitor, Le Bon Marché. Les Grands Magasins du Louvre inspired Émile Zola's novel Au Bonheur des Dames.
In 1855, Alfred Chauchard, a clerk of the Au Pauvre Diable store with a salary of 25 Francs per month, joined Auguste Hériot and Léonce Faré to rent the ground floor of the Grand Hôtel du Louvre, which had just opened its doors in Paris on the rue de Rivoli in a building constructed in 1852 by the Péreire brothers at the request of the Baron Haussmann, the prefect of the Seine. On the ground floor of the building, Faré's company, Chauchard, Hériot et Compagnie, established a store for fashion called Les Galeries du Louvre; the building was rented by La Compagnie Immobilière de Paris. The Péreire brothers financed the launching of the business and, in 1860, took shares in the company. In 1857, Faré withdrew, because commerce did not cease thriving. In 1865, the enterprise realised 15 million in 41 million ten years later. At that time, it employed about 2,400 people, Chauchard and Hériot became rich. In 1875, the two associates were able to repurchase the entire building, they transferred the Hôtel du Louvre to other side of the Place du Palais-Royal, where it is still today and, after two years of work, opened Les Grands Magasins du Louvre.
The store offered much of. Auguste Hériot died in 1879, his brother, inherited his shares of the company. Chauchard sold his shares, for some unknown reason, in 1885. Olympe directed the company alone until 1888, the year when the first signs of his mental illness forced his resignation, he was succeeded by the son of Émile Pereire. In 1889, the company was renamed Société du Louvre and opened a second hotel, the Hôtel Concorde Saint-Lazare, whose hall was designed by Gustave Eiffel. In 1909, the company opened the Hôtel de Crillon after its renovation. In 1930, the shares were registered in the official list of the stock exchange. An Avro Lancaster from the No. 57 Squadron RAF, based at RAF East Kirkby, was hit by German flak and crashed into the building on the night of September 23, 1943 completely destroying the interior, leaving only the exterior walls standing. The Canadian pilot, Joe Douglas Hogan, six crew members were all killed; the store was rebuilt a
Orchard Road
Orchard Road is a 2.2 kilometre-long major road in the Central Area of Singapore. Known colloquially as Orchard, the area is a major shopping belt and tourist attraction; the Orchard Planning Area is a planning area as specified by the Urban Redevelopment Authority. It is part of the Central Area located within the Central Region. Orchard is bordered by Newton in the east and north, Tanglin in the west, River Valley in the south and Museum to the southeast. Orchard Road got its name from the nutmeg and fruit orchards or the plantations that the road once led to; such plantations were common in the area in the 19th century. Other sources attribute the name to Mr Orchard, a gardener and the owner of plantations which were located at the corner of present-day Scotts Road and Orchard Road. After more than a century as a two-way thoroughfare, Orchard Road became a one-way street in 1974; the ever-lively street starts at the junction with Orange Grove Road, the location of the Orchard Hotel. It stretches southeast across the Scotts Road–Paterson Hill junction, Orchard MRT Station, Bideford Road, Somerset MRT Station, Central Expressway, Dhoby Ghaut MRT Station, ends at the junction with Handy Road, where it becomes Bras Basah Road.
It has an extensive underground infrastructure, including underground pedestrian walkways between the malls running underneath the street and other streets in the vicinity. The numbers begin at end at Orange Grove Road. Orchard Road was cut in the 1830s, though the new road was not named in George Coleman's 1836 Map of Singapore. In the 1830s the Orchard Road area was the scene of pepper plantations. Nutmeg plantations and fruit orchards predominated, hence its name. By 1846, the spread of houses had reached up to Tank Road. There were none on the left side and only three or four houses went past Tank Road on the right side of Orchard Road. One major sight during this period was a Dr Jun tending his garden, which helped endorse the road's name, he had a plantation at the corner of what is now Scotts Road and Orchard Road. Towards the part of the 1840s, graveyards began to appear along the road. By 1846, the Chinese had a large graveyard around what is now the Meritus Mandarin Hotel and Ngee Ann City, while the Sumatrans from Bencoolen had their burial ground where the current Hotel Grand Central stands.
A Jewish cemetery was established. In the 1860s, Orchard Road had a great number of private houses and bungalows on hills looking down through the valley where the road passed through. Early in the 1890s, King Chulalongkorn, the King of Siam, acquired "Hurricane House" in the vicinity of Orchard Road through Tan Kim Ching, the Thai Consul in Singapore. Two further pieces of adjoining property were added and these subsequently became the site of the Royal Thai Embassy at 370 Orchard Road. In the early 20th century, it was noted that Orchard Road "present the appearance of a well-shaded avenue to English mansion," comparable in its "quiet but effective beauty to Devonshire lanes." Flash floods occurred at the road's iconic junction with Scotts Road on 16 June 2010 after 100mm of rain fell from 8 am to 11 am the worst flood at the junction since 1984. Shopping malls along Orchard Road such as Lucky Plaza and Liat Towers were affected; the flood had caused some shopping car park basements to be submerged.
Around 70 people had to be rescued from cars and buses, as flooding shut down Orchard Road. Some people sustained injuries. Orchard road was designated to be smoke free with the exception of designated smoking areas by 1 July 2018, however the implementation was pushed back to 31 December 2018, as businesses will need more time to identify appropriate locations and set up designated areas for smoking, according to the National Environment of Agency. Food establishments that have smoking corners within the no smoking zones will be given the same extension to remove them. Around 40 designated smoking areas have been set up, including five public ones at Orchard Towers, Far East Plaza, The Heeren, Cuppage Terrace, behind Somerset MRT station. Since its announcement, NEA has said that the majority of stakeholders have been supportive of this initiative. To ensure smooth transition to new regulation, NEA will take an advisory approach for the first 3 months of launch from 1 January 2019. At Orchard Road's eastern end is official residence and office of the President of Singapore, the Istana, marked with Nibong palms and a plaque that reads, "As the nibong is a mangrove palm, this site must have once been a mangrove swamp."
To the south of Orchard Road is former Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew's house, located at 38 Oxley Road. On the western side of Orchard Road is the Botanic Gardens. About halfway down Orchard Road are Cairnhill and Emerald Hill where the rich Chinese built their residences. Next to Emerald Hill is Centrepoint, which houses the supermarket Cold Storage the oldest surviving business establishment in the area. Other establishments have not been so fortunate. Amber Mansions, one of the earliest apartment blocks in Singapore, built around the turn of the 20th century, was torn down in the 1980s to make way for the Dhoby Ghaut MRT Station. Specialists' Shopping Centre was one of the earliest redevelopment projects on Orchard Road, it occupied the site of the former Pavilion Cinema, demolished in 1979. Specialists' Shopping Centre was itself demolished in 2007 to make way for a new development, Orchard Gateway. Elsewhere just off Orchard Road on Scotts Road, Scotts Shopping Centre housed Singapore's first food court, which sat below the Ascott Singa
Le Méridien
Le Méridien is an upscale, design-focused international hotel brand with a European perspective headquartered in France and in the United Kingdom. The brand was acquired by US-based Starwood Hotels & Resorts in 2005. Following the acquisition of Starwood by Marriott in 2015, it is now owned by Marriott International and has a portfolio of over 110 hotels. Le Méridien was established as a brand in 1972 by Air France under a joint venture agreement "to provide on a home away from home for its customers." The first Le Méridien property was a 1,000-room hotel in Paris — Le Méridien Etoile. Within two years of operation, the group had 10 hotels in Africa. Within the first six years, the number of hotels had risen to 21 hotels in Europe, the French West Indies, South America, the Middle East and Mauritius. By 1991, the total number of Le Méridien properties had risen to 58. In late 1994, Le Méridien was acquired by UK hotel company Forte Group, which in turn was acquired by Granada plc in 1996. Through a merger in the summer of 2000 between Granada plc and global contract caterer Compass Group — and the subsequent de-merger of the two companies in February 2001 — the ownership of the Forte Hotels division and its three brands passed to Compass.
In May 2001, Nomura Group announced the acquisition of Le Méridien Hotels & Resorts from Compass Group plc for £1.9 billion and Le Méridien was merged with Principal Hotels, acquired in February 2001. In December 2003, Lehman Brothers Holdings acquired the senior debt of Le Méridien. On November 24, 2005, the Le Méridien brand and management fee business was acquired by Starwood Capital Group; the leased and owned real estate assets were acquired in a separate deal by a joint venture formed by Lehman Brothers and Starwood Capital. Official website
Galeries Lafayette Paris Haussmann
Galeries Lafayette Haussmann is the main location of French department store chain Galeries Lafayette. It is located on Boulevard Haussmann at the corner of Rue La Fayette in the 9th arrondissement of Paris, close to Chaussée d'Antin – La Fayette Paris Métro station. In 1893,Théophile Bader and Alphonse Kahn opened a 70 square meter store in Paris, on the corner of rue La Fayette and rue de la Chaussée d’Antin, selling novelty gifts. In 1896, the company purchased the entire building at number 1, rue La Fayette followed in 1903 by numbers 38, 40 and 42 on Boulevard Haussmann, as well as number 15, rue de la Chaussée d’Antin. Théophile Bader appointed the architect Georges Chedanne to head up the first major renovations which were completed in 1907. Ferdinand Chanut, Georges Chedanne’s apprentice, designed the store’s 43-meter high Neo Byzantine dome; this store’s inauguration ceremony took place in October 1912. In 1932, the store was renovated with an Art Déco style by an architect named Pierre Patou.
Théophile Bader acquired production facilities in order to make clothing for Galeries Lafayette under its own private label. He manufactured affordable versions of designer wear; this store expanded to include menswear, furniture and tableware departments and get involved in organizing events such as the rooftop landing by French pilot Jules Védrines in 1919. In 1922, it opened arts workshops under the artistic direction of Maurice Dufrêne in order to produce affordable furniture, carpets, wallpaper and other household goods. Following the Second World War, the store underwent a complete makeover. During the 1950s it hosted large international exhibitions, such as “The Best of Italian Manufacturing” in 1953. In the 1960s, young designers began launching their ready-to-wear lines at the store; the first designer to become famous was Laura, in 1962. A little while she went on to become known as Sonia Rykiel. From1980 to 1999 "Fashion Festivals", were organized. In 1984, the store opened a designer department including designs from, Jean-Paul Gaultier and Thierry Mugler.
From 2001 to 2015, Jean-Paul Goude collaborated with the brand on advertising campaigns in order to give the store a modern identity. Galerie Lafayette Paris Haussmann is a 70,000 m2 store. Dedicated to fashion, it has other offers and services. Galeries Lafayette Paris Haussmann’s food tasting bars offer French food together with produce from around the world. Cafés, bars and restaurants are located in the store for meals; the rooftop has a bar and terrace with a panoramic view of Paris and its monuments including the Eiffel Tower, the Montparnasse Tower and Opera Garnier. Cultural space Galeries Lafayette Paris Haussmann’s cultural space “Galerie des Galeries” holds three to four exhibitions a year, showcasing both French and international design. Events Every Friday visitors can attend the store’s free fashion show at 3pm; these events can only be attended. Galeries Lafayette Paris Haussmann has a suspended Christmas tree every year, the first of, hung from the dome in 1976; the store organizes a range of exhibitions and shows and during the festive period.
English speaking staff in the concierge area help with Wi-Fi access, tourist information or restaurant and taxi reservations. The tourist information desk provides information and tickets for transport, attraction parks, guided tours, cruises on the Seine River, cabaret performances and concerts, hotels and currency exchange... The store’s geolocation app helps shoppers find brands and access restaurants, customer service, shop locations; the tax refund service enables non-European residents to claim back their tax refund, based on the 12% tax they have paid on their purchases worth over €175.01 made on the day of purchase at Galeries Lafayette. A personal shopper is available and VIP services include the ordering of limousines or package deliveries to hotels; the information office, located on the ground floor, provides information related to all the services offered by the store
Trump Tower
Trump Tower is a 58-floor, 664-foot-tall mixed-use skyscraper at 721–725 Fifth Avenue, between 56th and 57th Streets, in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. Trump Tower serves as the headquarters for The Trump Organization. Additionally, it houses the penthouse condominium residence of the building's namesake and developer, U. S. President Donald Trump, a businessman and real estate developer. Several members of the Trump family live, or have resided, in the building; the tower stands on a plot where the flagship store of department-store chain Bonwit Teller was located. Der Scutt of Poor, Hayden & Connell designed Trump Tower, Trump and the Equitable Life Assurance Company developed it. Although it is in one of Midtown Manhattan's special zoning districts, the tower was approved because it was to be built as a mixed-use development. Trump was permitted to add more stories to the tower because of the atrium on the ground floor. There were controversies during construction, including the destruction of important sculptures from the Bonwit Teller store.
Construction on the building began in 1979. The atrium, apartments and stores opened on a staggered schedule from February to November 1983. At first, there were few tenants willing to move in to the retail spaces. Since 2016, the tower has seen a large increase in visitation because of Trump's 2016 presidential campaign and subsequent election—both his 2016 and 2020 campaigns are headquartered in the tower. Donald Trump—the son of Fred Trump, a real estate developer in Queens and Brooklyn—had envisioned building a tower at 56th Street and Fifth Avenue in Manhattan since childhood, but only formulated plans to develop the site in the mid-1970s, when he was in his thirties. At the time, the Bonwit Teller flagship store, an architecturally renowned building built in 1929, occupied the lot; the site was next to Tiffany's flagship store on 57th Street, which Trump considered the city's best real-estate property. Twice every year, Trump contacted Bonwit Teller's parent company, Genesco, to ask whether they were willing to sell Bonwit Teller's flagship store.
Trump said the first time he contacted Genesco, "they laughed at me." Genesco continued to decline his offers and, according to Trump, "they thought I was kidding."In 1977, John Hanigan became the new chairman of Genesco. He looked to sell off some assets to pay debts, Trump approached him with an offer to buy the Bonwit Teller building. In February 1979, Genesco sold off many of the Bonwit Teller locations to Allied Stores, sold the brand's flagship building to the Trump Organization. At the time, the Equitable Life Assurance Society of the United States owned the land, while Genesco had a long-term lease on the land, with 29 years remaining. If Trump were to buy the land, his tower's ownership could be transferred to Equitable in 2008, once the lease expired. Equitable refused to sell the land to Trump, but the Trump Organization bought the lease instead, Equitable exchanged the land in return for a 50% stake in the construction project itself; this was more profitable for Equitable, since they were getting only $100,000 per year from Genesco for the use of the land, while a single condominium in the tower could be sold for millions of dollars.
Trump bought the air rights around Tiffany's flagship store to prevent another developer from tearing down the store and building a taller building. Trump needed to convince the New York City Department of City Planning, Manhattan Community Board 5, the New York City Board of Estimate to rezone the area for his planned tower. In 1979, the New York Committee for a Balanced Building Boom had opposed the planned rezoning over fears Fifth Avenue's character would be changed by the construction of skyscrapers. Trump said that a positive review of the building by the famed architectural critic Ada Louise Huxtable had played a part in securing the support of some of the more skeptical members on each committee; the deal attracted some criticism from the media. A writer for New York magazine said that the approval of Trump Tower has "legitimized a pushy kid nobody took seriously," while The Wall Street Journal wrote that Trump combined "a huckster's flair for hyperbole with a shrewd business and political sense," and The Village Voice said that Trump "turn political connections into private profits at public expense."
The Trump Organization closed Bonwit Teller's flagship store in May 1979, the store was demolished by 1980. Trump hired Der Scutt, the architect of Trump Tower, in July 1978, a year before the Bonwit Teller site was purchased. Scutt had collaborated with Trump before to develop several other projects; the architect proposed a design similar to Boston's John Hancock Tower, but Trump objected strongly. He preferred a building, both tall and expensive, with a design that critics and potential tenants would approve of; the real-estate mogul stated that "the marble in Trump Tower would cost more than the entire rent from one of my buildings in Brooklyn."Two major factors affected Trump Tower's construction. One was the decision to build it around a concrete frame, in contrast to many other skyscrapers, which were built on steel frames. Scutt was more rigid than a steel frame was; the other was the decision to design Trump Tower as a mixed-use building with retail and residential units. Trump only wanted to build an office building on the site, but the plot
Paul Follot
Paul Follot was a French designer of luxury furniture and decorative art objects before World War I. He was one of the leaders of the Art Deco movement, had huge influence in France and elsewhere. After the war he became head of the Pomone decorative art workshop of Le Bon Marché department store, making affordable but still elegant and high-quality work. Paul Follot was born in 1877 in Paris, his father was the wallpaper manufacturer Félix Follot, of the Societé Charles Follot. Paul Follot trained as a sculptor, he became a student of Eugène Grasset. Between 1901 and 1903 he made Art Nouveau silver objects, textiles and jewelry for Julius Meier-Graefe's Paris showroom La Maison Moderne. Maurice Dufrêne worked for Meier-Graefe, influenced Follot. In 1903 Follot was a founding member of L'Art dans Tout, a group of artists who promoted French artisan work in the face of industrial products from Germany. From 1904 Follot headed his own decorating company, catering to a wealthy clientele, gained a reputation for quality and elegance.
He made luxury furniture for his company. He designed textiles for Cornille et Cie, carpets for the Savonnerie manufactory and silver for Christofle throughout his career. In 1911 he made china designs for the Wedgwood company of England. Between 1910 and 1914 he designed new forms of jewelry. In 1913 he designed furniture for Germain Lubin. Follot taught a course on decorative art for the city of Paris. Follot became one of the leaders of the Art Deco movement, he had huge influence beyond France and his style was copied. After World War I more of the large department stores began to operate workshops to make furniture and decorative art objects for the middle classes. In 1923 Follot took charge of the Pomone decorative art workshop of Le Bon Marché department store, which made affordable, good quality furniture and decorations, he designed the symbol of a tree laden with fruit. The Pomone pavilion at the 1925 International Exposition of Modern Industrial and Decorative Arts in Paris was a great success.
Follot had designed every room in the pavilion, contributed an antechamber to the exposition’s model “Modern French Embassy.”From 1928 Follot was a director of the Paris branch of Waring & Gillow, an English furniture company. In collaboration with Serge Chermayeff he introduced the motifs of fruit and cornucopia to the firm. Follot resumed an independent practice as a decorator in 1931. In 1935 he was commissioned to decorate the liner SS Normandie; that year he exhibited at the Brussels International Exposition. Paul Follot died in 1941 in Sainte-Maxime. Paul Follot's early designs reflect the Gothic Revival, with foliate motifs. Follot acquired a taste for wooden carvings from Grasset; the stylized motifs of baskets of fruit or of flowers were carved from solid wood by Laurent Malclès. Follot made well-upholstered pieces in curved and ornamented giltwood frames, he liked using rare materials, with inlays of contrasting gilded bronze friezes. His furniture became closer to the styles of Louis XVI or of the Empire than to contemporary Art Nouveau.
After 1910 Follot's designs became quieter and more classical as his style evolved towards Art Deco. Follot's dining room ensemble in sycamore and amarath, exhibited at the Salon d'Automne in 1912, is considered to be one of the first examples of Art Deco, it follows the precepts defined by André Vera in his manifesto L'Art décoratif of January 1912. The backs of the chairs in this set had an openwork design that represented a basket of fruit and flowers. Follot was an Art Deco "purist", saw his work as refinement of classical French design. Follot designed wallpapers in traditional and modern styles. In 1928 Follet said, “We know that the'necessary' alone is not sufficient for man and that the superfluous is indispensable for him, otherwise let us suppress music, perfumes… and the smiles of ladies!” Writing of Follot's interiors in Art et Décoration the critic Gabriel Mourey stated that “ne breathes a comfortable and precious atmosphere, sheltered from the noise and tumultuousness of the outside world.
No violence, no brutality.”
