The Art Deco movement of architecture and design appeared in Paris in about 1910–12, and continued until the beginning of World War II in 1939. It took its name from the International Exposition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts held in Paris in 1925. It was characterized by bold geometric forms, bright colors, and highly stylized decoration, and it symbolized modernity and luxury. Art Deco architecture, sculpture, and decoration reached its peak at 1939 Exposition Internationale des Arts et Techniques dans la Vie Moderne, and in movie theaters, department stores, other public buildings. It also featured in the work of Paris jewelers, graphic artists, furniture craftsmen, and jewelers, and glass and metal design. Many Art Deco landmarks, including the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées and the Palais de Chaillot, can be seen today in Paris.

Origins Art Deco was the result of a long campaign by French decorative artists to gain equal status with the creators of paintings and sculpture. The term "arts décoratifs" was invented in 1875 to give designers of furniture, textiles, and other decoration official status. The Société des artistes décorateurs (Society of decorative artists), or SAD, was founded in 1901, and decorative artists were given the same rights of authorship as painters and sculptors. Several new magazines devoted to decorative arts were founded in Paris, including Arts et décoration and L'Art décoratif moderne. Decorative arts sections were introduced into the annual salons of the Sociéte des artistes français, and later in the Salon d'automne, which played a major role in popularizing the style.

Parisian department stores and fashion designers also played an important part in the rise of Art Deco. Established firms including the luggage maker Louis Vuitton, silverware firm Christofle, glass designer René Lalique, and the jewelers Louis Cartier and Boucheron, who all began designing products in more modern styles. Beginning in 1900, department stores had recruited decorative artists to work in their design studios. The decoration of the 1912 Salon d'Automne had been entrusted to the department store Printemps. During the same year Printemps created its own workshop called "Primavera". By 1920 Primavera employed more than three hundred artists. The styles ranged from the updated versions of Louis XIV, Louis XVI and especially Louis Philippe furniture made by Louis Süe and the Primavera workshop to more modern forms from the workshop of the Au Louvre department store. Other designers, including Émile-Jacques Ruhlmann and Paul Follot refused to use mass production, and insisted that each piece be made individually by hand.

The early Art Deco style featured luxurious and exotic materials such as ebony, and ivory and silk, very bright colors and stylized motifs, particularly baskets and bouquets of flowers of all colors, giving a modernist look.

In 1911, the SAD proposed the holding of a major new international exposition of decorative arts in 1912. No copies of old styles were to be permitted; only modern works. The exhibit was postponed until 1914, then, because of the war, postponed until 1925, when it gave its name to the whole family of styles known as Déco.

Art Deco in architecture was particularly the result of a new technology, the use of reinforced concrete, which allowed buildings to be taller, stronger, and with fewer supporting beams and columns, and to take almost any possible shape. The first reinforced concrete house had been built by François Coignet in 1853. In 1877, another Frenchman, Joseph Monier, received a patent for a system of strengthening concrete with a mesh of iron rods in a grid pattern. Two French architects, Auguste Perret made very innovative use of the new system. Perret used it to construct the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées (1911–1913), with its vast space without supporting columns; and later, Henri Sauvage used it to construct the first apartment building built like a staircase, each apartment with its own terrace, and another major project, the new building of the La Samaritaine department store.

Théâtre des Champs-Élysées (1910–1913) The first major building to be constructed in the Art Deco style was the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées (1910–1913). The first design for the building was made by the Belgian Henry van de Velde, who was a major figure of the German Werkbund, an association promoting modern decorative arts. He began work on the design in 1910. Its principal feature was the sober and geometric structure of reinforced concrete. Auguste Perret, the French architect commissioned to build the structure, argued that Van de Velde's design was "materially impossible" and made his own design. After a dispute with the theater owners, Van de Velde resigned and departed, and Perret completed the building following his own plan in April 1913.

The sober geometric forms of the building, decorated with a long frieze by the sculptor Antoine Bourdelle, and its facade of concrete covered with marble plaques, was the complete opposite of the ornate Palais Garnier opera house, and caused a scandal. The lobby and the theater interior were equally revolutionary, open and austere, without the columns that blocked the view in many theaters. The decoration by Bourdelle and other artists was stylized and modern. The theater hosted the premieres of newest forms of music and dance the music of the period, The Rite of Spring by Igor Stravinsky and the revolutionary ballets of the Ballets Russes.

The International Exposition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts (1925)

The International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts held in Paris in 1925, was the largest and most important exhibition of art Deco, and later gave its name to the style. It had first been proposed in 1906, then scheduled for 1912 by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, particularly as a response to the popularity of the designs of the German Werkbund but then was postponed because of the War.

The Exposition was enormous, located between Les Invalides and the Grand Palais, on both sides of the Seine. Even the Pont Alexandre III bridge over the Seine was covered with a row of exhibition halls. The chief architect was Charles Plumet. The Four Towers of the Crafts, by , marked the center of the Exposition, surrounded by national pavilions and especially pavilions of the major Paris designers and department stores, which had their own design departments, and produced their own furniture and decoration. The pavilions of the department stores were gathered around the esplanade of Les Invalides.

Henri Sauvage and La Samaritaine (1926–1928) The department store appeared in Paris at the end of the 19th century, and became a major feature of the early 20th century. The original La Samaritaine store was built in 1905 by architect Frantz Jourdain in the Art Nouveau style. In 1925 the store was enlarged with an Art Deco building facing the Seine, designed by Henri Sauvage. Sauvage was one of the major figures of Paris Art Deco; his other important works included the Studio Building and the Majorelle Building, built for the furniture designer Louis Majorelle, as well as the innovative apartment building at 26 rue Vavin (6th arr.) (1912–1914), which arranged its apartments in steps, each having its own terrace. (1906). This design was used by Sauvage and other architects in the period.

Churches Several new churches were built in Paris between the wars, in styles that mixed Art Deco features, such as stylized towers, the use of reinforced concrete to create large open spaces, and decorative murals in a Deco style, frequently combined with features of Byzantine architecture, like that of the Basilica of Sacré-Cœur, which was popular at the time. The Église du Saint-Esprit, (1928–32), located at 186 Avenue Daumesnil in the 12th arrondissement, was designed by Paul Tournon. It has a modern exterior, made of reinforced concrete covered with red brick and modern bell tower 75 meters high, but the central feature is a huge dome, 22 meters in diameter. The design, like that of the Basilica of Sacré-Cœur, was inspired by Byzantine churches. The interior was decorated with murals by several notable artists, including Maurice Denis. .Dumoulin, Aline, Églises de Paris (2010), Éditions Nassin, , pages 166–167. The Church of Sainte-Odile at 2 Avenue Stephane-Mallarmé (17th arrondissement), by Jacques Barges (1935–39) has a single nave, three neo-Byzantine cupolas, and the highest bell tower in Paris, 72 meters tall.

Theaters and movie palaces Palatial movie theaters in the Art Deco style appeared in Paris in the 1920s. The MK3 theater at 4 rue Belgrande (20th arr,) by Henri Sauvage (1920) preserves its decorative murals on the facade. Le Louxor, from 1921, in a sort of neo-ancient Egyptian style, by architect Henri Zipcy. The interior features colorful neo-Egyptian mosaics by Amédée Tiberi. It was restored in 2013, and is now an historic monument. The largest and most Deco theater still existing from the period is the Grand Rex cinema1 (boulevard Poissonière no. 1, 2nd arr.)) built in 1932 by the French architect Auguste Bluysen with the American engineer John Eberson. It is one of the largest theaters in Europe, seating 3100 persons. The theater interior was decorated by a prominent Deco designer, Maurice Dufrêne. It seats 2100 persons. It has undergone a major renovation, and now is used for concerts and other events as well as films.

Apartment buildings and residences Henri Sauvage was one of the most inventive of designers of apartment buildings. He was particularly adept at covering the reinforced concrete facades with ceramic tile. In 1911 he built the Majorelle Building for the furniture designer Louis Majorelle, with a reinforced concrete facade covered with ceramics, giving it a sleek, modern appearance. He introduced the stepped building to Paris, an apartment building where each apartment was set back from the one below, in order that each would have its own terrace.

The Studio Building (65 rue La Fontaine, 16th arr.) (1926–28) was built as a group of duplexes as a residence for artists. The facade was entirely covered with glistening ceramic tiles.

The Pacquebot style

The Pacquebot, or Ocean Liner style, was inspired by the form of French Transatlantic ocean liners, such as the . The most famous example is an apartment building at 3 boulevard Victor (15th arrondissement), built in (1934–1935) by Pierre Patout, in the same period that he created the interior decor for the Normandie. The building was constructed on an unusually-shaped lot, which narrowed from twelve meters wide to just three meters at the "bow" of the building. Patout had his own apartment, on three floors, in this part of the building.

Pierre Patout's own house and studio, built earlier in 1927–28 at 2 Rue Gambetta in the Paris suburb of Boulogne-Billancourt, also showed elements of Pacqueboat, including the railing around the top "deck" or terrace. He also contributed to the reconstruction of the Galeries Lafayette department store in 1932–1936.

Swimming pools