When you think of art deco, you might think of the Chrysler building in New York City. Or the Empire State Building. Or, maybe "The Great Gatsby" comes to mind, and the flapper dresses and bob haircuts that go with the Roaring '20s.
Whatever comes to mind, it's probably not Phoenix. In the '20s, Phoenix was the capital of a brand new state with less than 350,000 people.
Erin Lindsey, the president of the Phoenix Art Deco Society, is on a mission to change that. And she lives and breathes this era. In fact, when she came into our studios to talk about it, she was dressed head-to-toe in vintage attire with her short hair bobbed to perfection.
She spoke on The Show more about how she fell into her interest by accident and it spiraled from there.
Full conversation
ERIN LINDSEY: It all started when I started swing dancing. Truly, there's a great swing dancing community here in Phoenix, and you wouldn't even think that either. But it got me into the era itself, the '30s and the '40s is really where the swing era was. I was social dancing, I have all my friends are dancers. That's how I met my husband.
And so I kind of blame my husband for it a little bit because he's the professional dancer. You know, and he had this clothing collection when I met him, this women's clothing collection. I was like, that's a little weird, but it was all vintage and a lot of it was 1930s, so that is art deco era.
And I wasn't into fashion before, not truly, or historical fashion at least. And I did, I tried on some dresses and had this moment in my world. It felt like it opened up that day, that exposure to historical fashion, opened up my interest into history.
I started collecting, I started going on Etsy, I started going on eBay, estate sales, and I would just take anything and everything. And I realized I really, really enjoyed the 1920s and 1930s, the craftsmanship of the clothes, the style, the colors, the bead work. It's so intricate.
That's when I started looking around at buildings and cars and artwork and noticing that it's all related and it's all art deco.
LAUREN GILGER: OK, so you brought some of these pieces today, some of your favorite pieces because when I think about art deco, I think about architecture. And when I think about art deco fashion, I honestly didn't even know what to think of. But you've got some beautiful examples. So tell us what you've got.
LINDSEY: I have awesome examples. I think when people think of the 1920s, you think of black, beaded, fringe flapper dresses.
GILGER: Like the Halloween costume version almost.
LINDSEY: Yes, and that's fine and whatever gets you into it is awesome. Like you wear your Gatsby dress. But there was more that was happening at that time than the flapper dress, even though it influenced a lot of what was going on.
The first piece I have here is a beautiful, it's a silk sea foam green gown. It's floor length, think of those late episodes of "Downton Abbey" where they're getting into the '20s, which is the best and if you haven't seen that show you have to. But it's beautiful because it has these multi-tiered scalloped edges on the hem.
There's five tiers of scalloping, all with hand glass beads and just so many hand, well, it couldn't have been done any other way, not like this. And something about art deco that I love is that your eyes are drawn up. That is what you get with these dresses. They drape and they fall and they feel like they're just melting almost off your body.
GILGER: All right. So fashion gets you into this era and you become very into it, right? But this is beyond fashion, right? Talk a little bit about starting the Phoenix Art Deco Society. Like Phoenix doesn't have a lot of art deco in terms of architecture does it?
LINDSEY: Compared to places like New York, you could say it does not, but it's here. So I dress like this every day. This is my everyday wear. So I feel like I experience it on a daily basis.
Initially, I started looking around for events to go to where I could find people like myself who had this obsession, whether it was fashion or architecture or whatever so that I could connect to people, like have a community where I can nerd out about my clothes and about jazz and this whole, this whole art deco era and nothing was happening here. And I was looking around and LA was doing things New York was doing things.
I think Chicago was doing a couple of things where they were doing these events, they weren't Gatsby. They were we are celebrating art deco and the jazz age and we are doing this gala or we are doing this educational event about something very specific like paper Halloween costumes in the 1920s or something. And I was like, that's exactly what I'm looking for. I want those really niche things in my life.
And for a couple of years, I waited and these events were run by art deco societies and I had never heard of an art deco society before, which I think a lot of people have not heard of an art deco society.
GILGER: Especially not in Phoenix, right?
LINDSEY: And so I dug a little deeper. I just kind of like stalked them online a little bit. So they were doing two different things. They were advocating for preservation of buildings and they were doing events that were more social and talked about art deco almost as a movement like a cultural movement. And I was like, that is the coolest thing ever. I'm sick and tired of waiting around.
I'm just going to do it and I think it deserved a place because there's a lot of mid-century architecture here. So you can connect to that a little bit more. And nobody was really able to connect to the 1920s and '30s because there wasn't really a place to or there wasn't a platform.
To your question about is there even art deco in Phoenix, which is a great question that everybody asks me. The answer is yes, you just have to look for it. And I love taking people on little tours of downtown because the biggest thing they say is I had no idea that was here because why would you if you're not looking for it, you're not going to see them.
GILGER: So the only example I can think of this in Phoenix right off the top of my head is maybe the Luhrs Tower downtown. That's got to be an art deco building, right?
LINDSEY: Oh yeah.
GILGER: So what else is there? Where do you take folks?
LINDSEY: Yeah, I love the Luhrs Tower. Just down the street from the Luhrs Tower is the old Title and Trust building, which is now the Orpheum Lofts. It's a condo complex. So it's private residence you can't go in, but you can look at it from the outside and it's beautiful terra cotta art deco.
And then the Hilton Garden Inn, which is on the kitty corner of the San Carlos Hotel. The Hilton Garden Inn was the old professional building, another bank building. And that one you can go into because it's a hotel. And if you step into it, I get overwhelmed because the lobby has been restored perfectly. It is just remarkable.
They did such a great job, but my favorite is the old Phoenix City Hall building, the Maricopa County Courthouse. And I love that because it is a good example of art deco meets the Southwest, pueblo deco is what some people call it.
And you can see Hispanic influence, Indigenous influence, like those things that make Arizona, Arizona. And it's all kind of glued together with art deco. So it has these beautiful geometric Phoenix birds on the side.
The sconces are gorgeous, like all the details are just absolutely perfect, and it looks like Phoenix. That's what I think of when I think of Phoenix.
GILGER: Let me ask you lastly, Erin, about why you love this, I guess. I mean, it sounds like this is something you sort of happened across and now are very, very passionate about. What is it that you love so much about this era, about all the elements of it.
LINDSEY: It's such a great question. Sometimes I have like a loss for words just because when you're in a bubble so much you get like, you're like, what do you mean? Of course, I love it because it's, it, I think I like the energy of the era. To me it's progressive. It's forward thinking. It's all about movement.
I think of the women at the time as well. There was a lot of social change going on. People were just going in the thick of it, and art deco was something that had not been done before. It was completely new. It was all with manmade materials like they went into this being like we are done.
You know, everything that happened before we need a change, we need something that pushes us and moves us forward and that's what you, that's what you feel when I think you see an art deco piece of any kind.
GILGER: All right, we'll leave it there. Erin Lindsey, president of the Phoenix Art Deco Society. Erin, thank you so much for coming in. Thanks for bringing these beautiful pieces.
LINDSEY: My pleasure.
