Ref: article Connaissance des arts, March 2022
The first chapter of this essential work for design enthusiasts or those nostalgic for 1950s Paris is of paramount importance.
How did a young man, whom everyone agreed to call Slavik, a student of René Prou at Arts Déco, win a competition that led him to collaborate with Serge Lifar, soon work with Cassandre, be noticed by the twins Jacques and Jean Adnet, and cross paths with Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, and Juliette Gréco?
This young Estonian (whose real name was Wiatscheslav Vassiliev), who arrived in Paris in 1928, strolled his tall dandy silhouette past the Saint-Germain-des-Prés terraces and mingled with the artists of Poetic Realism.
This marked the beginning of the career of this talented painter, cartoonist for the Gobelins, and interior designer and decorator, founder of the Cadre company which produced sets and advertising, responsible for the window displays of Galeries Lafayette, and above all, the designer of the Champs-Elysées Drugstore in 1958, followed by that of Saint-Germain-des-Prés in 1965.
With over two hundred restaurants and pubs, Slavik (1920-2014) embodies the ‘Trente Glorieuses’ (Glorious Thirty), exuberant and prosperous.
